"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." --Alan Kay
If the truth be known, as a place to get help in finding information, the reference desk was never a good idea. A reference librarian standing behind a desk waiting for someone to say, "I can't find what I'm looking for; can you help?" might be justifiable if, as is the case with other service professionals, that librarian was the reason the person came to the building to begin with. But reference librarians have not served so central a function. They have stood ready to help "just in case"-just in case navigating the building isn't clear, just in case the catalog doesn't produce wanted results, just in case the collections seem not to contain the desired material or information. In short, reference service-in particular point-of-need reference service-has been an afterthought, something to be considered after the building's signage or the finding aids or the collections fail the user.
The external appearances have led us to believe the service works fine: there is enough traffic at the desk to keep us busy most of the time, and our clients express their sincere gratitude for the personalized assistance they received. Not wanting to disturb a good thing, we have been silent in our knowledge that people wander throughout the library needing help but never get to the reference desk. We've done little more than shake our heads, bemoaning the laziness of users who sit at an Internet-connected computer 20 feet from the reference desk but ask their questions of a commercial online reference service, where they get faulty answers.
It has taken the rise of commercial Web-based reference services to make public the news that people by the tens of thousands a minute have questions appropriate for a library reference desk, and not one of those questions is "how do I renew this book?" Analyses of what is really happening at the desk exposes systematic misplaced energies and wasted time. Except for a few regulars who understand the value and role of the reference librarian, it can be shown that the numbers who do ask "a real reference question" at the desk are tiny compared to the potential that would ask if the circumstances were right.
The passive posture is compatible with our traditional emphasis on "user independence." Indeed, libraries rightly take pride in providing user-friendly finding tools and browsable arrangements of materials so users don't have to ask for help. But today users are farther away than ever from being independent, which is why we put so much effort into teaching information literacy skills, but even there we are sloppy in our approach to instruction.(1) Too often, our sense of what we can accomplish in our instructional programs is overblown. Perhaps we think that once taught, they'll be fine on their own, which in turn justifies the just-in-case ready-reference desk. On the other hand, we know that the information landscape is constantly and rapidly changing, and since keeping current is our job, we would hope information seekers will touch base with us when they next need to research a topic, despite what we taught them in the past.
At the risk of omitting some critical factors that will surely affect the future of reference, let me sketch out the future I hope we will invent.
Whereas "information specialist" had always been synonymous with "librarian," in the late 1990s, for the first time, others, including machines, seemed able to take the place of librarians and libraries. Search engines, for example, had become quite clever at coming up with good answers in response to questions in the form of just a few key words, and commercial information services staffed round the clock by hobbyists and retired specialists were doing a fair job of answering thousands of questions a day, free of charge, on any subject. Observing that the numbers of questions asked at library reference desks were steadily declining, library administrators questioned the need for professionally staffed reference desks. In addition, though children's services in public libraries continued to thrive, as libraries' traditional adult constituencies increased their use of the Internet through connections at home or work, or as they used any of the library-supplied Internet stations located in public areas throughout their city or campus, and they borrowed fewer non-fiction print materials. In many universities this prompted faculty in several disciplines to covet the library's space. "Do we really need a library at all?" asked business, medical and public health schools as well as schools of engineering and agricultural studies. "Our students can get everything they need for their assignments and research on the Internet."
Librarians knew that libraries, with their superior collections, their subscriptions to high-priced electronic resources, and their professional reference staffs were more needed than ever: despite easy access to information on any subject in all formats and to question-answering people and software, users were frustrated at the avalanche of unevaluated, often irrelevant information they were getting. But the human tendency to be satisficed(4) (to accept "good enough" that is convenient) prevailed over their desire for better. So reference librarians realized that they themselves would have to move onto the Internet. How they accomplished this feat was impressive.
Building on their strong alliances forged over many generations, in 2007 the librarians of the world formed The Global Library, an umbrella organization to present a single library face to the world. Its well-known Web address, mylibrary.info, is now the universal threshold between the information seeker and the library. Under the auspices of the nearly century-old IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations), each country's national library (including the United States's de facto national library, The Library of Congress) organized its country's reference services to share the load of the world's questions in their primary languages.
IFLA's system was based on the pioneering reference projects that were launched at the turn of the century: The Library of Congress led the way with its founding of the Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS), which evolved into QuestionPoint--a digital reference project staffed by a global consortium of multi-typed libraries. It began as an e-mail-based service among many English-speaking countries of the world and soon added real-time interactive service. Other fledgling virtual reference service consortia, such as the California-based public library systems' "Q and A Café" and "24/7 Reference" and the Illinois Academic Alliance Library System's "Ready for Reference" constituted important building blocks that gave a boost to the growth of the global organization. Historians of this development observe that local communities changed their view of their library from it being an independent resource to being a node in a vast worldwide network of libraries that was available to them wherever they happened to be when they needed information.
For the record, here, briefly, is how the library help service works today.
In the library building
You are greeted at the door by a START HERE help desk staffed by high-level paraprofessional staff well trained in question-handling techniques, finding specific resources and making referrals; and equipped with computers that access the library's finding aids, including the Internet. The message of the desk, by its impossible-to-miss placement at the library entryway is "We expect that you have questions, so ask away!"(5) When your question is beyond the scope of the START HERE desk, you may be referred to the in-house or virtual librarian on call, or if it is felt that you need more than twenty minutes of assistance, you will be encouraged to make an appointment with the appropriate library specialist (in-house or virtual). If at any time during your visit to the library you need help, you can use a handy query station--a phone line or a computer--that gets you directly to the help desk.
In the virtual environment
From an Internet connection wherever you are in the world, at any time of the day or night, go to mylibrary.info.(6) Click on the name or flag of your country and choose among text or voice or voice-with-video communication.(7) Printed and/or spoken words appear in the primary language of that country, but you have the option of choosing a different language for communicating. On the uncluttered screen, sign in (say or type your zip code or other agreed-upon identifier, and specify whether you are a school-aged child[8]) and either click on "Transport me to my library" (which takes you to your local library's homepage) or ask a question. Click on GO. On the mylibrary page is a display from the GREAT BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE (a vast knowledgebase of reliable information)(9) of a few possible answers to your question. If none of the retrievals satisfies you and you still wish assistance, click on the "Enter the Librarian's Office" button. When live service is chosen, you are greeted by a staff member of your home library if that service is open; otherwise, by someone on duty, a generalist who may be at a public, academic, or research library anywhere in the world at that moment. For example, questions asked at 2 a.m. in the United States may be answered by librarians in Europe, Australia, or New Zealand, and likewise, their midnight questions are answered during the workday in the United States and Canada.
A second tier of experts at special libraries (such as art, music, science, medicine, and law) stands ready to receive referrals from the generalists when special collections and advanced knowledge are required to answer the question.
A third tier of researchers provides a fee service to people who want to pay for a professional to research their topic.
Software intervenes at many points, for example:
Paradoxically, as soon as virtual reference service became popular with the public, libraries everywhere attracted more adult walk-in users than ever. Today, old clientele have returned, and new people, who hadn't known the treasures of their library, have become frequent visitors. Together they constitute a rich base of community support for local libraries.