The first section of this article reviews the literature on the changing face of reference, beginning with a discussion of the national decline in reference transactions, its causes, and the likelihood that online reference services might one day halt or reverse the decline. It then analyzes definitions of the term "reference," pointing…

Peer learning dynamics have proven powerful in collegiate contexts. These dynamics should be leveraged at the undergraduate level in academic libraries for reference provision and basic information literacy instruction. Drawing on the literature of peer learning, documented examples of peer reference and instruction in academic libraries, and…

"Embracing the chaos" is an ongoing challenge for librarians. Embracing the chaos means librarians must have a plan for responding to the flood of new products, widgets, web tools, and gizmos that students use daily. In this article, the author argues that library instruction and access services have been grappling with that chaos with…

Reference service via instant messaging (IM) has significant potential to benefit distance learners. There has been wide experimentation with IM to expand reference services in libraries across the US, with mixed results. Concern has been expressed that IM cannot provide the same reference experience as face-to-face interactions. One academic…

A reference/instruction librarian used targeted outreach to furnish library services to faculty and students while assigned to work in the College of Education during a library renovation project. Due to the success of this temporary assignment, the author has subsequently maintained regular office hours in the College to provide research…

This paper looks at the author's outreach efforts as a distance librarian to encourage library use among a distance student population that comprises satellite locations, students attending online, students attending courses through instructional television, and students attending hybrid courses. Outcomes of the author's outreach attempts and…

A survey of community college librarians in California reveals that the nature of reference service required of them, limitations on budget, staffing, technical support, resources, decision-making ability, and professional development opportunities, affect their professional attitudes. Librarians see reference service as primarily a teaching role.…

Each year the State Library sends annual report forms to California's public, academic, special, state agency, and county law libraries. Statistical data from those reports are tabulated in this publication, with directory listings published in the companion volume, "California Library Directory." For this fiscal year, 389 libraries of…

If the resort city of Anaheim, California, home of Disneyland and its "imagineers," marked a departure from the urban reality of the typical American Library Association (ALA) annual conference, it was impossible, at this 2008 meeting, to avoid urgent library issues. How do libraries maintain their value and cultural presence as users…

"ARL" is the bimonthly report on research library issues and actions from ARL (Association of Research Libraries), CNI (Coalition of Networked Information), and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). "ARL" reports on current issues of interest to academic and research library administrators, staff, and…

A new library in San Jose opened on August 1, 2003. This library is the result of a unique collaboration between San Jose State University Library and the San Jose Public Library. The planning for this new library highlighted merging several key areas of operation, including Government Publications. Several years before the two libraries merged,…