ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

The future of reference III: An introduction

A panel discussion held at the University of Texas at Austin, Spring 1990.

A third program on the future of reference, “Paradigm Shift for Information Service; Business—But Not as Usual,” was held at The University of Texas at Austin General Libraries during the Spring of 1990. Where the previous program (see C&RL News, October 1989, pp. 780-799) examined an expansion of reference services to include an entirely new paradigm, or model of service, the third program considered the structure of services and the changes in organizational experiences in the electronic environment.

The program was sponsored by the General Libraries’ Reference and Information Services Committee. The attendees included academic librarians and administrators from the General Libraries and the Tarlton Law Library, librarians from the Central Texas area, faculty and students of the Graduate School of Library and Information

Science, paraprofessionals, and general faculty and students. Special invited guests were the assistant/associate directors of public services and heads of reference departments at the University of Texas System libraries.

The keynote address was given by Pat Molholt, associate director of Institute Libraries, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her remarks were followed by responses from Cynthia Kehoe, librarian, Balcones Library Service Center, and Dennis Trombatore, librarian, Geology Library, both at the University of Texas at Austin. Their presentations were followed by a discussion between members of the audience and the panel. The three addresses and a summary of audience comments by John Tongate, 1989/90 chair of the Reference and Information Services Committee, are presented here.