We’ve got two reference positions open at the Mississippi State University Libraries. Both are for subject specialists. The first is for a Business/Social Science Reference Librarian, and the second is a new position for the library, an Education Reference Librarian. These reference librarians support two of the largest academic colleges at Mississippi State University. The positions are critical for our reference department and the library as a whole. We work as an eleven-person team (including these two!) to provide Reference Services in person, both at service points and through consultations. We also do email and CHAT reference, and we are very actively engaged as liaisons to our respective departments on campus.

The MSU Libraries are progressive and very engaged with applications of emerging technologies to public services. You can find links to our 2.0 services on our website. We also host a 2.0 Summit each summer which has brought both Michael Stephens and Sarah Houghton-Jan to our campus. Both are terrific references for our programs, AND our hospitality.

Mississippi State University is has approximately about 17,000 students, and we are located on a beautiful bike-friendly campus in a progressive Southern town. Starkville has active an active arts community, green movement, film festival, music festivals (including the Johnny Cash Flower Picking Festival!) cycling clubs, a grass roots organization dedicated to making Starkville cycling and pedestrian friendly, independant coffee houses, an (amazing!) community theater, a community market, a vibrant downtown, great places to eat, remarkable nearby state parks and spots for hiking, and a smoke-free ordinance!

We’re looking for two special people to join our team and share our vision of being where our patrons are, when they need us. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

This is an edited ersion of what I gave to my Dean when she asked for a “library vision.” It’s part of what keeps rolling around in my head:

I have been thinking so much about the future of libraries in general lately. What I keep trying to figure out is how we can serve our patrons most effectively as the learning environment is constantly changing. Our patrons are more and more empowered in their ability to create information-gathering systems of their own, bad or good (blogging, wikis, etc.). They have learned how to search Google and find information on their own. And they seem to like it! This is a blessing and a curse for the people trying to teach them how to find “good” research, etc. But how can the library adapt and reach these students effectively when they are so independent?

One development stands out for me–students are increasingly using social networking sites and appear to be moving their “lives” into online space ( “live-Web” or “Web 2.0”). I want to find out how they are gathering information now and how the library can insert itself in this process. Our goal is always to facilitate excellence in research and learning, and this might be one way for us to move into their “space” and become part of their new, active way of obtaining information. How can we become one of the main tools they use to find answers?

The answer, for me, is that libraries and librarians should be ubiquitous—available whenever and wherever they need us. With declining desk figures it has been hard to figure out where they are. However, an overwhelming numbers of 18-25 year olds actively using online social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, etc There are 2600 current MSU students on MySpace. There are 56 Groups in Facebook associated with Mississippi State University. Doing a search on Flickr (social networking with photography) yields 24,100 pictures associated tags about Mississippi State University.

We have so many new tools at hand. For example deli.ci.ous.com and furl.com both provide social bookmarking services. They save web pages in personal accounts that can then be tagged with metadata and shared with anyone. I can’t wait to find a way to use this in reference—maybe we could gather a selection of web pages together for a reference consultation or on a reference subject guide. Searching on the metatag “Mississippi” in deli.ci.ous.com, 2500 bookmarked web pages include some information about Mississippi, the first being on the “Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the lower Mississippi.” Because these pages are marked as important by this group, it’s more likely that someone in the group will use them—it’s another way of doing collection development, but this time organizing information on the web for our patrons’ benefit.

Another example might be teaching graduate students or faculty in a consultation about using a wiki (an open, editable web resource) for gathering their research information and sharing it with others. Pbwiki.com has a template created for researchers to record their thoughts, upload files, and then share their work with colleagues in a sort of web-repository. It could be a place where working papers or other grey literature could be collected and reviewed by a larger community.

I want the library to try to find the patrons where they are by using the same tools they are using to navigate their way around the world today. And then I want to help them to find the best information available using the best sources available.