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”