Teaching at the Desk:
After reading the article by Elmborg my first reaction was that Elmborg has not spent any significant time at a reference desk in a long time. Patrons come in and some of them want help to find resources and some of them want help finding out how to find resources. The first population is not going to be happy to sit through a lesson on a database or something else they want you to search for them or they want you to show them the section where their books are going to be. Unfortunately, the majority of patrons that come to my public library fall in this category. They don't want a long drawn out process of questions and demonstrations and are mostly looking for oh the information on bats can be found in the 599 let me show you.
The second type of patron who comes in and wants to find out how to find information is looking for simple answers also, oh your looking for a dead third cousin well Ancestry.com is the best way to find them, let me show you the database. Well, yes you can teach them and its a wonderful day at the library when a you can teach a patron a new skill but seriously those patrons are far and few between and usually have an idea of what kind of information they are interested in being able to find out.
The other issue I had with this article is "Perhapse the hardest part of learning to teach is learning to ask questions rather than supply answers" the function of a reference librarian is to provide answers to questions Socrates might have been able to get away with answering questions with questions continuously but the rest of us who work a reference desk had better be able to give answers or we will quickly be reassigned.
Toward a User-Centered Information Service
The reference interview is useful for situation in which the patrons asks a question that is unclear then asking questions to get at the heart of the question is great and serves a useful purpose but when poking at simple questions based upon the assumption the patrons don't know what they want and even if they do they can't communicate it to us is ridiculous. Patrons often come to the desk and ask a broad question in those cases I point them to the correct section and ask if I can help narrow it down if they can't find exactly what they are looking for. Its not our job to pry its our job to give them access to information and provide direction if they want it.
Value of Information
Information is only as valuable as the confidence and purpose that goes into collecting it. In the article the author talked about value line and helping his mom get a car when all she wanted was a newer version of what she already had and probably a guy to talk to the salesmen so she could be sure of getting a good deal. The interesting portion of that article was the realization that the author came to about respecting other people's information needs and levels and not forcing resources down peoples throats because its the "right" thing to do.
Enola Gay
As I was reading the article I was not sure why the having the bomber was so controversial even reading the arguments and things I still didn't understand why it got so huge and I feel like I need to revisit this article after a little more research or at least after class discussion.
Revisit:
The only thing from this article that I can get out of it is to be sure of the displays that you set up. Make sure that you are willing and able to defend and explain the reasons behind the displays that are put up and to make sure that the organization you are apart of or putting up the display with in is going to support you if people object to the content or subject of what you have designed.
No comments:
Post a Comment