Dear All, Just thought you might want to weigh in on the importance of Regional Reference Centers to you. Are they something you use? Do your patrons use MassAnswers? If you aren't aware of this already, the SEMLS Board has asked the MBLC to reduce our Regional Reference Centers down to one. We have been here before, but I'd be interested in knowing what do you find useful, and what you don't find useful. Is there indeed a need or are you able to answer all your reference questions online?
As it turns out there seems to be a general feeling (at least at the meeting yesterday) to stop funding ALL the Regional Reference Centers, or reduce their funding considerably. In tough economic times, tough decisions must be made. I'm thinking that if more money was spent on advertising MassAnswers as a service that we would be helping more students in Massachusetts rather than in other states that DO advertise the service.
Does it make sense that a 6th grader, without any school librarian, should be able to naviagate the bottomless world of the Internet, or an 8th grader, or an adult for that matter without a Reference Librarian to help them out? How do they tell the difference between a reliable source and a hoax? I certainly understand the impact the Internet has had on Reference Services, but really isn't it just another Reference tool? Isn't it our job to help sort through the plethora of information?
I hope we can discuss some of these issues at next week's Reference Roundtable, which is going to be held Thursday, January 15th at 10:30 at the Falmouth Public Library. You can still sign up on the SEMLS web page. What DOES it mean to be a Reference Librarian in 2009?
