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RovingreferenceWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Rovingreference
FromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Rovingreference,alsocalledroamingreference,isalibraryservicemodelinwhich,insteadofbeing
positionedatastaticreferencedesk,alibrarianmovesthroughoutthelibrarytolocatepatronswith
questionsorconcernsandofferthemhelpinfindingorusinglibraryresources.[1]

History
Rovingreferenceasalibraryservicepracticewasfirstformalizedinthelate1980sandearly1990s.A1999
reportfromtheInternationalFederationofLibraryAssociationsidentifiedseveraladvantagesand
disadvantageswithrovingreferenceinthepremobileera.Therovingmodelallowedlibrarianstoengage
with"themajorityofuserswhohavequestionsinmind[who]donotapproachthereferencedeskfor
assistance".[1]However,librariesreportedthatsomestaffwereuncomfortablewiththepractice,andthat
therewereconcernsaboutuserprivacy.[1]
Beginninginthe2000s,librariansusedlaptopsorlaptopcartstoengageintechnologysupportedroaming
reference.Sincethedevelopmentofmobiletechnologies,rovingreferencecanbefacilitatedwiththeuseof
suchtechnologies,suchasiPads,whichallowlibrarianstoreadilychecktheonlinepublicaccesscatalogue
orthelibrary'selectronicdatabaseswhileawayfromtheirdesk.[2]Thishascontributedtotheincreased
popularizationofrovingreferenceprogramsassupplementsformoretraditionalreferencedesks.The
modelhasalsobeenextendedtoservicebeyondthelibrarybuilding(libraryoutreach),forexampleina
dormitoryorfacultybuildingatanacademicinstitution.[3]

References
1. Courtois,MartinLiriano,Maira(31May1999)."RovingReference:ANewApproachtoUserServices"
(http://archive.ifla.org/VII/dg/dgrw/dp9905.htm).IFLA.
2. Smith,AnnieStevens,Mark(2012)."We'reGoingMobile:RovingReferenceinanAcademicLibrary"Utah
LibraryAssociation.
3. Wilkinson,Zara(2014)."RovingReference".InBowers,JenniferForbes,Carrie.RethinkingReferencefor
AcademicLibraries:InnovativeDevelopmentsandFutureTrends.Rowman&Littlefield.pp.8598.
ISBN9781442244535.

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