Rafael Alvarado
Associate Director of SHANTI,
University of Virginia
"I'll Have What She's Having": Generating New Reference Questions by Blogging Old Ones
Wednesday, January 07, 2009 | 3:30PM–4:15PM | Commonwealth Hall B (second floor)
Session Type:
Professional Development
Increased off-site reference traffic has prompted the need for good tracking mechanisms, but why keep the subject of the reference question a secret? Why not use one researcher's question to aid another? At Dickinson College, we developed a reference blog using Drupal that combines a public side, for sharing with a global audience the reference questions we've received and how we've responded, with a private side, for recording information about the transaction. We can now track off-site usage more effectively. Meanwhile, new patrons can discover our resources through blog entries of previous requestors.
