But as part of my appraisal this year, one of my goals was to weed the reference collection at our biggest branch.  This collection has filled 17 bays of 5 shelves each.

It has been quite a few years since it has been weeded well, beyond replacing superseded editions.  And it shows.  I went in expecting to weed maybe up to 40% of the collection.  So far, I have weeded just over half of the collection and the proportion of the collection that had been weeded out is over 60%.

It may have been much higher, but that included our motor manual collection – which coincidentally is the best used part of reference and which, therefore,  will not be hitting the lending shelves or withdrawals anytime soon. And there are other classic titles too, which are much too precious for their unique content, that likewise will not make that journey.

Fair price on the scales by purplbutrfly

The weeding hasn’t been hard to do either.  I’m a chucker rather than a hoarder, but I think that even a hoarder would be hard pressed to keep more than 50% of the collection.  The amount of dust accumulated on each title shows how little the majority of the collection is used in these days of online information domination.

Fortunately, a lot of what I have weeded has gone straight to our lending collection.  It is good quality information, if just a bit dated now, but I’m sure that most of it will do well there, much better than it has done in reference in recent times.

Which brings me back to the hybrid idea.  Print reference is not dead in my library, not yet, but it is no longer the force that it was.  Now it seems that print reference is a backstop to our online resources and the internet, whereas it was always the other way around.  Now its where you go, when its too hard or really to obscure to find something online. And even that’s changing.

For a long time, when talking collection development, we talked about the hybrid library – finding the balance between print and electronic resources. When it comes to reference type material, the scales are now definitely tipped in favour of the electronic.

Its funny though. Even though I work on the library’s virtual spaces and spend a lot of my time online and love it, it has been surprising in a way to see the stalwart of information services – the reference collection, whittled away so, in importance as well as in collection size.  I have long appreciated going to the reference shelves and being virtually guaranteed of finding a book that would help with that immediate user need. I think that I still have some of the romance of the book attached to the librarian in me.

So as our print reference collections dwindle, alongside their corresponding budgets, I say goodbye to the hybrid library.  Online is now dominant in the world of reference, both in the eyes of staff and users.  This is not a bad thing, as there are things online that people seek which we would likely never had in a print reference resource.  But as they go, I cant help but feel a tiny bit wistful for what was.

Maybe because it was the bastion of librarian’s assistance to our users – where we could take them to discover the world of information – something that is not so easy or so common in the online world? Maybe its as I said before that there is romance in books and reference books are  a category all of their own. Maybe its because reference books were always something special, a unique type of book not appropriate for any other location.  Maybe its because each reference book was a treasure just waiting to be discovered.

I’m not sure why it is, I just know that the end of this era is coming fast and its one I will miss.

How about you?

Information security is confidentiality, integrity and availability of info. 80% is about the info, 20% is the tech. It is a people issue and it is everyone’s responsibility. The two most valuable assets of an organisation are its information and its people and we don’t want tampering with either.

Hackers just want to get into the system to show their tech expertise, its pride. Cracker is doing it for malicious gain, destruction, financial gain. Freakers hack into phone systems, often to make free calls. Simple security will help protect, including unguessable passwords and logging machines out when not around.

Good information policies should be easily understood and distributed to all staff. Should include everyone’s rights, roles and responsibilities and be a part of pds.

Dr Gillian Hallam presented “Don’t ever stop: career long learning”, outlining results from a survey on the sustainability of the LIS workforce in Australia, as part of the Nexus project.

Online survey was conducted from mid September to the end of October 2006, with 2354 responses received. 85% had completed studies, 8% still in study. 79% professional, 17% paraprofessional. Age ranges for librarians only: 18-25 2.8%, 26-35 18.8%, 36-45 25.8%, 46-55 33.8% and 56+ 16.1% which was similar to the figures for all LIS staff. Interestingly, 40% of new graduates were career changers and 44% were over 40. New graduates had shorter stay in jobs, mid to late careers were long serving. With the percentage of middle and senior managers retiring in the next 9 years (32%), there are real concerns for succession planning.

The skill sets that will be lost will be middle and senior management such as organisational planning, budget, collections, reference, research and information services. Only 28% of staff have formal training often, 23% rarely. Informal training is much better, with 42% often and 15% rarely.

Of interest again was the 62% who believed they were overqualified for their current role, the 21% who were interested in further study, and the 42% who were ALIA members (of which 47% rarely or were never actively involved). However, ALIA professional members are twice as likely to be involved in training.

Mei Lin Gray and Warren Cheetham from Thuringowa Public Library spoke about their changing reference service in “From Table to Tablet”. Customers and staff were uncomfortable with the reference desk (and the photos showed good reason, lol), they were more likely to approach roving staff. Renovations in the library led to a smaller more modular circ desk and self serve loans, so they took the opportunity to revisit the info desk.

Changing to a desk, where librarian and patron could sit side by side, they trialled a tablet PC, fully networked via a wireless system, giving them access to all PC based software, the internet etc. Now they are able to revise their query on the go, without having to make trips back and forth to the desk. Disadvantage with the tablet was the small print size and some connectivity issues.

After 9 months, 2 staff are very comfortable and enthusiastic about the change, another has partial use of it and the last 3 staff are still desk centric.

Recommendations: – staged approach, use old and new for a time
- time to play away from the desk, so that staff get comfortable with it
- follow up training and sharing of stories.