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Geraldine King

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 4 months ago

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 23, 1936, Dr. Geraldine Beaty King has been on the forefront of reference librarianship for more than forty years. This long journey in librarianship began in 1962 when Dr. King obtained her Master’s in Library Science from the University of Minnesota and has continued to the present where she holds the position of Associate Professor on the faculty at the College of St. Catherine in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

 

EDUCATION

Grinnell College: 1954-1958, B.A

University of Minnesota: 1958-1962, M.A; 1967-1971, PhD. Dissertation: Attitudes of Library School Students Towards Reference Librarians and Library Information Service

 

PROFESSIONAL DETAILS

Throughout her career, in addition to being a prolific writer, Dr. King has held several positions of note in the fields of education, public librarianship and reference services. From 1964-1967 she was employed within the University of Minnesota as a lecturer and Associate Professor. She left the realm of academia in the 1970s and began an extended residence at the Ramsey County Public Library where she served as both the Head of Reference and the Associate Director. During this period, Dr. King also served as an editor for Reference Quarterly (1976-1979). From 1981-1982 she held the prestigious position of American Library Association Reference and Adult Services Division (ALA RASD) President and she served on the Board of Directors. Dr. King returned to academia in the early 1992 when she accepted the position of Associate Professor, teaching public service courses, at the College of St. Catherine, a small, Catholic, all-women's university.

 

NOTABLE WORKS – listed chronologically

 

King, Geraldine B. "The Reference Interview: Open and Closed Questions." RQ 12 (Winter 1972): 157-160.

 

King, Geraldine, and Berry, Rachel. "Evaluation of the University of Minnesota Library Reference Department Telephone Information Service: A Pilot Study." Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1973.

 

King, Geraldine. "Try It--You'll Like It: A Comprehensive Management Information System for Reference Services." Reference Librarian 3 (1982): 71-78.

 

King, Geraldine. Managing Employee Performance. Chicago: ALA Office of Library Personnel Resources, 1988.

 

King, Geraldine, and Mahmoodi, Suzanne H. Peer Performance Appraisal of Reference Librarians in a Public Library. In Evaluation of Public Services and Public Service Librarians. Urbana-Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science, 1991.

 

 

King, Geraldine. “Women Library Users and Library Users of Traditional Women’s Subjects,” The Reference Librarian number 49/50 (1995), 179-193.

 

CONTRIBUTIONS TO REFERENCE LIBRARIANSHIP

 

While Dr. King has involved herself in many facets of the field of librarianship she is, perhaps, best recognized for her contribution to defining criteria for the reference interview in her 1972 article “The Reference Interview: Open and Closed Questions.” Pellegrino and Richardson (2004,1999) write that, in this piece, Dr. King notes the differences between open-ended and closed-ended interview strategies, identifying the open-ended question as far superior in assisting a library patron in his or her reference question. The conclusions she draws in this paper have greatly affected the way in which library professionals have approached the reference interview by providing a model for the most efficient and effective means to answer a reference question.

 

CONCLUSIONS

 

What is most compelling about Dr. King’s career is not the length of time she has spent in librarianship, nor the breadth of materials she has produced, but Dr. King’s ability to maintain both the sensibility of the librarian as an academic/educator and the librarian as one who must be at the service of the public. It is rare that one finds a professional in the field of librarianship who has not only taught at the university level, but has worked at the reference desk.

 

Shannon M. O'Neill


 

WORKS CITED

 

“Geraldine King” In Who’s Who in Library and Information Services. Lee, Joel M., ed. Chicago: American Library Association, 1982

 

Pellegrino, Catherine A. (2004). Reference Interview Strategies In Virtual (“Chat”) Reference: Effect of Open Questions (Master’s thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004). Accessed 1 Nov 2006. http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:8Yu3wuVY7XcJ:etd.ils.unc.edu/dspace/bitstream/1901/26/1/catherinepellegrino.pdf+%22geraldine+b.+king%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=12&client=firefox-a#22

 

Richardson, John V. "Understanding Reference Transactions." Accessed 30 Oct 2006. http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/dis220/urt.htm

 

Richardson, John V. Understanding the Reference Transaction: A Systems Analysis Perspective. Accessed 1 Nov 2006. Electronic version . College and Research Libraries, 60, 216.

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