Advice from another VR Blogger
Since beginning my blog, I have joined Bloglines, and I find it addictive. I now view 44 feeds through Bloglines, one of which is a Virtual Reference Blog:
http://lbr.library-blogs.net/
lukethelibrarian posted an extremely articulate post entitled "Bright Sunlight" in which he comments on the fact that librarians, as experts, should use specialized tools, and presume the user has tried Google (or at least ask if the user tried Google and what keywords were used).
lukethelibrarian has some great advice, worth quoting:
"Get in the habit of using LII, IPL, and Reference Extract as additional general starting-points. Your bag of tricks should include specialized search tools (subscription and non-subscription) for every type of reference question you come across, whether it's federal government information, or consumer health information, or genealogy/local history, or ready reference. If you get a question that you don't already know of a specialized tool for, take the time and find one, even if it's after the session is over."
Not only are the links great pointers to publicly available tools that all Reference Librarians should master, the point that librarians should seek out specialized tools is key. Serving an information-hungry public requires that we have a repertoire of gourmet dishes with which we can delight them.
http://lbr.library-blogs.net/
lukethelibrarian posted an extremely articulate post entitled "Bright Sunlight" in which he comments on the fact that librarians, as experts, should use specialized tools, and presume the user has tried Google (or at least ask if the user tried Google and what keywords were used).
lukethelibrarian has some great advice, worth quoting:
"Get in the habit of using LII, IPL, and Reference Extract as additional general starting-points. Your bag of tricks should include specialized search tools (subscription and non-subscription) for every type of reference question you come across, whether it's federal government information, or consumer health information, or genealogy/local history, or ready reference. If you get a question that you don't already know of a specialized tool for, take the time and find one, even if it's after the session is over."
Not only are the links great pointers to publicly available tools that all Reference Librarians should master, the point that librarians should seek out specialized tools is key. Serving an information-hungry public requires that we have a repertoire of gourmet dishes with which we can delight them.
posted by Sherry Buchanan | 8:10 PM
2 Comments:
Sherry,
Thanks for the useful information, I had never even heard of Reference Extract. I also took a look at Bloglines, very neat. I can see why this might be addicting.
Thanks, Cathi and Aisha -- one of the reasons that being a librarian is so great is the fact that in our daily jobs we are challenged to be resourceful and innovative, and it's all with the goal of helping people improve themselves and our world. Librarians love to help, love to learn and love to share. . .
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