Results of the 2019 Employee Engagement Survey, Part 1
That response is 42.7% below the national average.
What is a Reference Librarian?
What is a Reference Librarian? Do we still need them?
A Reference Librarian has studied a wide range of reference materials, both in print and online and knows the proper procedure for helping a patron track down information.
With Google or Bing, many believe there doesn't seem to be much need for Reference Librarians anymore, but I argue that's not true.
A Reference Librarian should be able to help you better define your thoughts, show you how to access the information (and not just go to Wikipedia), provide extra pertinent information and offer to help you in the future.
Reference Librarians can:
The skills take a long time to develop so it's sad to see that this weekend NO ONE trained librarian was on duty at the Northfield library. While the staff was helpful and friendly, I'd hope that a district like Winnetka-Northfield could employ enough professionals so that there's at least one person who's studied Reference Services on duty.
I suppose we saved money this weekend, but is that why we have a library?
A Reference Librarian has studied a wide range of reference materials, both in print and online and knows the proper procedure for helping a patron track down information.
With Google or Bing, many believe there doesn't seem to be much need for Reference Librarians anymore, but I argue that's not true.
A Reference Librarian should be able to help you better define your thoughts, show you how to access the information (and not just go to Wikipedia), provide extra pertinent information and offer to help you in the future.
Reference Librarians can:
- Tell you what the weather was like in Denver on May 12th, 1902
- Tell you when English women stopped riding sidesaddle
- Show you how to use ReferenceUSA to analyze whether there's a need for another Chinese restaurant in a town, see the revenue of all the bakeries in a city, see the ethnicities and genders of the executives in a company and a lot more
- Help you refine your thesis and access information for a research paper
- Conduct a professional reference interview that helps you articulate your needs and helps her find the information you need
- Find out if there are any fjords in the US
- Explain what samizdat is
- Lead you to trustworthy sources of medical information -- and so much more.
The skills take a long time to develop so it's sad to see that this weekend NO ONE trained librarian was on duty at the Northfield library. While the staff was helpful and friendly, I'd hope that a district like Winnetka-Northfield could employ enough professionals so that there's at least one person who's studied Reference Services on duty.
I suppose we saved money this weekend, but is that why we have a library?
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