The Reference Question--Where has Reference Been? Where is Reference Going? Session Format: Panel Session Track: Libraries and the Imagination Friday, March 30    8:30 AM - 9:30 AM     Session Number/Code: PN Room:  Baltimore Convention Center – 318-323 Presenter(s): James  Rettig  University Librarian, University of Richmond  Jerry Campbell President, Claremont School of Theology  William  Miller Ph.D,, M.L Director of Libraries, Florida Atlantic University  Cheryl  LaGuardia  Research Librarian, Harvard College Library  Brian  Mathews  User Experience Librarian, Georgia Tech Library  Program Description: Fifteen years ago technological innovation challenged librarians to “rethink reference.” What has driven change—strategic decisions made by librarians, external forces, or some combination of the two? How must reference change to thrive during the next fifteen years? Learning Objectives Attendees will learn whether changes in reference service in the past fifteen years resulted more from external pressures or from deliberate decisions made by reference practitioners and library administrators. Attendees will learn what challenges—in technology, from competitors, from changes in user expectations—reference service faces. Attendees will be able to develop for themselves scenarios about the future of reference service, how it will or must change to survive and thrive, or how it might weaken and die.