Do reference librarians also find new ways to collaborate with patrons online (via social networking/blogs/etc?

or is that reserved to techy people on staff at libraries?

I am very interested in becoming a reference librarian, and planning on master’s school next year. I’m in the midst of writing my statement of purpose, and trying to really pin down why I’m going and what I want to do after library school. I’m also eager to use my web-saavy skills to improve library services, but also really want to be a reference librarian. Are these two mutually exclusive? Or is it part of the job description nowadays?

Part of the job description for sure. You’ll find a lot of libraries have blogs, facebook pages, myspace pages, sometimes even chat rooms for asking questions and various other web 2.0 stuff. It’s becoming a very big part of libraries and librarians are having to keep up with new technologies in order to make their services relevant.