QuestionPoint – Week 2

One thing I have discovered while in iSchool is that Google and Wikipedia are a librarian’s best friend. These seem to be the standard “go to” tools when a librarian is trying to gather initial information about a topic. Last quarter I was shocked to find out that even my LIS 521 instructor, who is a 30+ year reference librarian veteran, usually starts there as well. And, so it seems to be true for Quill as well. Of course, a librarian never stops there, but it made me feel better to find out this approach is quite normal (since I do the same thing).

I’m starting to get a feel for the flow of live chat reference. I’m still a bit nervous about doing it on my own, but I am beginning to feel like I will be able to handle it. This week I used my laptop to conduct my own searches alongside of Quill. I certainly was not nearly as speedy, but I was having success. Perhaps after one more week of observation I will be ready to take the reigns.