PRESENTATION B14

REFERENCE EXCELLENCE FROM US TO OZ

Ross Balharrie1, Ellen Forsyth2 & Cathy Johnstone3
1 Manly Library, NSW
2 State Library of New South Wales, NSW
3 Clarence Regional Library, NSW

Ref-ex (Reference Excellence) is a New South Wales project based on the Ohio Reference Excellence Project. It is a training tool to help new staff learn about providing reference and information services in public libraries. Ref-ex is a collaborative project between the State Library of New South Wales and public libraries through the state wide Reference and Information Services Group. The aim was to modify the Ohio Reference Excellence Project for New South Wales conditions. A wiki has been used to facilitate this collaboration, and other web 2.0 developments have been added to the site to increase usability and effectiveness. This builds on other state wide collaborations including a wiki, blogs and forums. This paper will discuss the collaborations of people and technology to achieve a sustainable training tool for New South Wales public libraries.