From: mee%cheshire.oxy.edu%SDSC.BITNET@Kentvm.Kent.edu ((Mark Edward Emmons))
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.libref-l
Subject: Campbell's Shaking the Conceptual . . .
Date: 6 Nov 92 17:17:32 GMT
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----------------------------Original message----------------------------
One more response to:

Campbell, Jerry D. "Shaking the Conceptual Foundations of Reference: A
     Perspective".  *RSR. Reference Services Review*  v20 n4 (Winter 1992):
     29-36.

I would like to add my two bits worth to the discussion about the above
article.  I am a reference librarian at a liberal arts college.  I've only
been doing this for a couple of years and I would welcome any and all
disagreement based on my arguments or my naivete.

First, Campbell couldn't figure out what reference librarians do based on
reading the literature, although he stated it later in the article:
libraries exist to collect, store, and provide access to the sum of human
knowledge.  While technical services librarians acquire the materials and
organize the records, reference librarians help patrons make sense of the
organization. Perhaps the literature doesn't state the obvious often
enough.

I suspect the variety of descriptions he found related more to the
different kinds of libraries and their constituencies than to any
confusion over the reference librarian's role.  For example, college
libraries serve students, so they focus on teaching.

Second, reference librarians already do everything Campbell proposes that
they should begin doing now.  Knowledge cartography is a fancy way of
saying we know what kind of material is available and how it's organized.
Consumer analysis is a fancy way of saying we determine the needs of our
users.  Even access engineering is a quicker form of ILL based on new
technologies and services.  Most libraries have begun at least tentative
steps toward document delivery.

I believe Campbell is confusing the service with the technology.
Technology merely expands the array of information librarians need to deal
with.  This ever increasing expansion will only make it more difficult for
a patron to negotiate.  True, the e-world needs better organization so
that non-experts can find their way around, but as always, a reference
librarian will be necessary to guide these users to the information they
need.  Eventually technology will make things different, but librarians
will have kept up with (and perhaps joined in making) the changes.

Finally, I agree with all of the other criticisms of the article.
Campbell has forgotten the patron.  Most patrons are not interested in
becoming mini-reference librarians.  They want information to meet their
needs of the moment.  Only a few will be interested enough to spend enough
time to truly learn what it takes to find information on their own on a
regular basis.  We librarians will enjoy talking to these kindred spirits
as we continue to help other patrons.


                                Mark Emmons
                                Arts and Humanities Librarian
                                Occidental College Library
                                mee@oxy.edu
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