Building Effective Reference Services

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Building Effective Reference Services

• Roy Tennant

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Outline

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

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In-Person Reference

• 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

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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)

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E-Mail Reference
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Email Reference Issues

• Benefits
• Easy to offer (put up a form)
• Drawbacks
• Time delay, cannot help at the point of need
  (major users concern)
• Difficulty in conducting a reference interview
  (major librarians concern)
• Cannot share collection very effectively

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Moving Reference to the Web
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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

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Visions from Early Days
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Virtual Reference Technologies

• Chat
• Form sharing
• Co-browsing
• File transfer
• Whiteboard
• Highlighting
• Voice over IP

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Current Software Options

• OCLCs QuestionPoint (recently purchased the 24/7
  product)
• Tutor.com (recently purchased LSSIs product)
• Docuteks VRLPlus

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Virtual Reference Librarian Plus (VRLPlus) from
Docuteck

• Full disclosure Im on the Docuteks Advisory
  Board

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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.)

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How to Fail

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

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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 wheres the bathroom problem

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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

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Winning Strategies

• Support
• Administration
• Staffing
• Promote
• Integrate

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Promotion
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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?

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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

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