This course came at a most opportune time for me. When a position recently opened up in the reference department at the Troy Public Library I was offered the job. This would not have happened had I not been enrolled in an MLS program. That was in July and when this class started in September I was just at the beginning of my learning curve for this new position. IST605 was a tremendous help in a variety of ways.
Conducting a reference interview is a skill that becomes honed only with continued practice. Had I not taken IST605 I don’t think I would have even realized that I was conducting a reference interview, or would I have realized its importance. Someone asks a question and you try to find an answer, seems straightforward, that is until I took this class and began to understand all the nuances involved in the process.
The exercises involving the evaluation of reference materials have proven invaluable. The only frustration is that the library where I work does not have access to many of the materials I looked at and found so useful. However as I move back into my position of Branch Manager I plan to be more proactive in the selection of reference materials for my branch, rather than just accepting whatever is sent my way.
I have used what I learned from the LibGuide assignment to place an updated Urban Fiction order for the library. Lastly, the observation of a different library’s reference services is always a good learning tool. I got many good ideas from my observations.
