Executive Summary of
SEMLS Reference Task Force 2009 Report
In response to decreased use and increasing economic pressures SEMLS formed a Reference Task Force and conducted a series of three focus group sessions throughout the region to evaluate current use of reference resources in the region and project future trends in reference support needs of members in the fall of 2009. The data collected in those focus groups is compiled in this report. The appendices at the end of this report contain individual reports from each meeting and compilations of participants’ prioritizations of reference services and their projections for future services to users.
A total of 25 members attended the reference focus groups with representatives from the Falmouth Reference Center attending each session and the Thomas Crane Library in Quincy attending one of the three sessions.
A number of trends emerged from the sessions:
· The public has dramatically changed the way it seeks information since the legislation requiring local reference centers was established in the 1960’s and libraries anticipate even more change as technologies evolve and improve.
· Libraries need to move their resources online to meet the users where they are currently seeking information and develop new ways to mediate the information for users.
· The move to online resources creates a self serve information seeking environment creating the need for libraries to move their assistance online using new technologies.
· Both local libraries and the regional centers are seeing decreasing demand for general reference service and increasing demand for more community–based information.
· Library staff needs continuous training to develop new ways to deliver information and to help their users find and evaluate online information.
full report available at www.semls.org/what/reference/index.html
