7/13/2015 RovingreferenceWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

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RovingreferenceFromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Rovingreference,alsocalledroamingreference,isalibraryservicemodelinwhich,insteadofbeingpositionedatastaticreferencedesk,alibrarianmovesthroughoutthelibrarytolocatepatronswithquestionsorconcernsandofferthemhelpinfindingorusinglibraryresources.[1]

History

Rovingreferenceasalibraryservicepracticewasfirstformalizedinthelate1980sandearly1990s.A1999reportfromtheInternationalFederationofLibraryAssociationsidentifiedseveraladvantagesanddisadvantageswithrovingreferenceinthepremobileera.Therovingmodelallowedlibrarianstoengagewith"themajorityofuserswhohavequestionsinmind[who]donotapproachthereferencedeskforassistance".[1]However,librariesreportedthatsomestaffwereuncomfortablewiththepractice,andthattherewereconcernsaboutuserprivacy.[1]

Beginninginthe2000s,librariansusedlaptopsorlaptopcartstoengageintechnologysupportedroamingreference.Sincethedevelopmentofmobiletechnologies,rovingreferencecanbefacilitatedwiththeuseofsuchtechnologies,suchasiPads,whichallowlibrarianstoreadilychecktheonlinepublicaccesscatalogueorthelibrary'selectronicdatabaseswhileawayfromtheirdesk.[2]Thishascontributedtotheincreasedpopularizationofrovingreferenceprogramsassupplementsformoretraditionalreferencedesks.Themodelhasalsobeenextendedtoservicebeyondthelibrarybuilding(libraryoutreach),forexampleinadormitoryorfacultybuildingatanacademicinstitution.[3]

References1. Courtois,MartinLiriano,Maira(31May1999)."RovingReference:ANewApproachtoUserServices"

(http://archive.ifla.org/VII/dg/dgrw/dp9905.htm).IFLA.2. Smith,AnnieStevens,Mark(2012)."We'reGoingMobile:RovingReferenceinanAcademicLibrary"Utah

LibraryAssociation.3. Wilkinson,Zara(2014)."RovingReference".InBowers,JenniferForbes,Carrie.RethinkingReferencefor

AcademicLibraries:InnovativeDevelopmentsandFutureTrends.Rowman&Littlefield.pp.8598.ISBN9781442244535.

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