Local library development
During the last couple of years I have assisted Gjerdrum public library
as an informal consultant. In the spring 2003 the collaboration has
become more focused. Together with the director, Bozena Rasmussen, I
have written a paper for the Genealogy and Local History Section of
IFLA: Library innovation is hard work:
Lessons from a Norwegian case study. The paper deals with local
efforts to realise cooperation between archives, libraries and museums.
The library will also be used as a test area for collecting systematic
data on reference transactions.
What do people ask?
Reference questions in Norwegian public libraries
My main project is still What do people
ask. Several new aspects of the field have become more prominent
during the last couple of years. I would mention:
- the development of reference, or question-and-answer services, as
a market with many service providers outside the library sector. Services
for the general public are generally free or low-cost.
- a substantial reduction in the demand for library reference services,
which is particularly noticable in the United States
- the shift of traffic from personal or staffed services towards unstaffed,
self-service resources (search engines, general and specialised subject
portals)
- the close relationship between reference services, on the one hand,
and lending services, on the other. The pattern of demand reflects
the same user interests and needs.
I also want to continue the close cooperation with Oslo public library
- not least in connection with its big building project - near the harbour
(Aker brygge) and City Hall.
Likely tasks during the next academic year are:
- writing an analytic article on digital question-and-answer services,
which takes both library and non-library services into account
- writing on the relationship between reference work and science journalism
- developing and testing efficient, sample-based procedures for collecting
field data on reference work in public libraries (includes field work
in Gjerdrum)
- analysing reference data (collected in 2002) from the music section
of Oslo public library
The paper Why is quality control so hard? Reference studies and reference
quality in public libraries : the case of Norway will be presented at
the IFLA Library Theory and Research Section in Berlin in August. More
...
Because of illness I could not participate in Glasgow in 2002, but
the first part of the paper Why do
you ask? Reference statistics for library planning was converted
into an independent article and published in Performance measurement
and metrics, vol. 4 (2003), no. 1, pp. 28-37.
Lost in Alexandria?
- a project in cultural history (early draft)
This is a new project that I hope to start, on a small scale, during
the next academic year. More ...
Tord Høivik - 2003/06/27
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