This was presented as part of Reference @ the Metcalfe, the annual reference and information services seminar, organised by the NSW Reference and Information Services Group, and the State Library of NSW.

1. What do reference
skills look like today?
The 21st century librarian
Meredith Farkas

2. Basic
Tech
Competencies

3. 1. Ability to embrace change
‘Change should be looked upon as an
exciting thing — as a positive thing. We
should fear not providing the best services to
our patrons much more than we should fear
change.’

5. 2. Comfort in the
online medium
‘More important than knowing specific tools
is a general comfort in the online medium.
You just can’t provide reference services
without basic Internet and search skills.’

6. Hackcollege.com

8. 3. Ability to troubleshoot
new technologies
‘Librarians should be able to play with the
technologies in the library, to learn what
problems commonly come up, and to fix
them if necessary, because it is often our
responsibility to fix them.’

10. 4. Ability to easily learn new
technologies
‘The best way...to learn...is to play with it.’
‘Learning about technology is definitely a
skill. People need to learn how to learn
about new technologies without having to
ask other people for help all the time.’

11. 5. Ability to keep up with new
ideas in technology and
librarianship
(enthusiasm for learning)

12. ‘We need to be able to keep up with what’s
new in technology and what libraries are (or
could be) doing with it. And we need to be
able to keep up in the shortest time possible
because we are busy’

13. greader

14. Basic Tech Competencies
1. Ability to embrace change
2. Comfort in the online medium
3. Ability to troubleshoot new
technologies
4. Ability to easily learn new technologies
5. Ability to keep up with new ideas in
technology and librarianship
(enthusiasm for learning)

15. Higher Level Competencies

16. 1. Project management skills
‘People need to be able to take a project from
an idea to the finishing touches (training,
marketing, and ensuring sustainability).’

18. 2. Ability to question and
evaluate library services
‘Question EVERYTHING...it’s important to keep
asking why we’re doing the things we do and
how these things affect our patrons’

21. 3. Ability to evaluate the
needs of all stakeholders
‘With any change, librarians should create a list
of all of the different stakeholders and actually
discuss how it will affect each of them...not only
our patrons but staff, IT, and administrators.’

22. 4. Vision to translate
traditional library services
into the online medium
‘How can we provide equivalent services to
people who only access the library from online?
Librarians need to know how to capitalize on
the technologies out there...to provide these
services online to their patrons.’

25. 5. Critical of technologies
and ability to compare
technologies
‘It’s how we use them that matters. Technology
should always fill a need and we should think
realistically about what technologies are
actually needed in our libraries and what are
just things we personally think are cool.’

26. 6. Ability to sell ideas /
library services
‘No one told me that I’d need serious marketing
skills and salesmanship to be a librarian.’

28. The sales pitch:
what do you want,what does it cost? who benefits?
when and who's responsible?
what are the outcomes?
knowing your audience and how to tell the story.

30. Higher Level Competencies
1. Project management skills
2. Question and evaluate library services
3. Evaluate the needs of all stakeholders
4. Vision to translate traditional library
services into the online medium
1. Critically compare technologies
2. Ability to sell ideas / library services

31. Thank you
t:@keithsuburban
e:keithscorner@gmail.com
e:john.taggart@manly.nsw.gov.au