Privacy And Controversy

Privacy or (The World Wide Web Is not Benevolent)

These are some reasons why I haven't plastered my name all over my blog.

I am very careful about privacy with blogs. Blogs from the beginning when they were first coming out were viewed as a recruiting tool by many companies. I know this because I was a sourcer for a short while seeking people out for recruiters. This is a rather controversial position to be in.

Librarians in human resources positions are rare, but very present. Recruitment research (sourcing) is a unique skill. I got to see many things about finding information on people on the web. Companies do look at what people write on the web. Letting it all hang out is a very bad idea in some cases. A blog is often structured very similarly to a resume.

In some ways, it is more complete because it describes the personality of the writer of the blog. It also often includes content like race, ethnicity, and religion which are not legally acceptable reasons for selecting people in the United States. People don't put this on their resume.

I am not an I disclose person. Darren Rowse who writes Problogger talks about this in his recent book. He acknowledges that he will not talk about his family or private life over the world wide web. This is a very good idea for many people.

It is not just protecting my family which I think is important, but also watching my own identity. Limiting personal information on the world wide web is important. Not putting out credit card information, home addresses, and similar things protects you from identity theft. It also limits recruiter contact if you don't want to be contacted by recruiting agencies. When the recruiter tells you their name is Elvis and won't tell you who they are calling for, it is a good sign to stop being polite.

Also anything which you put on a website is subject to scrutiny or copying. It is very easy to extract information from websites using fairly simple software like websuckers which search out emails, phone numbers, and names. Webmole Targeted Contact Finder 4.1 is an example of this.

There are more advanced tools for extracting information like site rippers which copy a whole site from the internet then break it into pieces where pictures, documents, and various filetypes can be broken down and mapped out. Black Widow Siteripper is a good example of this.

This is one of the reasons spam is so ubiquitous. It is very easy to collect emails by subject on the internet. There is also the constant presence of spyware which is mainly commercial. You may not think of yourself as a valuable commodity, but you are. Your information sells products. I don't like solicitors and I don't like spam. Putting a lot of personal information on blogs invites them in. I have very few spam comments here.

If you leave loose files on the internet, including resumes, excel files, pdfs, and similar things if a searcher knows how to look they will find it. It is important to be tight with some of your information.

The internet is a permanent record in some ways. There are tools like The Wayback Machine which can go fairly far back in the webs history to look at websites. http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

Being a librarian with sourcing experience is fairly controversial. It was interesting while I did it, but not something which I would care to repeat. I find searching for books and buying books more interesting than searching for people. It taught me some interesting if obscure skills that have to do with internet searching.

Also, being a librarian with minor bookstore experience is quite controversial as well. Visiting bookstores and studying the history of publishing is a hobby for me. For example in our library, no librarian where I am currently working is allowed to work with the booksale. There is a retired librarian who works with the friends on the booksale, but she is retired. It is viewed as a conflict of interest between the Friends of the Library and the actual library.

There is a strong underlying ideal of separation between bookstores and libraries that is taught. This is a blog post from Library Juice from a library student. The ideal is freshly imprinted.
http://libraryjuicepress.com/blog/?p=262 . My views about the relationship between bookstores, libraries, and publishing are sometimes controversial.

There are numerous librarians who have experience with bookstores. Many have started their own stores. But, they usually separate completely from the library before they attempt to start a store. Or, they work part-time in a bookstore after they are retired.

It is very easy to claim that someone is stealing from the library if they are selling books. I am not selling books right now. This is true in almost every library I have been in. Theft is a real problem in public libraries.

Oddly, one of the most coveted positions in the library, is the acquisitions position. It is the position which interacts the most with publishers and bookstores. It is a great thing to visit bookstores if you are a librarian; just not to work there.

Daily Thoughts, Authority

Today I am on vacation. It is the first truly free day I have had in a while. Yesterday, I went to the library for a bit, sat at the computers for an hour, and checked out two books, Confessions, Romances, Secrets, and Temptations Archer St. John and the St. John Romance Comics by John Benson, and Living Like Ed A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life by Ed Begley.

Right now, I am reading The Ten Cent Plague, The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hajdu. last night, I took a bit to read the Advanced Uncorrected Proof of the graphic novel Daniel X Alien Hunter by James Patterson. The graphic novel will be coming out in December 2008. I wasn't particularly impressed by the story.

There was a little bit too much super powered wish fulfillment. I like my heros to fight for their successes not be saved in the nick of time by luck. This is why I don't like the Harry Potter books, there is too much luck and not enough work.

The art by Leopoldo Gout is fantastic. It has an ethereal quality to it and expresses emotions quite well. I am just not that impressed with James Patterson's writing. It is a new format for him.

Someone asked me about the concept of authority. Technorati Authority is different from most types of website authority. It is determined by how many people comment on your posts as well as the number of favorites you have. This can be gamed. Things like the Big Bang Meme, and the Six Word Biography Meme are widely discussed on Technorati. If you join these memes, your Tehcnorati authority tends to jump way up.

Web authority is different. Most people want to know how reliable your website is. There are a number of indicators. Just for fun, I am going to go over this blogs authority. Here are some of the questiosns?

1) Who is the author?

Because I don't give my name and am anonymous, I have no real authority here. However, if I had a specific name, I would be identifiable. Also, if you could look up my name on the web on a place like http://www.zoominfo.com and find a concise biographical summary, I might have more authority. In addition, if I used my name, I might have professional recognition attached to my name so the blog would be more authoritative. It is not enough to have a name, I must be able to be contacted. It is important to be able to contact the author by email, address, or phone number. Websites without any contact information are not as trustworthy.

2) What can the url tell you?

Does the site author own the site. Why is this important? A registered domain can be searched for and the owner can be identified easily. Alexa allows you to do this. http://www.alexa.com . In addition, Alexa will tell you what related sites that the addresss is attached to. Also, if the author has taken the time to spend money on the url, he is automatically identified as being more serious in most peoples eyes.

I do not have my own site, I am part of blogspot. This automatically weakens my authority. However, if I get my own domain, I have to restart all over with getting traffic to the new url. This is why I am hesitant. I would lose all my old traffic.

What else can the url tell you. The extension of the url can tell you about the type of site which you are dealing with. Some types of sites are considered more reliable .org usually indicates nonprofit status. Some people consider nonprofits more reliable than .com companies. There is also the .edu and the .gov which indicates even more authority in some cases.

In addition, the url can be searched for links to the url. The more authoritative the links are to the original url, the more authoritative the site becomes. For example, if I linked to a lot of government and educational institutions, I would have a lot more authority. However, I am doing this for my enjoyment, not necessarily to prove I am an expert.

3) Is the site current?

Sites which are updated regularly are read more and provide more current information than sites that are updated irregularly. Regular posting creates more trust.

4) Are the citations authentic?

This is the url thing again. Citing sources that are unbiased and themselves have a lot of cache tend to increase authority. Thus if I cite things like the New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, Professional Publishers blogs, the authority of my blog in the world of publishing increases.

5) Is the page easy to read and follow?

A more usable blog is generally considered a more authoritative blog. I know that my blog has slow load times up to five seconds. This makes it considered a less reliable source. However, the layout is simple and easy to follow. Four column blogs are hard to read and move around in. This makes the blogs less acceptable.

Is the grammar and writing correct. If you have bad grammar and spelling, your blog automatically is considered less reliable. I don't check my spelling or grammar; I just write. Some people would consider this unprofessional.

6) What is the bias?

Because I am writing for my own entertainment, I don't attempt to pretend to be neutral. However, I am not trying to hide my opinions which many blogs do. If your blog is too biased towards a specific viewpoint it can be considered unreliable. Hiding your bias makes it even more unreliable.

7) Is your blog ironic, humorous, or a spoof?

Humor and irony are not a way to make a blog authoritative. Most people will consider humor in a blog to be a sign of unreliability.

8) How can you satisfy questions about a blog?

If I was really serious about this blogs authority, I would include a faq (frequently asked questions) sheet. This will cover most of the questions people ask. Also if you answer your comments on a blog, you are given a lot more credibility. Blogs which erase comments or limit ability to ask questions are taken less seriously.

9) What is the writing style?

Is the writing style formal or informal. Does the blog use recognizable business or technical language? My blog uses an informal, some people would call whimsical writing style which detracts from its authority. I also tend to put more than one subject in a post and meander a bit.

10) Has the site been reviewed?

Have people reviewed the site on other websites or magazines. When a website has been talked about and reviewed it automatically is considered more authoritative. If I did interviews on other blogs, it would make this blog more authoritative. Even better, if I was mentioned at CNN, or an article was written in the local paper about my site, it would become more authoritative. Daisy the Curly Cat's blog was briefly mentioned on CNN. This increased her authority as a fun place to visit.

11) What is the purpose of the site?

Is it a personal site? Is it a commercial site? Why was the site built. I know my site originally was an attempt to see if I could sell books on a blog. It didn't work so it became a personal site to discuss books, librarianship, and literature. It still remains a log where I tell you about the books I have read and my experiences with librarianship and publishing.

12) Is the site measurable and findable?

If you left the site would you be able to find it again easily. This means is the url easy to remember. If I searched for it in a search engine like google or yahoo would I be able to find it quickly. Is the site easily findable on multiple search engines, yahoo, google, fast, and others. Does the site measure itself? Does it have a sitemeter? Can you track it easily?

These are a number of questions you can ask in evaluating a web site. I hope this was somewhat helpful.

I am going off to the mall to visit the bookstore. I went to the mall and acted like a typical mallrat. I went to Boston market and had lunch. Then I went to Barnes and Nobles. I didn't buy anything at Barnes and Noble. I like to go there sometimes to check their selection. Quite a few librarians and booksellers do this. It is a time honored tradition.

I took some notes in the science fiction aisle, the manga isle, and the graphic novels aisle for some things which looked interesting. A science fiction books which looked like they might be worth getting are When The Tide Rises by David Drake. There were a couple of new graphic novels which looked interesting, Jon Muth M (this is the graphic novel adaptation of the Fritz Lang film M), Ironman Beneath the Armor, and The Eternals by Neil Gaiman (This appears to be a takeoff on Jack Kirby's Eternals. Also there was a compilation of the newspaper strip Pearls Before Swine.

Thinking back to the New York Comic Con show. I saw a few titles there which intrigued me. Kyle Baker's Nat Turner, a historical graphic novel, Emily the Strange (A kind of odd little goth comic), Osamu Tezuka's Buddha (a manga version of the life of buddha), and Superman All Stars. They were also advertising heavily for the Speed Racer film which is coming out soon as well as the movie, The Spirit, which is based on Will Eisner's spirit, and scripted by Frank Miller who wrote Sin City and 300. I haven't seen either of these films. I am not in a hurry to, because I like story more than I like violence, and both of these films are quite violent. I really do want to see The Spirit which is supposed to be coming January 2009. Some fantasy violence as long as it is cartoony doesn't bother me.

More Thoughts, Subway Reading, Working With Books

I have been at jury duty all week. This is the first week I haven't been to a library or bookstore in a long time. It is kind of relaxing. I got plenty of rest. I read the paper in the morning. I don't read the New York Times except for occassionally. The New York Times is a national newspaper and rather weak on local news. I read the Daily News. It is pretty light weight in its presentation.

My case is luckily not in the papers or I wouldn't read the paper. I had a nice relaxed lunch at a small Colombian restaurant. The coffee was very strong and bitter just perfect.

When I had free time during the day, I continued to read Oil by Upton Sinclair. I am about half way through the book. I am not going to go see it in the movie theater. I will wait until it comes out on dvd.

Two other people out of the group I was with were reading books, one was reading a book by Tom Brokaw, the other was reading a paperback.

It was very funny. I've noticed that less and less people are reading books these days. They are reading the newspaper or the internet but not books. They would ask me what I was watching on television and I would say sorry, I don't watch television, if I really want to see the democratic or republican debates, I'll watch them on Youtube. That may sound funny, but all of them are there.

I read on the subway coming home for a little bit. Now I am home. It is too late to wander down to the library. In the subway, only a few people were reading. Sometimes I try and look to see what a person is reading. Often they will stare back at me, close the book and hide it. It is considered rude to try and find out what someone else is reading on the subway.

I see a lot of people reading bibles on the subway. They are reading the bible in a variety of languages, Hebrew, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and English. You usually can tell it is the bible because it is a black book with a cross on the cover, or it has the format of the the bible when it is open. Occassionally, they are reading the Koran as well. Maybe they are using it as a protective talisman. Some of the riders are fingering prayer beads, or staring at the ceiling in meditation.

At Grand Central and Times Square you will see lay preachers yelling about the new testament, sin, and hell. The Jehovah's Witnesses stand inside many of the subway stations and hand out their magazine "Awake". If you are in chinatown or Main Street in Queens, or Grand Central Terminal in New York you will also get Falun Gong pamphlets.

Also people read books in a variety of different languages on the subway. You see a lot of foreign language books on the subway, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and other languages. Most of the time people are reading paperbacks or trade paperbacks which are easier to carry or read on the subway than hardcovers.

Occassionally, people will ask what I am reading. I usually will show them the book, and read them the title, but not let it out of my hand. I don't go into too much detail what I reading about and say simple, "It's a good book."

I have to pace myself, and figure out where I am supposed to get off the subway before I start reading. If I get too absorbed, I will miss my stop. I usually put my book away one or two stops before I have to get off the train. I also get on the train in about the third car. There are usually just enough people around to avoid trouble if you avoid the front two and the back two train cars. I carry a big shoulder bag with me most of the time. A man bag.

I'm also a little paranoid. Because I am reading, and seem a little distracted, I put my wallet inside my coat and leave loose stuff in my outside pockets. I try and see the hands of people who are sitting next to me. Pickpockets have to use their hands to get at things.

I never wear earphones on the subway. I am worried that I won't hear something which is happening like a fight, a distraction, a repairs announcement, a police activities announcement, or that a passenger is sick. There is a lot which can happen on trains.

I currently have one other book in my book bag which I have not read, Briar Rose by Jane Yolen. I am used to carrying around five or six books which I might decide to read. Briar Rose is one of the Mythopoeic society award winners.

When you are not thinking of books most of the day, it makes it difficult to think about what new books or subjects to come up for this blog. I am actually feeling pretty good right now.

For a year while I was working at an ISP, I stopped working with books. This was during the dotcom boom. I helped find people. The internet is about creating connections between people mainly. We like to think of it as connections between two pieces of information, but it is really not that at all.

Doing jury duty is a kind of deja vu experience. It makes me realize just how much I like working with books, information and the internet. I don't really miss the library aspect of the thing. It could just as easily be in a publishing house, bookstore, or online site.

One of the directors I worked with suggested that I should be working for an online publishing house or online business, I would do well there. About four years ago I took the Introduction to Publishing class at New York University. I was thinking about taking the certificate in publishing course for online publishing. http://www.scps.nyu.edu/areas-of-study/publishing/ . They discontinued the digital publishing course, but kept the magazine and book publishing course at New York University. The real stumper was that I was told if I finished the the certificate, they suggested I might be able to get a sales position in one of the larger publishing companies.

I have been told various things about where I fit in the library world, some by recruiters, some by other people. I know I am not quite a match for a traditional corporate structure. However, I know I would probably do well in a business casual environment. I have looked at law librarianship, corporate librarianship, and academic librarianship and none of it quite seems to fit. The recruiters I talk with are really never able to help me. I have always found the positions I have held on my own after I have been told there was nothing available by recruiters. There were always a lot of places open when I was looking. Many more than the recruiters even new about.

I am really not interested in most levels on doing competitive intelligence. The confidentiality bit bothers me too much. I also like my ego too much to submerge it and my ethics are a bit too strong for dumpster diving, rusing, or cracking. For a bit I was a member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals which was an odd experience. I went to some of the meetings to see what it was about. Virtually every aspect of information fascinates me.

I also joined the SLA-- Special Library Association for a while, but it did not get me where I wanted to be. I did not seem to fit in with the special librarian crowd that well. I let the dues slide and looked elsewhere.

I've looked at what it takes to start an information brokerage, the Association of Independent Information Professionals is the main association for independent researchers. I really don't think I would do well as an independent searcher. It is the books which interest me not just the searching.

I have an entrepreneurial streak in me. Venture capital is actually pretty interesting. I went to a couple pitches to see how it was done and watched people pitch their ideas. I am interested in business. If you are interested in learning about business, it is easily worth the $40 or $50 to go to an evening where people do pitches to sell their venture capital ideas.

http://www.mitef-nyc.org/mc/community/eventdetails.do?eventId=148346&orgId=mefny

I pulled this event out of Bernardo's List for New York, a kind of amalgam of networking for business events and schmoozing events. http://www.bernardoslist.com/ Take a look at the events list, I find it quite entertaining. If you are looking for business networking events, he lists a lot of them.

One of the real stumpers for me is to advance in librarianship, I have to take either extremely specialized positions which are hard to get, director of collection development or director of reference. I am not entirely sure I want to manage librarians. I could stay in my current position, but I really don't want to stagnate. I could try and learn a whole set of technical skills like content management, but I am not sure that I would do well with it.

For a while, I had a dream of opening a bookstore, then I stepped back when I saw so many of the small independent bookstores closing up. I talked with a few people at SCORE-- Service Corps of Retired Executives about a business plan to start a small bookstore and it wasn't quite right. I also considered taking the American Booksellers Association course on bookselling. I could take the course in 2009 when Book Expo America comes back to New York. I have had SCORE in a couple of times to do workshops at the library where I work.

I look at the publishing world and it makes my teeth grind. There is very little that looks like a viable business opportunity right now. The book world is changing. Publishing is like the headless horseman right now. It looks to have a direction, but there is no understanding why.

I always dreamed of being a librarian, but when I got there, it was different than what I expected. It is still fun, but I am not sure where it will take me right now.

I've also thought of writing, but not as a career, more of a pastime and hobby. At one point I took a seminar on writing science fiction short stories. I was told my grammar is bad. Maybe, I don't need to write lies (novels), people seem to be more interested in my every day opinions, reviews, and experiences than in galaxies far far away. I guess it is hard to make things up when you already have interesting things happening to you.

Value of the Library, A Free Life, Book Blogs

New York Public Library, Postcard Circa 1920

People sometimes wonder what the value of a library is in terms of a community. After some calculations, it costs about $30 per person in tax dollars our community to have our library. If a person checked out two hardcover books which originally cost $24.95 each, they would have saved money going to the library. For people who read many books a year or check out many videos a year, the library more than pays for itself in terms of personal savings.

If a politician wanted to justify the existence of the library, where would the librarian go first. The first place which they would go is the Job Information Center which exists in most American public libraries. It contains career books, resume books, starting a business books, test books for preparing for civil service positions or getting certified for a professional position like an EMT, nurse, real estate exam books, and usually several books on college. In other words it helps people get jobs and creates jobs by helping people start new businesses.

The newspaper section also helps people find jobs. In our library we have the Chief which lists all of the civil service positions in New York City and the Journal News which lists many local job openings. People come every day to look at the job listings.

The next obvious place they would go would be the literacy center, where there are books about learning to read for adults. Included in this are books about getting a GED-- General Equivalence Degree for high school. Many public libraries also offer some kind of remedial preparation for the GED as well.

Another purpose of the public library is to support the local schools curriculum. Both the childrens room and the young adult room specifically buy books to support the local school curriculum. The two sections that immediately stand out in the public library setting are the science experiment books and the classics. Every American public library has a section on the classics where the major works of literature are like Huckleberry Finn, Things Fall Apart, To Kill A Mockingbird and many other classics.

A major purpose of the library is self education, this means buying lots of practical every day life skills books like sewing, plumbing, personal hygiene, coaching little league, and other skills. In addition, there are large amounts of books on finance and personal finance.

Many of these books you will not find in a local bookstore. Bookstores carry titles which sell immediately. Libraries have many older books which are used regularly, but do not go out all the time. The average shelf life of a book in a bookstore is two weeks to a month. The average shelf life of a book in a library is several years.

The library creates a repository for older novels and material which are often not available in the regular bookstore. Many are out of print and cannot be ordered. This has a lot of value. You can quite often get all of the books written by a particular author, many of them which are no longer available in the bookstore. In other words, it creates a record of what people have been reading.

Also libraries keep the classics, many of which won't sell in the bookstore. Things like The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, Das Kapital, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, The Prince, The Republic, The Wealth of Nations, are expected to be kept at the public library. This is an expected function of the library.

Also public libraries keep many books which bookstores have a hard time with because of censorship. The American Library Association supports the "Freedom to Read Foundation". This means that there are more protections in the library setting for books in many cases than in bookstores.

Another function which a library is supposed to help with is bridging the "digital divide". Libraries provide free computer access to many people who cannot afford to buy their own computer. This allows them to communicate using email, write resumes, write letters to their representatives and use computers which they most likely cannot afford. It provides some children their first access to computers if they don't have them at home.

There is a lot of value in the public library. It tends to more than pay for itself in terms of tax dollars because of job creation, literacy, and self eduction.

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I have read some more of Ha Jin's A Free Life. The main character has moved to New York where he first starts as a busboy then moves up to being a cook in a Chinese restaurant. He also edits a literary journal. Eventually, he leaves New York to go back to his family. The rich person decides that they should leave.

Nan, the main character then buys a restaurant in Atlanta from an older Chinese couple and the whole family moves there. This seems to reflect the real life of many Chinese people who come to the United States. They are following in the footsteps of the American dream. Eventually Nan buys a small house with his wife and child. He is working fourteen hours a day and barely has

time to focus on his interest in poetry and writing. It seems he has lost his dream to become a writer to become the "American Dream." The novel is very realistic so far.

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I finished playing Eschalon Book 1 from Basilisk Games. It was a thoroughly enjoyable independent single player roleplaying game. I am happy that they let me drop a link in their forums.

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I also spent quite a bit of time looking at two sets of links to book blogs:

Bookish Blogs
http://kimbooktu.wordpress.com/bookish-blog-links-a-z/

Bookaholics Blogring
http://dovegreyreader.typepad.com/dovegreyreader_scribbles/2007/07/bookaholics-blo.html

Some Thoughts on Reference Interviews.

Good morning,
I started reading a Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin. It is off to a good start.

Anyways, I am thinking of the concept of the "Reference Interview" which we learned in library school. It is basically, a way of asking people what they want to find. In a similar manner, there is the literature request form which you are supposed to use to find out what people want before you sign in to a database. Databases used to charge by the hour. Luckily, this is no longer true. I think people place too much faith in expensive databases.

The primary feature which is missing from most reference training is the art of elicitation getting people to give you information. This is one of the most important skills in reference work. Quite a bit of the time people don't know what they really want.

Here is a nice definition:

noun
stimulation that calls up (draws forth) a particular class of behaviors; "the elicitation of his testimony was not easy."

Princeton University, Wordnet 3.0, c2006

There any number of missing features. One of the most important thing to do with most reference interviews is to start by clarifying the question presented to you so you have an idea where the question is coming from and what the library patron or customer is after.

After the question is clarified it is important to ask for background material, what they have read, where they got the information from, and if they have the information source with them.

If necessary take the time to rephrase the question. Don't be afraid to find other words for what they are asking for. Keywords are often quite irrational. Breaking up a question into three or four different search terms is generally a good idea. Whatever keywords they are using, when talking to people try not to talk about keywords, rephrase the terms as "natural language."

If they have the information request they are seeking, it could be the last book they read, an assignment sheet, a newspaper clipping, or the remembrance of hearing about a book on the radio, it is important to examine the question to see if it is matching with the information source. Sometimes people misinterpret what they are reading or hearing. Paying attention to things is always difficult.

Now you have the information that they are seeking. If it is simple direct them to the source and tell them if they can't find it come back and you will help them locate it. If you do not say this, people often will leave unsatisfied.

If it is complex, it is often best to go with the library patron to the source so you can compare what you have with what they want. This is true for a bookstore as well. Comparing allows you to become more focused on what the patron wants.

If you don't have what they want, you can know what to request because you have compared the material with the question being asked. Clarity is very important in answering peoples questions. Being prepared to refer people to other places is just as important. Also be aware of what you can and can't do in your setting, as well as what you have to offer. If you know the rules you can work within them.

If there is any question about whether they understand what they are looking for, it is best to clarify. This may annoy some people, but it will save a lot of time.

If you are in an information brokerage type situation or just want to show competence, at the point the question is answered offer to expand the format of sources. Would you like to help you find this information in a database, on the internet, in a magazine, in a newspaper, or in a document.

Expanding the format of the answer increases your fee and sometimes improves customer satisfaction. Information is information whatever format it is in.

While you are conducting the "Reference Interview" it is important to remember the primary purpose is to answer the persons question. Remember, the "Reference Interview" is usually very short, this means listen and pay attention. Look at the person being interviewed, and show that you are paying attention in small ways. Don't talk while they are asking a question.

Be aware of the "Observers Paradox", the more you interpret their question, the more you will change what the person is looking for. Try to stay focused on what the person originally asked for. This makes it less likely they will come back dissatisfied. Often a person will not realize they are getting something they didn't originally ask for.

Also be aware that when you are searching for something that makes you uncomfortable, you don't know why they are searching for it. Asking about it can lead to unnecessary friction. There are very legitimate reasons for searching for things on serial killers, abortion, sex, prostitution, censorship and other very touchy subjects...

There are a number of formats for material now, don't just search printed material, there are videos and audio as well. If someone asks for Martin Luther King's speeches, listening to the speech can be far more important than reading a transcript of the speech. Also some language is quite hard, Shakespeare is very hard for teenagers, so is Beowulf. The film or the audiobook can help them understand the material.

You don't know everything. Be prepared to hand off the question to someone who knows more than you do. Putting your ego aside often is hard when you want to help someone. Your position in answering a question is often that of a go between.

Be relaxed, you want people to want to come up and talk to you. Being distracted, angry, or stiff makes it hard for people to talk to you.

Some Methods from Elicitation that may apply to Reference Interviews:

Quid Pro Quo is one of the oldest methods used by spies and social engineers. It involves simply offering something-- a bit of information in return for an answer. It is very easy and natural to do this.

Be considerate, simply letting a customer or patron know they are appreciated will make them more open to talking to you.

If you provide small facts during the Reference Interview, people will think you know something and will be more open to providing the question they need.

Be prepared to offer a hypothetical situation around the question. This sometimes creates better clarity for the customer or library patron.

It is not good to be distracted, ask people not to use cell phones or other electronic devices, don't take notes during a reference interview unless they are asking for something simple like a phone number or address. More complicated information than that should really be printed up or stored to disk.

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On another front, I have been asking people to review my site at various newsgroups and at Fuel My Blog. People have started giving me feedback which makes me happy. If you write feedback, I'll take time to look at your site as well.