‘Shaking the Conceptual Foundations,’ Too: Integrating Research and Technology Support for the Next Generation of Information Service

Abstract

Basic approaches to reference service have not altered in recent decades despite dramatic changes in user needs, customer service technologies, and transformations in other areas of the library. Rather than add more layers of experimental services that deplete resources and increase complexity, information service should be reconceived to include new partners in support of the use of technology while undertaking substantially new approaches to on-site and network-based information service. By reengineering organizations in ways that bring librarians and technologists together within a common service environment, information service agencies can more effectively meet our users’ needs by moving more fully and flexibly into the network as changing circumstances warrant.