The Grump Who Stole Libraries

Go now and read "The Grump Who Stole Libraries," by Andrew Pace.

Of course, now that I'm firmly enrooted in reference, I assumed that when the Grin...I mean, the Grump...took away the computers, the librarians would actually look things up in books, and I was disappointed to realize that wasn't exactly the point. I then realized that Pace is talking about the OPAC, in which case it is funny just as is.

I'm working on Toastmaster's speech #2, and this one is going to be about the future of reference. I'm excited, and hope to get to work on it as soon as I'm done with the January schedule. Also, for anyone who was there at speech #1, I promise not to cry at the end of this one.

If you had asked me a year ago, is it in your career plans to be a reference department manager, I would have laughed. I DID laugh when it was suggested to me. Reference is DEAD, man! But here I am, and it's good--even when I've got five weeks of schedule staring me in the face.

Reference services, creatively imagined, is the place where people and information meet. It can happen in a kaleidescope of ways, in physical and cyber space. It happens over thick reference books or quick, quirky chick lit titles. It happens in person, and it happens on the phone. It happens in ways both serious and fun. Reference is dead! Long live reference!