Christopher W. Nolan Assistant University Librarian Coates Library, Trinity University  San Antonio, Texas

Areas of responsibility:

	administration of public services, including our Library's Help Desk activities, reference collection development, and Circulation
	liaison assistance for the Departments of Religion, Health Care Administration, Computer Science, and Business Administration, including presentations to classes in these departments
	digital services, including our integrated library system, web site, and Information Commons.

Major Projects

Reference collections have always been important resources for serving library users, but our professional literature has been lacking a thorough overview of how such a collection is best developed and managed.  I have written a book, Managing the Reference Collection, (American Library Association, 1999), which provides a comprehensive look at this essential yet rapidly changing library resource (view the table of contents and the C&RL News review or some reviews collected at Barnes and Noble's website). A particular focus is the integration of electronic resources with more traditional reference titles.  Other ongoing projects include the writing of reviews for both traditional reference books (over 125 published in American Reference Books Annual since 1984) and Internet resources, as well as consulting with several publishers on reference projects.

Other Research Interests

I've been particularly interested in how people use libraries and how librarians can provide better service to their users. Nonlibrarians (and some librarians, no doubt) often underestimate the complexities of the interactions that occur between reference librarians and users looking for help. We reference people listen to your description of what you'd like to know or find (which by its nature is often something you don't yet know!), ask questions, and decide what approaches will uncover appropriate information in our collections or online resources. I'm interested in seeing that we minimize the percentage of the time that this doesn't actually work. Here are some of my publications that have looked at facets of this problem (abstracts are available):

"Closing the Reference Interview." Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science v. 56 (M. Dekker, 1995), p. 74-85.

"Closing the Reference Interview: Implications for Policy and Practice," RQ 31: 513-23 (Summer 1992).

"The Lean Reference Collection: Improving Functionality Through Selection and Weeding," College & Research Libraries 52: 80-91 (January 1991).

"Undergraduate Use of Government Documents in the Social Sciences," Government Publications Review 13: 415-30 (July/August 1986).

Other publications of mine include:

“User Demands and Library Policies—Strategies to Resolve Conflict,” Informed Librarian Online January 2005.  Available: 
 http://www.informedlibrarian.com/guestForum.cfm?FILE=gf0501.html

“Tenure Track or Tenure Trap.” In Priscilla K. Shontz, ed. The Librarian's Career Guidebook. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004, pp. 281-290.

"Astronomy." In Every Student's Internet Resource Guide, ed. Sara Amato. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996.

Evaluation of Library Instruction Librarians and Programs: Case Studies. Chicago: Continuing Education Comm., Library Instruction Round Table, ALA, 1991. (Editor of this casebook and author of the case, "Faculty Evaluation of Bibliographic Instruction," pp. 17-21.)

Biographical Information

Education

M.L.S., University of California at Los Angeles

M.A., Philosophy of Religion and Theology, Claremont School of Theology

B.A., Religion, Texas Christian University

Previous Library Positions

Interim Library Director, Trinity University

Interim Manager of Digital Support, Trinity University

Head of Reference, Trinity University

Coordinator of Bibliographic Instruction, University of Utah

Reference/Instruction Librarian, UCLA

Last revised March 29, 2005.