Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from an academic librarian who asked to remain anonymous owing to his or her current job hunting status, and who wishes not to be judged by potential employers on the content of this post alone. As a new member of the profession, I sometimes come across things on [...]

It really is the conference season. I just came across links to two academic library conference sites – these are regional conferences – that contain some worthwhile content. No one can get to all the conferences he or she would ideally like to attend, but with sites like these it is getting easier to find [...]

If you want to get into a contentious discussion with a reference librarian, suggest that you think it’s time to get rid of the reference desk. In my last post I mentioned the debate about the reference desk at Columbia University in which I participated. I should mention that my fellow debater was Sarah Watstein, [...]

Back on March 9 I participated in a debate about the future of the reference desk. This was part of an annual Reference Symposium sponsored by the Columbia University Libraries. The debate resolution was “be it resolved that research libraries will no longer have reference desks by 2012.” I argued for the affirmative. Among the [...]

In the comments, one of our readers warned libraries of adopting the equivalent of CB radio and falling victim to fads. This article–Some Traditional Sites, Aiming to be Hip, End Up the Opposite–expands on that point, giving as examples John Edwards use of Twitter, Netscape’s use of Digg-like features, and USA Today’s incorporation of comments [...]