What's possible now and coming soon in reference As reference content continues to be reimagined in increasingly dynamic ways—with immediacy, multimedia, and social networking at the fore—it is more than just evolving. It is getting wholly reinvented, by all. We asked reference publishers and librarians to share their expectations for the future by coining their own definition of the term Reference 3.0. Their replies challenge and inspire.

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Collaboration Reference 3.0 will be an environment where research is done via a combination of self-service and collaboration with librarians and other researchers. Users will benefit from one another’s research experiences, and libraries will strengthen their bonds with their patrons by offering a more customized research experience. Librarians will be the “fosterers” of these information channels.—Kathleen McEvoy, EBSCO Publishing We will see the need for libraries to increase collaboration and partnerships with other consumers of information. Reference librarians will become increasingly more dependent on technology, but the emphasis will still be on providing patrons with a valuable personal experience. This will never change.—Bobbie Wrinkle, McCracken County Public Library, Paducah, KY

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Totally Virtual From my place in heaven, I see no physical library buildings, but everyone with a sound/picture electronic device engineered by a black-hole centrifuge composed of energy and photoelectric cellular things that will instantaneously contact and compress stuff about the universe and all its informational globules.—Al Vara, Paley Library, Temple University, Philadelphia

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Rebranding Perhaps it will all lead to a helpful rebranding of the term reference to something more intuitive such as “help,” “research assistance,” or“research guidance.”—Lura Sanborn, St. Paul’s School Library, Concord, NH

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Spontaneity Reference 3.0 will likely involve multiple layers of authority in a single product, where you can toggle between the crackling energy and spontaneity of user-generated information and the authority of expert canonical knowledge.—Casper Grathwohl, Oxford University Press A very important part of an effective Reference 3.0 will be to use reference content as an attraction to users skimming along in the visible web to entice them into their library’s content. If successful, this will bring the many valuable resources in libraries to users who weren’t explicitly looking for them.—John Dove, Credo Reference

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Responsibility One element of Reference 3.0 will be a mature discussion of the profession’s response to and responsibility for ephemeral information. Who among us will and how are we to capture the society that flashes across the Internet? Do we leave it to CQ Press to capture for all time the Reverend Wright YouTube clips for a future scholar’s study of election 2008? And what is the permanent format that will ensure its future availability?—Sara Weissman, Morris County Library, NJ

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Customize Reference 3.0 will involve the disaggregation of content into discoverable units from which end users can select their preferred content and online tools, resulting in custom reference environments that are available through a choice of purchasing and access models. Technologies like WiMAX [Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access] will also play a role, allowing users new ways to browse and access information anytime, anywhere.—Alix Vance, CQ Press/SAGE Publications Maybe this is where the long-predicted portal revolution will happen; people will select and bundle their own online reference libraries in personally customizable spaces.—Jenna Freedman, Barnard College Library, New York Digital storage capacity will be virtually unlimited; bandwidth will be much faster; niche communities and social networks will play a greater role in the development and shaping of information provided; improved federated searching and standardized platforms will enable users to search products from various sources; and information will be customized and deliverable in any format a user chooses.—Donna S. Sanzone, M.E. Sharpe Publishers

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All Online In-person, by appointment, chat, and email reference will all continue to develop with different libraries putting their emphasis on different models of service. Some libraries will be entirely online and remote, and others will be a mixture. Reference books will be all online within the next 20 years. The print encyclopedia will be a rarity relegated to off-site storage facilities.—Ryan Johnson, J.D. Williams Library, University of Mississippi, Oxford

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Engage The new reference world will engage users without abdicating control over the source content. The role of the publisher will delve more deeply into use as it engages the user. The organization of users, their access to one another, and their contributions to content use and development will become the core of reference. On some fundamental level, publishers will connect with users in an ongoing way, and vice versa.—Peter W. Tobey, Salem Press

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Multimedia Reference 3.0 will employ multimedia formats, both text-driven and interactive, and link to relevant outside sources to provide clear and easily accessed information. It will embed student and teacher resources as appropriate, offer opportunities for networking and student collaboration, and allow users to interact with and get support from the content provider, from whatever medium they employ.—Laurie Likoff, Infobase Publishing More streaming video for content delivery; new communication and collaboration tools beyond email, Twitter, and texting for information delivery; and more seamlessness to and among any type of media—these developments would continue to improve on our efforts to make quality information available anyplace, anytime, and for anyone.—Kathryn Robinson, Orange County Library System, Orlando, FL

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Print Lives On Reference 3.0 will still involve print reference. There are those of us who enjoy the serendipitous finds when leafing through a book that just can’t be found online. For the quick fact, or new information desperately needed that can’t wait for publication, online resources are great, and to save space, the net can’t be beat. But for the lover of the unexpected, print is here to stay.—Sara Marcus, Kurt R. Schmeller Library, Queensborough Community College, CUNY