Engaging with Our Communities: Future Trends and Opportunities for Reference Services

Abstract Libraries across the world are constantly reinventing themselves as they respond to changing community needs and the benefits and challenges posed by new and emerging technologies. This literature review was undertaken to inform a visioning and planning exercise in the Visitor Experience team at State Library of Queensland to identify opportunities and trends for the provision of engaging and relevant reference services. Four key themes are discussed in this review: changing community expectations and user behaviour, defining and measuring the impact of the modern library and reference services, offering flexibility in spaces and service delivery, and the roles of library staff and future skills sets. This review confirms that libraries, specifically reference and information services, remain in a unique position to support their communities in learning, work, recreation, creativity and innovation. The challenge for library leadership is to measure the impact of the library in their local community context.

[1]  J. Horrigan.  Libraries at the Crossroads , 2015 .

[2]  Jessie Donaghey,et al.  Geo, audio, video, photo: how digital convergence in mobile devices facilitates participatory culture in libraries , 2015 .

[3]  Maqsood Ahmad Shaheen,et al.  The library of the future , 1942 .

[4]  P. Elzer,et al.  project overview , 2002 .

[5]  Peter Hernon,et al.  Assessing Service Quality: Satisfying the Expectations of Library Customers , 1998 .

[6]  Hannah Gascho Rempel,et al.  Sparking Curiosity – Librarians’ Role in Encouraging Exploration , 2017 .

[7]  Ben Light,et al.  The impact of libraries as creative spaces , 2016 .

[8]  Stephen P. Buss,et al.  Do We Still Need Reference Services in the Age of Google and Wikipedia? , 2016 .

[9]  Helen Shenton.  The Library of Trinity College Dublin – Strategy 2015-2020 , 2015 .

[10]  K. Fai Steele.  The Future of Libraries and Nontraditional Staffing Models , 2014 .

[11]  Larry Johnson,et al.  NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Library Edition , 2015 .

[12]  Mary Kate Boyd-Byrnes,et al.  Is the need for mediated reference service in academic libraries fading away in the digital environment , 2016 .

[13]  Helen Partridge,et al.  Towards an Understanding of the participatory Library , 2012, Libr. Hi Tech.

[14]  Madelynn Dickerson.  Beta Spaces as a Model for Recontextualizing Reference Services in Libraries , 2016 .

[15]  S. Jaramillo,et al.  Adams Becker, S.; Cummins, M.; Davis, A.; Freeman, A.; Hall Giesinger, C.; Ananthanarayanan, V. NMC Horizon Report: 2017 Higher Education Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium, 2017 , 2017 .

[16]  Michael H. Norton,et al.  Strengthening Networks, Sparking Change: Museums and Libraries as Community Catalysts , 2017 .

[17]  B. M. Headicar.  The library of the future , 1936 .

[18]  F. K. Cylke.  INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS , 1979 .

[19]  Maite Comalat Navarra.  Libraries deliver: Ambition for public libraries in England 2016-2021 , 2018 .

[20]  Leo S. Lo,et al.  Recent Changes to Reference Services in Academic Libraries and Their Relationship to Perceived Quality: Results of a National Survey , 2016 .

[21]  Sue Reynolds,et al.  Highways and byways: future directions for Australian public libraries1 , 2015 .

[22]  Heather B. Terrell.  Reference is Dead, Long Live Reference: Electronic Collections in the Digital Age , 2015 .

[23]  Elena Maceviciute,et al.  Research libraries in a modern environment , 2014, J. Documentation.