Back in February, New York Times technology columnist David Pogue posted some old jokes from Readers Digest. One struck home.
Working as a computer instructor for an adult-education program at a community college, I am keenly aware of the gap in computer knowledge between my younger and older students. My observations were confirmed the day a new student walked into our library area and glanced at the encyclopedia volumes stacked on a bookshelf. “What are all these books?” he asked.Somewhat surprised, I replied that they were encyclopedias.“Really?” he said. “Someone printed out the whole thing?”
In his March 16, NYTimes column, Noam Cohen wrote an obituary for print encyclopedias. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/weekinreview/16ncohen.html?ex=1363320000&en=e1f4ae6af56cff51&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Each time the newest issue of Choice or Library Journal appears in my mailbox, I ponder the value of recommending new print reference sources. The old ones sit, like bricks, on our reference shelves. Take a student to those shelves and see his eyes glaze or over or hear her say, “that’s okay I think I can find something myself” only to see her looking longingly at the computer terminals. How often do we librarians turn to print reference ourselves?
Recently we did a user survey in our library. Among other things, we wanted to determine why our students ask for help. We discovered that many students misunderstood the phrase “print reference books” and assumed we meant help with printing on the computers. On the other hand, as a community college, we still have a great number of students with limited computer expertise.
How are you spending your reference budget?
