Building Effective Reference Services

1. Building Effective Reference Services Roy Tennant

2. Outline • Classic Methods : • In-person • Telephone • E-mail • Moving Reference to the Web • Why? • Visions from Early Days • Technologies and Techniques • Winning Strategies

3. Considered essential by most libraries Benefits: Personal, highly interactive Can share collection No technology needed Drawbacks: Users increasingly remote and/or online Requires coming to the library In-Person Reference

4. Telephone Reference • Also considered essential by most libraries • Benefits: • Personal, highly interactive • Usually considered part of a staffed reference desk • Drawbacks: • Cannot share collection or databases • Remote/online users cannot always call (may be using the phone line to be on the Internet)

5. E-Mail Reference

6. Email Reference Issues • Benefits: • Easy to offer (put up a form…) • Drawbacks: • Time delay, cannot help at the point of need (major user’s concern) • Difficulty in conducting a reference interview (major librarian’s concern) • Cannot share collection very effectively

7. Moving Reference to the Web

8. The Problem • Most catalogs and search systems are difficult to understand and use • Users need help at the moment they get stuck — email is inadequate • Unless assistance is obvious and convenient, the user will remain stuck • Other, readily available information sources can be convenient but inadequate (e.g., Google) • We must be “in their face” [Anne Lipow]

10. Visions from Early Days

13. Virtual Reference Technologies • Chat • Form sharing • Co-browsing • File transfer • Whiteboard • Highlighting • Voice over IP

14. Current Software Options • OCLC’s QuestionPoint (recently purchased the 24/7 product) • Tutor.com (recently purchased LSSI’s product) • Docutek’s VRLPlus

15. Virtual Reference Librarian Plus (VRLPlus) from Docuteck Full disclosure: I’m on the Docutek’s Advisory Board

21. Virtual Reference Issues • No visual cues • Not everyone is articulate (or fast) at a keyboard • It is difficult to say “look at this” for print materials • Software issues (database authentication, usability, etc.)

22. How to Fail • Under commit • Over expect (e.g., immediate, dramatic success) • Deploy poorly

23. Winning Strategies • Establish protocols (what to answer, when and how to refer, etc.) • Create a common digital “ready reference” collection for digital reference librarians • Provide multiple and/or large monitors • Consider new staffing models • Train all participants • Solve the “where’s the bathroom” problem

24. Winning Strategies • Create a directory of reference network member library web sites and catalogs • Create cheat sheets for searching catalog systems of member sites, common databases, etc. • Set up librarian workstations to scan and share pages from print materials • Perform effective triage

25. Winning Strategies • Support • Administration • Staffing • Promote • Integrate

26. Promotion

34. Questions to Ask • How can we provide the best reference service for our users? • Where will our time/money/effort do the most good? • Are we overlooking new ways of doing things that may be more effective?

35. Recap • Modern reference service offers a suite of techniques — use each technique as appropriate for your audience/purpose to create holistic reference services • No one said it was easy, since you are basically building the airplane while flying it