Purpose




Academic libraries are experiencing numerous changes in their services due to high demands for digital resources and changes in users’ information needs and expectations. Many academic library users give preferences to Google, Google Scholar and other search engines on the internet when they search for information. As reference transactions are decreasing in many academic institutions, this paper aims to investigate the continuing need for mediated reference services in the technology-driven environment in academic libraries.




Design/methodology/approach




The authors have conducted a literature review to document and analyze the current trends in reference services in academic libraries. They have examined the relevant published literature through a series of reflective questions to determine whether the demise of mediated reference services is imminent in academic libraries. While this literature review is by no means an exhaustive one, the authors have provided a fairly comprehensive representation of articles to synthesize an overview of the history, evolution, and current trends of reference services in academic libraries.




Findings




This paper clearly demonstrates the importance of human-mediated reference services in academic libraries. It reinforces the need for skilled, knowledgeable professional librarians to provide effective and efficient reference services in a digital environment.




Practical implications




This paper provides a comprehensive overview of current trends in reference services in academic libraries and analyzes the merits and demerits of these trends to establish the need for mediated reference services in academic libraries. The arguments used in this paper will be useful for library and informational professionals as validation for the need to hire skilled, knowledgeable reference librarians to provide reference services in a digital environment.




Originality/value




This paper critically looks at the current trends and practices in reference services through the published literature to determine the future need for mediated reference services in academic libraries. It offers important insights to demonstrate why professional librarians’ skills, knowledge and expertise are essential to provide efficient reference services in the digital age.

Is the need for mediated reference service in academic libraries fading away in the digital environment

Modeling the impact of individuals’ characteristics and library service levels on high school students’ public library usage : a national analysis.

In a follow-up study to the ERIAL (Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries) Project, librarians at UIC compared the responses of first-generation college freshmen from the original study to those of seniors. The study’s aim was to determine whether student information literacy increases as a result of undergraduate education and to further explore the student research process with respect to the particular factors that inform and effect change in it. The findings showed that information literacy increased among these students, and they developed a more complex approach to the research process and the library.

/pdf/the-research-process-and-the-library-first-generation-4m8kzpcvzz.pdf

The Research Process and the Library: First-generation College Seniors vs. Freshmen

Information behaviors of Latinos attending high school in East Los Angeles

https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&context=fpml

Kristine Ferry

Papers

(Generation 1.5) Latino Students and the Library: A Case Study