The rapid development of the Web and Web-based technologies has led to an ongoing redefinition of reference services in academic libraries. A growing diversity of users and the need and possibility for collaboration in delivering reference services bring additional pressures for change. At the same time, there are growing demands for libraries to show accountability and service value. All of these trends have impacted the field and will continue to shape reference and research services. And they have led to a need for increasingly specialized professional competencies and a literature to support them. In order to reimagine reference service for twenty-first century learning environments, practitioners will need to understand several focal areas of emerging reference. In particular, collaboration with campus partners, diverse student populations, technological innovations, the need for assessment, and new professional competencies, present new challenges and opportunities for creating a twenty-first century learning environment. Librarians must not only understand, but also embrace these emerging reference practices. This edited volume, containing five sections and fourteen chapters, reviews the current state of reference services in academic libraries with an emphasis on innovative developments and future trends. The main theme that runs through the book is the urgent need for inventive, imaginative, and responsive reference and research services. Through literature reviews and case studies, this book provides professionals with a convenient compilation of timely issues and models at comparable institutions. As academic libraries shift from functioning primarily as collections repositories to serving as key players in discovery and knowledge creation, value-added services, such as reference, are even more central to libraries’ and universities’ changing missions.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Introduction Collaboration: Partnerships for Lifelong Learning 1Step Away from the Desk: Re-casting the Reference Librarian as Academic Partner Michael Courtney and Angela Courtney 2 The Scholarly Commons: Emerging Research Services for Graduate Students and Faculty Merinda Kaye Hensley Diversity: Meeting the Information Needs of a Changing Demographic 3The Rainbow Connection: Reference Services for LGBT Community in Academic Libraries Matthew P. Ciszek 4Reference Services in a Shifting World: Other Languages, Other Services Valeria E. Molteni and Eileen K. Bosch 5As Needs Change, So Must We: A Case Study of Innovative Outreach to Changing Demographics Li Fu Technology: Reference Service Beyond the Library Walls 6Roving Reference: Taking the Library to Its Users Zara Wilkinson 7Connecting Questions with Answers Ellie Dworak and Carrie Moore Assessment: Does Reference Make a Difference? 8Transforming Reference Services: More than Meets the Eye Kawanna Bright, Consuella Askew, and Lori Driver 9Dialogic Mapping: Evolving Reference into an Instructional Support for Graduate Research Corinne Laverty and Elizabeth A. Lee 10Does the Reference Desk Still Matter? Assessing the Desk Paradigm at the University of Washington Libraries Deb Raftus and Kathleen Collins Professional Competencies: Skills for a New Generation 11From Ready Reference to Research Conversations: The Role of Instruction in Academic Reference Service Melanie Maksin 12Necessities of Librarianship: Competencies for a New Generation Danielle Colbert-Lewis, Jamillah Scott-Branch, and David Rachlin 13Professional Competencies for the Virtual Reference Librarian: Digital Literacy, Soft Skills, and Customer Service Christine Tobias 14Digital Primary Resources Peggy Keeran Index About the Authors