SEMLS has launched a new blog for reference staff to share ideas and post questions. The SEMLS Reference Discussion Group is moderated by Regional Reference Librarians Linda Beeler and Jill Erickson. Anyone can post comments to the blog. If you would like to create your own posts on the blog, you will need to contact Kathy Lussier to create an account.
Be sure to sign up for e-mail notifications so that you can be alerted whenever there is a new post on the blog.
SEMLS has funds to subscribe to a new regional database this year. We have set up several trials to science and health databases under consideration. Please help us select a new database by testing these databases, using our evaluation packet as a guide, and providing us feedback in our online survey. Survey results are due by May 31, 2008.
SEMLS has issued an RFP for Supplemental Reference Service to Libraries and Residents. The RFP covers Supplemental Reference Service for fiscal years 2011-2013. Responses are due by April 17, 2009 at 4:00 pm. Libraries interested in being considered for the service must meet Minimum Standards for Regional Reference and Research Centers, FY 2006-FY2008 Extended through FY 2011.
In response to the Job Information meetings that were held at the Raynham Public Library this winter we have added two new pages to the website.
On the Resource Shelf under Profesional Resources there is now a catagory called Job Search Resources. Two pages in htat catagory are Job Search Websites and Resume, Cover Letter and Interview Resources. These were designed as requested for libraries to link to them or copy them on their own websites for public use.
Join us at the Lakeville Public Library Thursday, January 14 for a full-day technology program on the mobile library.
More people than ever are using mobile devices to access the Internet and communicate. There is now a growing expectation that business, government and libraries meet the needs of these mobile users. Join us for a full-day technology conference where we will highlight developments in mobility and discuss ways libraries are meeting the needs of mobile users.
Tom Peters of TAP Information Services will deliver the keynote address, "Mobile Libraries: The Future of Libraries and of Our Sense of Place." Joe Murphy, Coordinator of Instruction & Technology at the Yale University Science Libraries, will provide an overview of ways libraries can reach out to mobile users in "Mobile Tech, Mobile Users, Mobile Libraries." Jill Erickson of the Falmouth Public Library will give an update on the early months of Falmouth's "Text-a-Librarian" service. SEMLS Assistant Administrator for Technology Kathy Lussier will explore e-Book options for libraries. The day will end with small group discussion as participants brainstorm ways to incorporate mobile technologies into library service.
Participants will also have an opportunity to try various gadgets from the SEMLS Technology Sandbox during the breaks. In addition to the Amazon Kindle 2, SEMLS plans to have a Sony Reader and Nook by January 14.
Participants should bring a brown bag lunch. SEMLS will provide drinks.
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.
