Challenging an urban myth: Barclay, Donald A Teaching and marketing electronic information literacy programs. How-To-Do-It Manuals for Librarians, 125. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2003. 250p+CD-ROM US$59.95 soft ISBN 1555704700 (available from DA Information Services)

Abstract

Of course, reference work has been changed dramatically by new technology; there are now many more ways of getting a wrong answer. But the basic task remains the same: to be what Anderson calls ‘the nexus between questions and answers’. Reference work, he says, is an existential art. Sometimes an answer will be found by methodical searching, but at other times serendipity, luck, call it what you will, plays its part. There are basic commandments which must not be neglected, such as making sure you know what the question is. It may be, too, that the librarian’s role is moving towards teaching users to find their own answers by providing tips for better web searching. I do not accept Anderson’s fear that too many librarians cling to old ways of doing things. Younger librarians are incredibly responsive to new search techniques, and are open to initiatives such as 24/7 reference services (not discussed here). What may be on the way out, though, which is regrettable, is the sort of book-immersed librarian who could tell you the origin of the Tooth Fairy, or the song ‘Kum Ba Yah’, or the phrase ‘the luck of the Irish’ (three of the unanswered questions here), with a personally-devised stack of dog-eared catalogue cards.