And… does this mean that all these years later, I finally won that argument?!? Huzzaaahhhh!!!!

What does go along with the “research area” bit is that each field has their own areas in which to look for reference. Technological fields are heavily reliant on manuals, documentation, standards definitions (IEEE), and virtual networking communities. Where libraries may be helpful is providing someone with the expertise in mining the necessary data from these sources. Our alma mater didn’t provide this resource, or at least did not make known that this was available.

Seriously, though, I think you hit one one key point that I’d overlooked: research areas make a difference. Our CS majors don’t use the library either, or not very much. Our history and poly-sci and biology students do, though, because their research areas require access to the kinds of things that are in our library.

And Mark… Yes. You may. :-)

Now skip forward a decade, though I’m on a year hiatus from my academic institution, as a Masters of Divinity Student, the reference desk has been invaluable. Partly because the research I do is much different than I did before, but also in part because the level of research needed is much more intense.

For a good majority of students (and this might be part of my distaste for “liberal arts” education), there’s not much of a need to spend much time in the library. It’s there in the rare case that you might need it. However for the group that has a use for it, it is of great value.

I’m interested in hearing more about experiments and developments in reference services, but I’m confident that *at my institution* people still want and need reference service, in person and at the desk (easy to find, predictably staffed).