Doing the Work of Reference: Practical Tips for Excelling as a Reference Librarian - Hardcover

Katz, Linda S

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0789013223 ISBN 13: 9780789013224

Publisher: Routledge, 2001

Synopsis

Become more versatile, competent, and resourceful with these practical suggestions!Becoming a first-class reference librarian demands proficiency in a wide range of skills. Doing the Work of Reference offers sound advice for the full spectrum of your responsibilities. Though many aspects of a reference librarian's work are changing with astonishing speed, the classic principles in this volume will never go out of date. This comprehensive volume begins with hints for orienting yourself to a new job and concludes with ideas for serving the profession. On the way, Doing the Work of Reference covers such diverse topics as working with student assistants, offering reference services to remote users, and keeping up your professional development. In addition, you will find strategies for dealing with technological change--not high-tech information that will become obsolete before the ink is dry, but ways of approaching the process of change that will work today, next week, and ten years from now.Doing the Work of Reference will help you increase your competence in:

• getting along with other staff members
• marketing the library to users and faculty
• handling ephemeral materials
• keeping students’attention in library instruction courses
• maintaining good relations with faculty
• increasing your subject knowledge
• and much more!This comprehensive guide is an essential handbook for librarians in the trenches. Whether you are a new librarian or a veteran at the reference desk, Doing the Work of Reference will help you burnish your skills.

About this title

About the Author

Linda S Katz

Reviews

After opening with an engaging keynote about reference librarianship in the twenty-first century, this book is divided into 10 sections, each devoted to perennial issues in reference services. Topics are varied indeed, covering issues as diverse as orientation programs, reference strategies and techniques, challenges, practical advice, outreach, marketing, and professional development. Although written primarily for academic reference librarians, the sound, practical information will be of use and interest to reference librarians in other libraries as well. The guide deserves special accolades for its logical organization, high readability, incisive ideas, careful documentation, and compelling content, which is credibly articulated by practicing librarians. A source of insight into the ever-evolving nature of reference services, this tool is a must for all current or aspiring reference librarians. RBB
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0789013223
• ISBN 13: 9780789013224
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 398