The Reference User Experience: Four Essays
Four voices consider new (and evergreen) approaches to reference services By Steven Bell, Wayne Bivens-Tatum, Jean Costello, and James LaRue Nov 15, 2010The essays featured here stem from talks given at the Focusing on the User Experience session of this year’s Reference Renaissance conference, an illuminating biennial gathering of reference and user services librarians put on by the BCR consortium in Colorado. (For a summary, go to http://bit.ly/9CNDV5.)
| The Reference User Experience |
| Fish Market 101: Why Not a Reference User Experience?, by Steven Bell |
| Imagination, Sympathy, and the User Experience, by Wayne Bivens-Tatum |
| Why I Don't Use Libraries for Reference Anymore, by Jean Costello |
| The Visibility and Invisibility of Librarians, by James LaRue |
Some 300 librarians, educators, and vendors gathered August 8–10 in Denver to discuss emerging technologies and, in particular, shifting patron expectations. All attendees agreed: as those expectations shift, so, too, must the design of user services likewise shift to accommodate them. But, of course, that’s all easier said than done. To help in some small part, you’ll find in the pages that follow four essays that address the idea of responsiveness as it relates to reference services.
From Steven Bell and Wayne Bivens-Tatum, two views on how to get started with user-centered thinking; from Jean Costello, a sobering look at why a model patron has given up on libraries for reference entirely; and from James LaRue, thoughts on the difference between visible and invisible user services.
Along with the rest of the materials in this supplement—the hundreds of listings of forthcoming titles and an update to the biography section of our E-Reference Ratings—we hope the ideas offered here inform a new approach to reference services and inspire a renewed relationship with your reference patrons.
—Josh Hadro, Associate Editor (jhadro@mediasourceinc.com)
