The Reference Interviews of LIBNAME - Assignment Example

The Reference Interviews of LIBNAME Reference Interviews LIBNAME usually started the reference interviews by clarifying what the patron was asking about. Each time a patron came up with a question, she would essentially repeat their question back to them, sometimes worded slightly differently, to make sure she knew what it was the patron was trying to get help with. This seemed to sometimes make things easier to find, because what the patron really was asking about was not always what they had initially said. After LIBNAME had a clear idea of what the real question was, she usually asked the patron if they had started doing research yet, or if they were coming to the reference desk first. The responses were about half and half on this. Some patrons had tried to look for information on their own but failed, and others had not even gotten started yet. When the patron had already looked, she asked them where they had looked and if they could give her a rough idea of what they had tried looking for when they did. If they had not started yet, she usually asked them if they knew anything about the topic already. Since LIBNAME works on a general reference desk, there were times when she did not know much about a subject. She would inform the patron about this before she got started, and if there was another librarian who might be able to help them more, she gave the patron their contact information but did not tell them to come back later. In these cases she would still offer them research assistance, and usually they still seemed to think that she had helped them somehow. However, in one case (stock market data) she simply redirected them to the business librarian for assistance because she said she knew nothing about it. If the patron said they had no real idea about what the topic involved, she directed them to a basic resource like an encyclopedia or introductory reference work before continuing with the research part of the reference interview. This, she said, would help them to get an idea of the kinds of issues usually associated with any given toipc, and would make the rest of the research process a lot easier. If patrons were looking for a specific book, and did not have a research question, LIBNAME showed them how to use the library’s OPAC to find the book if it was available. If it was not available at the university library, she would instead show them to worldcat.org and see if the book was available somewhere else nearby. She made sure to tell patrons that they would need to be a member at the library to get it, and a few patrons seemed kind of confused by this. Sources and Research LIBNAME used a variety of different sources, based on the complexity of the question and also on how comfortable she appeared to feel with the topic. For questions where she was not a subject expert, she tended to use broader resources like Academic Search Premier or even Google. A few times she actually brought up Wikipedia, which she mentioned could be a good place to get keywords that are useful in searching. She never gave students information directly from Wikipedia, however, but scanned for keywords to put into research databases or pointed out books on the subject listed under the “references” or “reading list” sections of the Wikipedia pages. Most of the sources LIBNAME used were databases that the university subscribes to. She would usually start off searching based as a keyword search and then explain to the students why this was not always the best way to go, since it brings back a lot of unrelated results. Then she would show them how to figure out what subject terms to use in that specific database, and suggest a few to try. After this she retried her original search using a subejct search instead of a keyword search. Once she had showed the student this, she picked an article at random from the list of results, or found one that seemed to be useful. She clicked into the description of the article and showed the student how they could use the information there (e.g. the subject list) to find more articles that were similar. Sources Used JSTOR Academic Search Premier Science Direct Wilson Omnifile Google Wikipedia Library Catalog Manner with Patrons LIBNAME was always polite to the patrons who asked her questions, although there were not really any rude or difficult ones there during the times I was shadowing her. She did not project an air of being interrupted or annoyed by having to help students with their research even when the questions they asked or the problems they had were relatively basic ones. A few times she would stop mid-sentence to ask if another patron in line had a simple question or not, and if they did she would answer it before returning to the patron she was helping. This was a bit disconcerting and could probably be handled a bit better. Otherwise, though, LIBNAME was very personable to the students she was helping. Even in the cases where she broke off mid-sentence, she did not really seem rude about it, just a little bit distracted. Throughout the interviews I watched she seemed genuinely interested in helping the patrons, but she also made sure to be friendly by joking a little bit about some of the research databases’ layouts. Reference Questions Asked Where is the men’s/women’s restroom? (a few times) – directional Where can I check out books? (a few times) – directional Where are the computers/printers? (a few times) – directional Is this the archives? – directional What time do you close? (a few times) – ready-reference Do you have a biography of Nikola Tesla? – ready-reference Do you have stock market data? – ready-reference Can I get A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare? – ready-reference I need to write a paper about child health services. Where are your journals on that? – research Do you have articles about the effects of global warming on the environment? – research I want to look up information about Feminism and Art. – research I need to find a book on homeless. – research Overall Evaluation A few places LIBNAME could focus on are her tendency to break off in the middle of a sentence if someone else approaches the desk. She sometimes moved a little fast for the patron as well, and didn’t seem to notice unless they asked a question about what she had just done. In general, though, I felt that the quality of the service LIBNAME provided was pretty good. She made sure that the patron’s question had been answered, and often provided additional resources they could try, or general advice on researching as well. Usually when she was walking through the research process she made sure to explain what she was doing instead of just doing it. Sometimes, though, there was a line and she was not able to spend a whole lot of time with each individual person. LIBNAME was polite and professional, but also seemed to interact well with the patrons outside of just doing her job. Read More