LBSC 650 Assignment 6 Kathleen Ortiz December 13, 2009

Over the past decade, Web 2.0 has exploded expectations for information access with the general public. Internet surfers can easily access information readily available in many different formats with a great ease. Information seekers can utilize natural language instead of learning a controlled vocabulary to search for their answers. Moreover, a great deal of information can be found for free. Google has become a verb that is synonymous with conducting research on the web. Moreover, it is much easier to collaborate and communicate with other users through cloud computing and social networking as well. Users are able to create and contribute their own information or knowledge through blogs, Wikipedia and sites like Yahoo Answers. And although, much of these new avenues to information are fairly accurate, it is not as vetted or tested before publication as it was on the static Web 1.0. Many school library media programs focus on teaching their students how to evaluate websites for credibility. Users must always be aware of the credibility and accuracy of the websites and pages they access. There is a little bit of caveat emptor in approaching and dealing with the information available through Web 2.0. And yet for the most part, information seekers can utilize the web to locate the answers they desire on their own. On the other hand, the Web can be difficult to navigate for the ordinary user. In this evolving environment, the reference librarian can play a key role as an expert researcher and as a teacher of successful research strategies. The reference librarian can help to evaluate information located on the Web. The reference librarian utilizes the Web on a daily basis and is trained to assess the information for its accuracy, relevancy, and credibility. The reference librarian can also save time and money for clients by providing accurate information in an efficient manner because of the expertise reference librarians have in locating information. Many law firms and businesses employ reference librarians to provide needed information in a cost-effective way. Sometimes the answer sought is a needle in a haystack and the reference librarian can use knowledge of the best ways to navigate the Web to cut that haystack down to size. In addition, to this expertise in research, the reference librarian may have access to electronic information sources such as subscription databases that the client does not have access to or know how to search efficiently. Great strides have been made to make navigating and researching on the Web easier and more transparent. A user can Google his query using natural language and locate the information needed. The user does not necessarily understand how the search engine provides the information sought. As noted in Overcoming the black-box syndrome by Carol Tenopir(1994), users do not really need to know how the black box of virtual research works (p. 38). But, in the case of difficulty in

successful retrieval of information, the reference librarians understanding of how search engines work, what are good sources for that particular kind of information, and the best kind of search language to use can be essential in helping a client. In this way, the reference librarian acts as a kind of super user. In a related way, the reference librarian can also aid users by teaching successful strategies for locating information. Learning how to research within the context of a real life information need is the best way to learn research strategies. In Collaboration: Ten important reasons to take it seriously, Peter Milbury(2005) cites studies that show that students are more likely to become effective users of information and ideas when literacy skills are taught incontext [with] effective use of online and traditional resources (p. 30). Even in other types of libraries, this type of on-the-fly instruction helps clients learn useful search strategies that they can apply to other research situations. As noted in Seeking meaning: A process approach to library and information services by Carol Kuhlthau (2004), John Deweys education theory views learning as not an affair of telling and being told but an active and constructive process (p. 15). When users approach a reference librarian, they come with a real life need. They are able to connect what the reference librarian shows to successfully locating their answer. By briefly showing users how the reference librarian locates the information, an in-context lesson is taught. In this way, clients increase their own information literacy skills while fulfilling their information needs. The reference librarians mediation of the clients search needs and the information located, whether in print or electronically, teaches clients how to look for information in the future. Despite the changes on the Web, the fundamentals of reference assistance have not changed because human behavior has not changed. In Inside the search process: Information seeking from the users perspective, Carol Kuhlthau(1990) details the stages a user travels through in the information search process. Generally, feelings of uncertainty and doubt occur in early stages where a user is not sure what they are looking for or where to look for that specific information need (p. 366). Using the fundamentals developed in the past decades for reference interviews, the reference librarian can help focus the clients information needs by utilizing neutral or open-ended questioning. They can help the user determine what they really need as well as formulate strategies to obtain that information. Brenda Dervin( characterizes the information seeking process as sense-making in Neutral questioning: A New approach to the reference interview( 507). This model develops universal characteristics of situation, gap and the user to describe the fundamental nature of sense-making (507). Whether a reference librarian speaks with a client face-to-face or through an electronic media such as email or instant messaging, the ability to focus and shape the users query so that the result is successful is a valuable skill. Often what is the information sought is not what the client asks for. The negotiation of a clients information needs cannot be done by search engines, such as Google. In Oranges and peaches: Understanding communication accidents in the reference interview, it is noted that human beings have an amazing abilityto repair their communication accidents (521). We can construct the correct query in a way that Google cannot. The formats of information, the accessibility of information may change and evolve through the years but

human behavior will remain fundamentally unchanged. It is the human interaction with information, the Web, and, most importantly, the client that the reference librarian still needs to mediate and guide.

References Dervin, B., & Dewdney, P. (1986). Neutral questioning: A new approach to the reference interview. Reference Quarterly, 25, 506-513. Dewdney, P., & Michell, G. (1996, Summer). Oranges and peaches:Understanding communication accidents in the reference interview. Reference Quarterly, 35(4), 520-536. Retrieved from http://https://coursereserves.umd.edu/ares/ares.dll? SessionID=S1847309608H&Action=10&Type=10&Value=11612 Kuhlthau, C. (1990, May). Inside the search process: Information seeking from the users perspective. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 361-371. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxyum.researchport.umd.edu/login.aspx? direct=true&db=bth&jid=IGD&loginpage=Login.asp&site=ehost-live Kuhlthau, C. (2004). Seeking meaning: A process approach to library and information services (2nd ed.). Westport, Ct.: Libraries Unlimited. Milbury, P. (2005, May/June). Collaboration: Ten important reasons to take it seriously. Knowlege Quest, 30-32. Retrieved from http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.proxyum.researchport.umd.edu/hww/results/external_link_maincontentframe.jhtml ?_DARGS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.42 Tenopir, C. (1994, June 1). Overcoming the black-box syndrome. Library Journal, 38-40. Retrieved from http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.proxyum.researchport.umd.edu/hww/results/getResults.jhtml? _DARGS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.33