finally going through my conference notes

I'm down to 1 hour and one minutes til I am officially done with AA. Glad its being spent "on the desk." I was quite late though - blame the boss, he took me for lunch.

So, more on Denver.....

Virtual Reference

Using library school students for VR – what do we think of that folks?

Actually, the panel with the library school students had some of the most interesting stuff

In a recent study – the reference interview is the most important skill in VR

General Reference

That Professional Development is optional not manditory

Lifelong learning has been identified as a critical reference skill, as well as being patron centered and committed to the idea of “the library” – this means being very aware of what “the library” is from inside AND outside

Part of “new reference” – beyond just finding stuff – packaging the information

Clever ploys – using a hotdog cart to set up an “information kiosk” at the library

Touting that your library can find the cheapest place to find gas in your community

Embed the library where the customer is

We can be facilitator of conversations

Resurgance of telephone reference - kind of a "duh" moment for me - working real life and virtual reference and forgetting about the old phone.....people may not always be able to go to a brick and mortar library, and may not always have a computer in front of them, but by gum, people very often have a phone in their pocket. Some libraries are REALLY pushing their phone service. Like ChaCha

Funny, as I write this up I am on my last AskAway desk shift and we are getting plagued by a serial goofoff. And here I am thinking I will miss all this.

More musings on RR

I'm still digesting, while frantically trying to tie up loose ends before I'm off to the real live community.....

One thing I recalled this morning - a small practical tip: don't assume the patron at the other end has received your page, particularly kids. Their machines may be filtered, and we all know how accurate these filters are. Also, don't assume they received the page exactly as you sent it. I've been pushing limited or sorted catalogue searches to people and only realized while training some new AskAwayers that the "value added" functions don't survive the push. It may survive the cobrowse but - surprise - it wasnt working that day. If anyone wants to try it and report back, rock and roll.

Another thing came from reading the blog of Caleb, the Phil of Oregon's VR service, L-net.

Virtual Librarians become the human intermediary in a world where information has grown into this huge, sometimes scary pile that people may sense is going to fall on their heads. So, thinks I, the reference interview serves not only as a vital tool to ensure that we are actually getting the patron what they want, but as a communication tool, so the patron doesn't think of us as just another search engine. As fabulous as our online reference skills and tools are (shout out to Diana, Melissa and Craig for our lovely Delicious links), we need to be careful about just sending them out without comment or explanation of some kind, even just a few words: "here's some cool links we've put together cause we're real smart and know the best sites" (nothing wrong with a little self promotion, right?)

Movin' On

I've mentioned it on Campfire, but here it is:

I got another job.

It's going to kill me to leave AskAway (especially with the &*^%*% webpage still not finished!), but a girl needs a dental plan. The position is pretty great too - Community Development Librarian for VPL. Big change from what I've been doing!

One of the hardest things to leave behind will be you folks. Not to sound mushy, but I've become quite fond of a lot of you, without even meeting some of you in person! AskAway has an excellent feeling of collegeality - I didn't get an impression that some of the other services did. Keep using that Campfire, and get to know the folks you work with!

Thanks for being part of what was, for me, a fabulous experience.

Renee

ps - I will still be posting about the conference, still lots to say, and if you if need a confidant a la chat reference tortures, don't hesitate! I will always be an Askawayer at heart :)

Home again Home again

I have returned - a day after I'd planned and punch drunk with fatigue, but at my desk with piles of notes and an overflowing email box (see see, this is why blogs are good - the emails are about half listserves).

My plane never took off as planned last night, due to lightening (total rip off, I never actually got to SEE any!)

I spent my last night of socializing with Marie Radford, a Rutgers prof who has written prodigious material on Virtual Reference and was one of the plenary panel - extremely astute and refreshingly frank, and her enthusiasm for what we do shines out of every word (and I LOVE that Jersey attitude!) Phil and I hope to get her here for BCLA....


So much of what I learned is still spinning round in my head - as I've said, there are reams of notes to get to and organize.

Standouts and themes: evaluation. VR affords us the opportunity of looking carefully at our own performances - we get word for word transcripts. This is hugely valuable opportunity for self and peer evaluation that face to face reference practice doesnt have (unless we start filming ourselves lol). So if you don't go back and look over transcripts, DO!

Mentoring - a couple of places have a mentoring program for new VR operators (what do we like to be called - staff? operators? virtual librarians? Clyde? - ok, I am really really really tired). I think this is a brilliant idea. Those of us who have been Askawaying for nearly two years now have built up a level of skill and comfort that we can pass on to our newbies. Hopefully you are doing this to an extent amongst your own library folks, but it would be nice to see an official program. Any volunteers?

Service excellence - It's all about the patrons. They love VR, and BCer's seem to love it A LOT! We swaped some numbers with other services (hard to get really accurate comparisons for various reasons), but its pretty obvious AskAway is up there at the front of the pack when it comes to patron demand. Good for us!

We need to look at ways to reach even more BCers and Yukoners - see if you can get local organizations to put the AskAway logo/link on their webpage! Hang out a Community events and pass out those bookmarks! (that's what I'M doing on Saturday). Be creative! There are people in our province and territory who need us and don't know about us! That should be keeping you up at night!

ok ok, I'm ranting and I really really need some sleep...but first, the Chocolate Buffet at the Sutton Place with the soon to be defunct Virtual Reference team.

Just left the plenary - what a GREAT panel. Two of the folks are the authors/editors of a lot of VR publications so I am familiar with how intelligent they are....but I was NOT prepared for the dynamic personality (when was the last time you had panel members yelling at each other to shut up? - good naturedly of course...but Marie IS from Jersey)

It really hit me there though that its kind of sad that Phil and I are the only ones representing BC Libraries at a Reference conference when AskAway represents such a limited aspect of reference. I've been attending the VR stream, so have been missing the "general" reference sessions, but the plenary hit it home what this conference was really all about - ALL of reference.

During the plenary, there was spirited debate whether to move "regular" librarianship to a BA and the "higher level" stuff like managment to the MLS. (oh yeah, I sure knew I wanted to be a librarian when I was 18....right)

Another issue was the "deprofessionalization of reference" - that big bugaboo....what I got from the debate (and my own humble opinion) if the professional librarian becomes the leader of a team of paraprofessionals with ongoing training and evaluation. And if the librarians go out there and find the hard questions that you need the MLS to answer properly. Also, to package the information professionally. This practice pushes the "professional bar" higher for everybody...at the top of the chain the Library Director can then dedicate time to becoming a leader in the community, and influencing its values and direction.

Jamie LaRue, director of Boston County libraries, spoke of a program where they assigned a librarian to a community group as their dedicated research professional. An example of the programs success is a quote: we cant start out meeting, our librarian isnt here”

Denver Day Two

Just wrapping up lunch with two most excellent Portland State U librarians I've been spending time with (and Phil of course), waiting for this afternoon's plenary panel starring R. David Lankes and Marie L. Radford, two Doctor Librarians who do lots of research and publishing on Virtual Reference - I'm pretty psyched (geek geek).

Speaking of which, there's a table out there with some good books about VR - some theory, some practice. Some of which are sitting at my desk at VPL and some that I've never seen (I am currently nagging Phil to buy them).

Some of these books are really helplful, and I would advise purchasing a few. I can offer more specific recommendations at a later date.

Hoping on the new website to include selected professional development resources. I think I mentioned the QP blog, which has some good stuff on occasion. Apparently there is also a listserve, but at this point I got way too many on the go.

The VR stuff has been interesting, but very much aimed at the Phils of the world. The panel with the MLS students yesterday was the main exception so far.

One interesting thing I saw was a VR software where circ questions can be transferred by chat and circ staff have a seperate queue where they ONLY get circ questions. We get lots of circ type questions, in particular "what's my pin" and it would be better service to be able to refer the patron, who has chosen chat to pose their query, to chat rather then phone to complete their transaction. While Questionpoint isn't really set up to do this with a consortia (I say yet cause one of their people was at the back scribbling notes), individual libraries can set up a simple Meebo IM

Blogging Live - First day of the Conference

Hi all,
its a Holiday in BC, but who knows, some of you may be out there panting with anticipation to hear how things are going here at Reference Renaissance....

so far so good. Phil's luggage finally arrived, the weather has cooled down a few degrees so its comfortably warm outside rather than "holy *&%$*& its hot"and I've met some of my virtual colleagues and other "traditional" librarians. We had a nice night out yesterday in one of Denver's many fine brewpubs.

I'm in my third session of the day - its a panel of library school students or very recent graduates giving their observations of VR.

I'm writing some detailed notes that I'll post ...later, eventually......

Denver day two

Just checked in to the conference hotel...stayed at a rather ....errr interesting hostel close to downtown last night. Great Mexican fusion food on a rooftop garden....we need more of those.

Up bright and early and off to Golden and a Lookout mountain thingie. Very nice views....it reminds me of the area around Kamloops except that east of here things just literally level off - from major mountains to total pancake.

The way they've developed (or UNdeveloped) the rivers here is most attractive - water being at such a premium, they folks here take advantage. The Platte here in Denver and then the Clear Creek in Golden both had these lovely paths up and down the rivers with lots of trees. The water is clean enough to swim in, right in the city.

Speaking of water....off to the pool (still hot hot hot)

Here in Denver

Here is am in Downtown Denver.....arrived this afternoon.

Hot hot hot hot - Denver is having a heat wave and this poor vancouver girl feels like she's in an oven. At least til she walks into a place with air conditioning, which is a blessing at first, but after about 15 minutes raises goose bumps....

happy to be here and looking forward to the conference - I hope to meet some of the movers and shakers of the VR world. Its not too late to let me know any questions or issues you would like me to explore on your behalf.

I went to the Denver Public Library Main Branch - v. nice, but didn't have a chance to walk around much....the Historical Museum was across the street and they both closed at five, so I had to make a choice.