2017 Charleston Library Conference

This session will explore a conundrum when it comes to scholarly reference sources and libraries: Basic research faces significant challenges due to the staggering proliferation of information and misinformation online. There is widespread concern about alternative facts and misleading analysis. Students and interdisciplinary scholars are challenged to rapidly develop broad knowledge of new fields. These are problems that scholarly reference publishers and librarians should be uniquely equipped to address, and yet we know at many libraries the reference collection, both in print and digital forms, is underutilized. Why is this? Is it a problem of information literacy? Does it have to do with the discovery environment within libraries? Do librarians no longer rely on reference for guidance and background? Is there an impact from Google and Google Scholar emerging as the predominant starting point for research? Have sources such as Wikipedia eclipsed the need or demand for vetted scholarly reference? Finally, what constructive role will reference play at libraries in the future?