QuestionPoint events at ALA Midwinter

1.  QuestionPoint User Group

Monday, January 14

10:30 – Noon

The Free Library of Philadelphia

Central Library, Room 108

Featuring QP update and discussion.  We will post the agenda to the list in early January.

2.  Panel discussion: Best Practices in Cooperative Reference:  Reference and Social Networking

Saturday, January 12

1:30 – 3:30 PM

Hilton Salon A/B

Join us for a discussion of “Reference and Social Networking” with panelists Beth Evans (Brooklyn College), Stephen Francoeur (Baruch College) and David Lankes (Syracuse University). 

Stephen Francoeur will explore how libraries are offering reference services via MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and other social network sites and what the practical, legal, and theoretical implications are for answering questions in these environments. 

Beth Evans will discuss how social networks such as MySpace provide the librarians at Brookyn College with opportunities to do virtual reference in unexpected ways in unexpected places.  Whether it is answering a direct query, to pushing a snippet of unexpected, personalized, library instruction, to being a knowledgeable voice in the crowd, librarians can guide information seekers online who may have bypassed other methods of reaching their library or librarian.

Who said reference has to be one person, one librarian, one question? Can reference be a social activity? How can we truly put the user at the center of reference? How can we re-imagine reference as a learning activity where the reference librarian facilitates learning? David Lankes will focus on reference as a truly participatory process and how such a process can take advantage in the latest in web technologies.

Join us for this thought-provoking discussion!

Our panelists:

- Beth Evans is an associate professor and the electronic services specialist at the Brooklyn College Library.  She has her MLS from Queens College of the City University of New York, an MA from Brown University and a BA from Brooklyn College, CUNY.  She was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker in 2007 for her work with the Brooklyn College Library on MySpace.

- Stephen Francoeur is an information services librarian and assistant professor at Baruch College. He regularly writes about reference issues on his blog, Digital Reference.

- R. David Lankes is director of the Information Institute of Syracuse, and an associate professor in Syracuse University's School of Information Studies. He was creator of the Virtual Reference Desk Project and has done extensive research into virtual reference.

The recording for this presentation is now available:  http://www.oclc.org/us/en/questionpoint/overview/websessions.htm

(see link for Best Practices in Cooperative Reference, Jan. 12, 2008)