ETL501 – Topic 2

Print and electronic information

I think the most interesting thing that I read as part of this module was the Ballard (2008) article. As I read about the web interface they created for their library all I could think was ‘I WANT ONE’. What a brilliant and ingenious solution to the reference debate! Accessible and available all the time, for me it encapsulates the purpose of a library – that is to provide the information when it is needed.

As for the reference debate itself I think it is becoming less and less relevant. At the school I am working in currently we have just integrated most of the reference section into non-fiction. It can now be borrowed for two weeks just like everything else. All that is left in the ‘reference section’ are sets of books and anything that doesn’t fit on the shelves. This was done for a couple of reasons. Really I think that if a student needs a book why shouldn’t they be able to borrow it? What makes some information so special that it cannot leave the library? Secondly, we have just subscribed to World Book Online and it is my hope that students will use this in place of the reference section. We chose this resource because of its ease of use and accessibility outside school hours. I think that for the idea of a reference section to make it into the future it needs to be called something else, something that takes into account the ideas of accessibility, authoritativeness and compendium.

Is Wikipedia then a reference work? I always direct students they’re at the beginning of their research process. It should be viewed as a general source, a place to go when you know nothing about a topic. Then once you have a basic understanding you move on to more reliable and specific sources.