Reference

Home Forums Student forums Lisa Reference

Viewing 5 reply threads
  • Author
    Posts
    • #872
      Lisa Schofeld
      Participant

      I’m feeling very frustrated with technology at this minute as the week 3 activity I just tried submitting disappeared and now I have to try writing it all again. I’m so frustrated I could through the computer out the window, but as I can’t afford another one I had better not.

      When I begun uni back in 1995 I didn’t even have an email address, in fact I didn’t get my first email address until 2000. Back then for my first degree I didn’t need to use the library too much as I was studying languages. I did however ask for help from the reference librarian to locate language audio tapes in the uni library and sometimes it was tough to find what I was looking for as they were not frequently used by anyone. I always found the librarian helpful  and friendly. I have since completed distance ed studies through Charles Sturt and University of New England and at these times I relied heavily on online assistance and access to journals via the uni website. Sometimes I would need photo copies of chapters from books that were not available online and therefore had to email the reference librarian to request this. It was quite involved, I had to search for what I wanted, fill in a form, pay the copying and postage fees then wait 1-2 weeks for the items to come in the mail, I even borrowed books this way also. The library would provide a return envelope for me to send them back. This was frustrating as you had to wait so long to get the information compared to today where most things are available in digital format. Reading the article by Saunders it is clear from their research and from my own personal experience that the role of the reference librarian has evolved and now requires quite a bit of tech knowledge both to carry out your own work, promote the library services, engage with users and to give users the tools they need to conduct their research in the online environment. We all have to be technology experts and can no longer put our heads in the sand. I am a very reluctant user of twitter, I’m a visual person so I prefer to look at images rather than follow links to websites though sometimes this is useful. As a student librarian I need to embrace new technology, keep an open mind and learn as much as I can as when I start working in the industry I will rely on twitter for exchange of knowledge and networking opportunities with colleagues and I will need to be able to assist users in mastering technology to find the information they are looking for. It makes me wonder what I’ll be doing as a librarian in 20 years time and how the dissemination of information will have developed over that time.

      Fingers crossed when I hit submit this time the post is not lost in space, I have learned my lesson though and copied my work before hitting on submit.

      Saunders, L. (2012). The Reality of Reference: Responsibilities and Competencies for current reference librarians. Public Library Services , 8(2), 114-135.

    • #925
      Deborah Fuller
      Participant

      Hi Lisa
      Your post took me back to my uni days in the 1990s. It was a novelty in our 3rd year hen we got email addresses, but we rarely used them and library searches involved searching through reams of CD ROMs, with just the abstract, resulting in hours wading through the journals. Things are definitely better now being able to download full text journals and ebooks in the comfort of our homes

    • #930
      Lisa Schofeld
      Participant

      Hehehe Debbie, I remember carrying around floppy discs hehehehe. We certainly had to research the hard way back then.

    • #937
      Stacey Larner
      Moderator

      Haha I started my degree in 1997. Uni was my first exposure to using computers. I feel your pain re: languages, I did music and we had to borrow cassettes with snippets of audio on them. It is MUCH easier for both lecturers and students these days.

    • #940
      Shannon Franzway
      Participant

      Wow, I started uni the first time in 1995 as well – I remember very well the CD-ROM searching and having to book to use the few terminals that were available!  Judging from others stories I got off pretty lightly – as a business student it was reasonably easy to get full text periodical articles.  I always printed them out, took them home and probably only ended up using half (if that) of what I printed out.  There’s a lot less paper involved in the process these days!

    • #965

      Hi Lisa, definitely understand how you are feeling. When I started my undergraduate degree the law school had no computers at all and only in my final year was 1 computer made available to all of the students in the school! I learned about technology on the job and what a difference it makes – doing this Masters course is light years away from those early years. Thanks for sharing your feelings, it sure hits a nerve with me. I’m also a reluctant Twitter user but already I’m finding a lot of information about libraries and librarianship that I might never have discovered otherwise. It’s going to be worth it so hang in there!

Viewing 5 reply threads
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.