Seeking lonely academic reference librarians

A couple weeks ago, I read a lament at ACRLog for the missing students, gone for summer, who left a library too quiet. My first reaction? “Good! I hope all our Guide to Reference contributors are stuck in quiet libraries.” One of the challenges in this project is that many academic libraries aren’t as supportive as they once were in allowing time for research or publishing projects . A little quiet can be a good thing, if you have a project.

This summer, some 75 contributing editors are in the home stretch of selecting and annotating entries for Guide to Reference. The first to break the finish line tape were Elisabeth Leonard in Economics and Business and Betsey Patterson in Psychology. A pack of science librarians are close behind, leaving the humanists in the dust.

I trust that our contributing editors now take solace in the Guide to Reference project and suffer no loneliness. If you’re a reference librarian with subject expertise and a knack for bibliography, consider signing on. We may need reinforcements to finish our launch version. Planning annual revisions, we will be looking continually for prospective contributing editors.