Fugitive filing: ready reference technologies as cultural artifacts

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to position ready reference technologies as cultural artifacts that have meaning and value beyond pure functionality as a reference tool. The case study aims to assert that locally created reference tools and technologies have much to offer as artifacts that encode cultural knowledge about the community, institution and profession.

Design/methodology approach

This case study consists of semi‐structural interviews with six library reference staff members about their experiences and interpretations of a collaboratively created ready reference technology that is used in their reference practice at a public library.

Findings

The results demonstrate there is value is exploring technologies as cultural artifacts in that they reveal otherwise hidden or obscured institutional values, labor practices, tensions associated with changing times in the profession, and the community culture throughout time.

Practical implications

There is benefit in exploring locally created ready reference tools as cultural artifacts to uncover hidden cultural knowledge about institutions, communities, and professional practices.

Originality/value

While there are studies of ready reference tools, they largely focus on the transition of these materials from print‐to‐digital. There was a gap in the literature about the meaning of the ready reference tools to their librarian creators/users. This study is a contribution to ready reference literature and starts to address this gap.

Citation

Sweeney, M. (2013), "Fugitive filing: ready reference technologies as cultural artifacts", Reference Services Review, Vol. 41 No. 2, pp. 351-365. https://doi.org/10.1108/00907321311326264