he perception that the reference desk is

a part of a library that a patron would find a li-

brarian sitting reading a book is a thing of the
past. Instead, the reference desk of a library is
place where not only can you get your question
answered but the reference librarian is also able
to instruct on where to locate a resource online,
where to locate a print resource, and so much
more. Reference librarians, have a term of art to
describe what they do: the "reference interview."
A patron might come to a reference desk with a
question about a particular topic, and through
gentle prodding and years of expertise, a librarian
will discover that the patron is really searching
for something completely different and may not
even know it (Carlson 2007). One of the tools in
the librarians arsenal has developed from of the
technological revolution that has enveloped our soci-
ety. If one has access to a computer, one has access
to the world. To harness this, the role of the library
in the research process has had to change and it is
doing that slowly but surely.

In examining just how this has changed, I inter-
viewed three different librarians and questioned
them on the role that reference resources are a part of
their everyday work life. I spoke with:

Amanda White, an Elementary School Library
Media Specialist
Kathie Vickers, a High School Library Media
Specialist
Marie Vielet, a librarian and library branch man-
ager.

Reference Resources in Todays Libraries:
Three Viewpoints From the Front Lines
By
Becky Brown (MEDT 7474/Fall 2013)
Peachtree City Elementary School is a part of the
Fayette County School System. The school first
started to educate kindergarten through fifth grades
students in the 1968-1969 school year. Throughout
its history, it has been at the forefront of teaching
students and as a result the school has been
awarded numerous awards. The most recent being
in 2011 when it was named a National Blue Ribbon
School. Part of the reason for the success of PTC
Elementary is its School Library Media Center Pro-
gram. The current library media specialist,
Amanda White, has been at the school for the past
six years. Within those six years, there has been
quite a bit of change in the SLMC according to
Mrs. White. Most of those changes have involved
how students access information. Instead of turn-
ing to print resources, students are turning to tech-
nology. As a result, the SLMC collection has had
to respond. In an interview, Mrs. White explained
the basics of the change.


Mission of the PTC Elementary School
Media Center:
The mission of the Peachtree City Elementary School Media
Center is to teach students to be effective users of information
and to encourage and prepare students to be life-long learners.
This mission is accomplished by:
providing access to informational materials in a vari-
ety of formats and media in a positive environment
stimulating interest in reading and in finding and
using information and ideas
promoting the use of the media center by students
and faculty
collaborating with teachers to develop educational
strategies to meet the information needs of students
and to support curriculum objectives.
Peachtree City
Elementary School
The front entrance of Peachtree City
Elementary School
The designated reading area of the SLMC
is located next to the biography section .





Question:
Which reference categories are used most often?

Elementary students are at just the beginning of
learning how to research and complete projects on
their own. With the help of the classroom teacher,
we begin to teach first grade students about diction-
aries and how they can be used. By the third grade,
we introduce encyclopedias. One of the other re-
sources used by all students is non-fiction titles.
This section
gives stu-
dents a solid
understand-
ing because
most are
about a par-
ticular sub-
ject. Also,
the students
love to look
at such
books as
Guinness
Book of
World Records or the World Almanac for Kids be-
cause engages their curiosity but also provides
them with some interesting information.




Question:
Which categories are getting less use than in
years past? Why?

The only thing that I have noticed is the fact that
most resources are found on-line now and not in
print. Since students at this school are at the begin-
ning stages of learning how to research, we do not
go as in depth as a high school would have to so
there are not any categories that I can think of that
are getting used less.

Question:
How has reference changed since you have be-
come a SLMS?

Since I became SLMS, reference resources have
really developed on the internet and that is where
most students conduct their research. I really strive
to make sure that students understand how to use
the resources and that each resource is available for
everyone to use. As a result, I have not spent a
great deal of the yearly budget on reference re-
sources but I usually buy updated versions of dic-
tionaries and almanacs.

Question:
What types of reference questions are typical for
the various reference categories?

The biggest question is How do I find it? but I
get that question about fiction books too! A lot of
what we do on the elementary level is to provide
learning experiences for students so that they can
begin to grasp what the research process is so I can
get some pretty off the wall questions!



Amanda White and Cheryl Jones,
Media Specialist and Media Center
Paraprofessional at
Peachtree City Elementary School
Newnan High School has a long history of educating
students in Coweta County when it graduated it first
students in 1888. Over the years, Newnan has re-
ceived several awards for the outstanding level of
education students receive at the school. Most re-
cently it was named one of the best high school in
the United States by U.S. News and World Reports.
The success of the school is due to all of the in-
volved stakeholders, including the school library
media center. The SLMC is run by Kathie Vickers
and Courtney Stillwell. Mrs. Vickers has been the
SLMS at Newnan High School since 1994. Before
coming to Newnan, she worked as an elementary
school teacher and an elementary school SLMS.
Ms. Stillwell taught at the elementary school level as
well before coming to Newnan as a SLMS in 2008.
As the head SLMS, Mrs. Vickers not only has the
most experience but has overseen the changes that
have occurred in the reference section of the
SLMCs collection. In an interview conducted with
Mrs. Vickers, she articulated those changes along
with much more.

Question:
Which reference categories are used most often?

Students use a variety of resources here at Newnan.
For the most part, English and Social Studies teach-
ers bring their classes to the SLMC to locate infor-
mation for projects being completed in their class.
We like to teach students to use not only online re-
sources but also print resources. Encyclopedias tend
to be used quite frequently as well as biographies,
citation manuals, and dictionaries.

Mission of the Newnan High School
Media Center:
The goal of the Media Center is to support teach-
ers in their instruction and help students "acquire
the skills, understandings, and attitudes which
will promote sound character, responsible citi-
zenship, intellectual sufficiency, and personal
fulfillment in our ever-changing technological
society" (School Board Policies LBOE, IFBD/IF,
IF)
Newnan High School
The front entrance of Newnan High
School.
The mascot of Newnan High School is a
cougar.
Question:
Which categories are getting less use than in
years past? Why?

It is not so much that a particular category is being
used less but that most categories are being used on
-line now and at home. When students do come in
to research, their first reaction is to go to a com-
puter and Google the subject. We have to be pro-
active in creating situations in which students can
locate information in other ways. For instance, we
recently had an A.P. Psychology class come in and
research the effect genetics has on mental disor-
ders. Ms. Stillwell and I pulled reference material
from the collection before the students came. We
then displayed the materials that we procured near
the check out desk so that the display was the first
thing that students saw upon entering the SLMC.
Then, when a student does go to a computer to re-
search we steer them towards using GALILEO be-
cause of the vast and reputable resources that are
located in the database.

Question:
How has reference changed since you have be-
come a SLMS?

Since I became
SLMS, locating
reference re-
sources has
completely
changed. When
I first became an
educator, stu-
dents located everything in print resources like en-
cyclopedias, almanacs, or literary criticisms. The
process required patient because it could be diffi-
cult in finding the right information either in a book
or on microfiche. Now, something that would have
taken a student a couple of hours to search for and
find takes a







matter of minutes because of the resources avail-
able for use on the internet.

Question:
What types of reference questions are typical for
the various reference categories?

For the most part, the question that is most fre-
quently asked is where are they located? which I
find funny because we conduct an orientation with
every English class at the beginning of the year to
acquaint students with the collection. But, with the
more studious students, questions range in degree.
It could be how to cite a resource correctly, how to
find a resource online, or how do I write a research
paper.

Question:
What are some reference books or databases you
would like to add to the reference collection?

I would enjoy being able to weed out some of the
older reference books and add newer additions to
the collection. The last time we were able to do
that was in 2008 when we were actually given a
budget by the principal. For the past four years,
and with a new principal, we have not received
enough money in our budget to ensure that students
needs are being met.


Kathie Vickers,
Head Media Specialist at
Newnan High School
The area that has become the city of Grantville, Geor-
gia was first settled in 1828 and was called Calico
Corner. By the mid-1800s, the city had grown in
prosperity and was renamed Grantville. By the end of
the Civil War, life in Grantville had changed forever
but by the beginning of the new century its future was
bright. Over the course of the 1900s life did not
change much in the hamlet. With the population ex-
plosion at the beginning of the 21st century and an
influx of money in the county, the city was given a
facelift. One of the resources in Grantville that was
given new life was the Grantville Branch of the Co-
weta Public Library System because he former home
of the branch, which was built in the 1950s, was not
adequately meeting the needs of patrons. Construc-
tion on the new branch was begun in 2007 and com-
pleted in the summer of 2008. While the collection
housed in the new branch was small, it met the needs
of the local community. Today, the branch is the hub
of activity in the community, has a greatly expanded
collection, and is run branch manager Marie Vielet.
Ms. Vielet explained the role of reference resources at
the branch in an interview.


Grantville Branch
Coweta Public Library System
The front entrance of the Grantville Branch.
The Reading Area of the Grantville Branch
Mission of Coweta Public Library
System:

The mission of the Coweta Public Library System is
to be a vital and dynamic leader in out of the class-
room learning by providing opportunities for individ-
ual and collaborative learning through the collection
and use of resources, services, technologies and pro-
grams that meet the diverse literacy, information,
literary and lifelong learning needs of the Coweta
community.
Question:
Which reference categories are used most often?

Even though this branch serves a patron base that is
a little different from a school setting, the reference
categories most used are probably very similar be-
cause students of all ages primarily use the refer-
ence resources here. Probably the most used are
dictionaries, thesauruses, handbooks, and encyclo-
pedias.

Question:
Which categories are getting less use than in
years past? Why?

I cant really think of one because there has been an
20% increase in the assuage of all library resources
over the past two years.

Question:
How has reference changed since you have be-
come a librarian?

One of the biggest changes for
reference resources in the public library
setting is the
use of technol-
ogy. Patrons are
able to come
here and use
computers to
search through
the on-line data-
bases that the
system has
available. We
also have free
Wi-Fi for pa-
trons so some
will come with
their own
devices to use
it as well as
help from me
or the other staff in their searches. This past year,
the library system added several databases to the
eResources available including Gale that has made
searching and locating information even easier.















Question:
What types of reference questions are typical for
the various reference categories?

We tend to get a lot of calls for the password to
eResources. But, I also get asked a lot of other
questions to such as how to use the resource, how
to access the resource online, which resource would
be the best fit for the subject matter, and so much
more!

Question:
What are some reference books or databases you
would like to add to the reference collection?

Being able to have the databases purchased by the
county has made it so much easier for me to add to
the collection here! The money that I would have
had to spend on acquiring them has enabled me to
purchase materials for other parts of the collection.
For example, when the library first opened there
was only a shelf for reference resources. Now,
there is an entire bookshelf devoted to it. But if I
had to choose, I would probably ask to add more
Gale resources because of how in depth each is.
Marie Vielet,
the Grantville Branch Manager.



Conclusion

hile the mode in which patrons access
materials has changed, the information that he is
looking for has not. When searching for basic in-
formation, the first place that patrons turn to is still
an encyclopedia, dictionary, or almanac. But, the
most important detail that I was able to glean from
speaking with Mrs. White, Mrs. Vickers, and Ms.
Vielet is that to be able to answer reference ques-
tions it is no longer required for me to know every-
thing as a librarian. However, it is of the utmost
importance for me to be up to date on the technolo-
gies that are available for use along with the pro-
grams that patrons will utilize to find answers
through the research process especially in the
school setting. Many times, the first place that a
child will look is the school library media center at
their school. As a school library media specialist, it
is imperative to be ready to assist that student to
procure the best possible outcome-a student who
understands the research process and is able to con-
duct the process with a help every once in a while.






















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