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I started my day in the exhibits where I popped by to see Lauren and then went more systematically through the exhibits, which seem smaller to me this year from years past. I found an amazing microfiche/film/card reader that has some potential, picked up some posters, looked at and gave some input on a new line of mobile classroom furniture Brodart is developing. It’s nice, substantial and mobile, which is rare in mobile classroom furniture in my book. Visited other vendors of Political Science and Communication titles and then headed out.

My next stop was the New Reference Research Forum sponsored by RUSA. Three sets of reserchers presented their research projects. The first was on an analysis of 24 years of data from libraries using the Wisconsin-Ohio Reference Evaluation Program. This is a program where both patron and librarian fill out questionnaires after reference transactions. The data showed that several factors influence the success of reference transactions: personal attention, professionalism, learning and active collaboration. It also found that time spent per transaction is trending upward. An interesting note was that 75% of the transactions were handled by librarians but 90% of the questions were rated as easy to medium in difficulty (by the librarian). This seems to me to go back to the ideas we were dealing with in my preconference – librarians sitting the reference desk is just not a sustainable model when the other areas of our jobs are becoming more demanding.

Other research studies were on the efficacy of online tutorials and using VR interactions as teachable moments. Both were interesting, but the one about VR interactions had a lot of good advice about how to use those interactions to promote information literacy. A lovely dinner with ZSR folks capped a busy day.