Credo Reference Blog

Of central importance to all of us at Credo Reference is assuring that we are on the right track to accomplish our core mission:  to provide a reference service that both learners and librarians find to be truly valuable.   We are continually finding additional ways to assess whether or not we are on the right path.

In this instance we’re choosing the most straightforward approach: stating what we see as the major factors influencing the worlds of learners, librarians, and reference and asking for your feedback.

Are these the most important trends?  Have we articulated them correctly?   Are there others that we’ve missed?

Any feedback is welcome.  It will help sharpen our focus on our core mission.

Trends we’re seeing:

1. Budget pressures on libraries mean an extremely focused attention on usage and the justification of content spending decisions
2. Students are overwhelmed by the amount of information available to them and as a result “Research seems to be far more difficult to conduct in the digital age than it did in previous times”.  (Page 2, Project Information Literacy Progress Report ).
3. What’s most often missing from the student’s world are effective tools and content delivered at the point of need for “pre-search”   During the pre-search phase of research, students are looking for overview, background and vocabulary information and connections to begin their research process. (Page 10, Project Information Literacy Progress Report:  “Lessons Learned”)
4. Students too often start their research with non-library resources even when library resources are the most appropriate starting points.
5. Students are unaware of the databases available to them in the library and the valuable information they contain.  And without the big-picture and vocabulary contexts they need they are often confused by what each database can do for them.
6. Librarians often struggle with the question of where to start users, as they fear the “silo-effect” will leave users stranded in one information database without seamless linking to other valuable information resources.
7. Various “big-system” solutions are offered as “discovery tools,” but many are a drink from the fire hose for the beginning student.  Even “discovery tools” need to be “discovered.”

What do you think? Have we missed anything? How would you rank these in terms of severity or importance?