A Reference Desk with No Patrons or Librarian
The Spring Semester has just begun and the downward trend in
reference transactions continues.
At the beginning of semesters I generally get bombarded by textbook
questions as students try to avoid purchasing the book by obtaining it from the
library. I have not received such a
question. Is the internet and Google killing
reference librarianship? I fondly
remember the days when I worked at the Sci-Tech division of NYPL when there was
a line of people waiting for reference services. I certainly would not recommend a young
person to pursue a career in reference librarianship. The students seem tech savvy enough to learn to find information by themselves with minimal assistance
The output of this blog has diminished greatly as I now have
only one or two entries a month. I used
to comment on interesting questions that I received. I guess I need to vent on a cold Friday
afternoon.
