NASIG 2026

In this talk, Raina Bloom, Reference Services Coordinator for UW-Madison Libraries, will begin with two foundational questions. First, what do librarians know through the work that we do? And, second, what is the purpose of knowing what we know?

Librarians are highly-regarded, trusted, and even beloved, yet misunderstandings about our expertise and skills are common. Additionally, when librarians assert our expertise, negative reactions can range from silence to significant personal and professional consequences. The gap between the general perception of our work and the implications of our expertise can lead to dissonance and difficulty for librarians. 

With The Five Laws of Library Science, S.R. Ranganathan’s 1931 classic of Library and Information Studies as her theoretical frame, Bloom will offer a practice-based analysis of the expertise that librarians develop through our work. She will then apply this analysis to our current moment, sharing examples related to generative AI and reference services, illustrating the potential of librarian expertise to interrupt and complicate broader understandings about information and how people interact with it.