Library Visit Assignment

An observation and personal experience of evaluating reference librarians at

Buley library & Trumbull library

Submitted by

Hanem A. Ibrahim

ILS-504-S70

Dr. Elsie Okobi

Fall 2009

Date of Submission

September 26, 2009

Introduction

Reference interview is more an art than a science (Cassell, 2006: 15) It requires reacting
quickly, strongly, and positively to all different circumstances or events that form the
environment within the library, where patrons always need help. Each reference interview will
be different since each user and each question is different, the good reference librarian who can
react with all these differences strongly, and positively otherwise he or she will lose patrons
‘trust, and that is a big responsibility. With no mistakes, more focusing, the reference librarian
will be the solution for any problem patrons could face. Helping patrons and giving them the
feeling of satisfaction worth all the hard working of the librarian.

In this assignment, I’m going to have the opportunity to write about how reference librarians
served me or the others patrons, I’ll record my observation, and my personal experience with
them. I used the five main areas addressed in the RUSA guidelines (RUSA, 2004) as the basis
for my observations, and my personal experience, these guidelines are: (Approachability,
Interest, Listening/Inquiring, Searching, and Follow Up). I visited Buley Library (as an academic
library) and Trumbull Library (as a public library) and did the observation of reference interview
with the reference librarians of both libraries. I also discussed how the reference librarians at
both libraries are following the criteria for good reference behaviors, and services.
Reference interviews (Observations)

1- Approachability
The RUSA Guidelines state that staff behaviors should serve to welcome the patrons and to place
them at ease. As long as I was watching users coming or going to the reference desk, the
librarians at both libraries (Buley, and Trumbull) I noticed that the reference desk was easy to
locate, and patrons who need help could easily find their way to reference librarian. I noticed
also that there were one or two friendly librarians were welcoming all patrons with a nice smile
that encourages patrons to approach and ask their questions.
2- Interest
A successful librarian must demonstrate a high degree of interest in the reference transaction.
And that was what I noticed while I was watching reference librarian in both libraries, the
librarians showed interests in each patron's informational need , They were always facing the
patron when speaking and listening. I felt that the librarian were showing their willing to help, I
noticed that they were trying to communicate with their patrons using all kind of verbal and non-
verbal interactions, they were talking and signaling (pointing to the places where patrons should
go to find their information) they were moving around to find the appropriate printed reference
material from the ready to use reference collection near their desk, or through the internet, I saw
them also walking with patrons to help them with finding some library materials, or fixing any
problem with the internet workstation, I noticed that if both librarians were busy helping other
patrons, they acknowledged others waiting for service by giving them an eye or word contact, or
hand signal to show them that they knew about them, and they will be served as soon as they
finished with the others, that happened especially when the librarians were answering telephone
calls, that will help the waiting patron not to feel board while waiting.

3- Listening/Inquiring.
According to RUSA guidelines, “the librarian must be effective in identifying the patron’s
information needs. Strong listening and questioning skills are necessary for a positive interaction.
Because I couldn’t hear the conversations between the librarians and their patrons I couldn’t say if the
questions asked by patrons were clear and understandable by the librarians or not but I felt like the
librarian were trying to listen to their patrons and they might tried to identify the needs of their patrons by
asking them more questions to lead them to the answers,.

4- Searching

The guidelines state, “Many of the aspects of searching that lead to accurate results are still
dependent on the behavior of the librarian.” There were different search process used by the reference
librarian; at Trumbull library, I saw one of the librarians was helping an old patron searching for
something inside one of the reference collection (dictionary, or encyclopedia) They were also
lending some of their own reference collection (ready to use) at reference desk to some patrons
to use in inside the library and return them back to them after they finished.

At both libraries, reference librarians were trying to search the web for their patrons to find any
suitable information through the net.

5- Follow-up

That is the final and the most important point from all the RUSA guidelines, because it includes
the final reaction from both the librarians and the patrons, and if the librarians succeeded to
follow this guideline, they‘ll guarantee that the patrons will come back again and they will be
happy to be served by them. It is important to show the patrons your interest even after you
finish with them. Following up encourages patrons to return if they have any further questions,
referring them to other sources or institutions, and consulting other librarians or experts in the
field also can help. Through my observation for the reference interviews at both libraries, I
noticed that all them ended from patrons with the word “thank you” or ” thanks anyway” that
mean the librarian did satisfy their patrons, or at least made them feel that they did their best to
do so. I couldn’t recognize if the librarians asked patrons whether or not their questions have
been completely answered. I saw some patrons were coming back to the same librarian in each
library for more help, but I didn’t see the librarians go to the patrons to follow up if they are
satisfied with their services.

Reference interview (Personal Experience)

1- My reference Interview at Buley library

Because of my own background, and the lack of experience dealing with the whole
library system at Buley library as a new student with some language difficulties, the librarians at
Buley library tried to understand and respect my culture, they helped me when I had trouble
asking questions, so I always find my way to the reference librarians to ask them for help, I
found most of them were nice and easy to deal with, I learned a lot from them, they taught me
how to use the library web site and lots of other searching methods.

The problem in this experiment was that I hadn’t much to ask them to help me with for this
specific assignment. The difference between this interview and the past personal interviews was
that I was doing this interview after I knew all about the reference interview criteria they should
follow, I concentrated more on evaluating their behavior, not on my question, I was not asking
them for help as a patron only, but I also was judging and evaluating them at the same time.
After I did the observation, I preferred not to introduce myself and ask them about this
assignment, I didn’t want any special treatment, so I asked one of them about how to locate some
unavailable books within the library stock

As soon as I approached the reference desk the reference librarian welcomed me with a
comfortable question (How can I help you?) She succeeded to identify my question, by asking
me about the subject I was looking for. I felt like she understood my question, which made me
feel comfortable, and open the door for me to discuss more relative information about my
question.

The librarians should establish initial eye contact with patrons, and demonstrate interest
to their question. The librarian was facing me while I was speaking to her in the beginning and
she was listening to my question, and then she was busy with the computer searching, she
referred me first to the online library catalog trying to find more resources for me that would
answer my question.

The reference librarian should have strong listening skills, and that affected my personal
interview with the reference librarian at “Buley” I told the librarian that I did the same catalog
searching she was doing for me, but she seemed like she didn’t listen carefully to what I said. I
repeated my first question again and explained to her that some resources were not available to
user, they are in (library stock) I referred her to the searching I was doing, and pointed to one of
the computer units near the reference desk where I was sitting , but she didn’t move from her
desk to see what I’m talking about, she only gave me a request form to order this item which I
was looking for, and told me that I should give her back that request form after I fill it out.

As I got more familiar with the library resources available online, I always do the online
searching by myself first before I ask the librarian, and that what most of students do, so in my
opinion the first question should be asked by reference librarians at the academic libraries is
“Did you try to search for your question before?”If the answer is “Yes” the librarian should start
from what the users ended up with , because it will be wasting the time and efforts. The librarian
didn’t ask me that question, she went on searching on her computer, and it was her first tool to
help me with. I let her start from the beginning, and I waited till she got the results, I thought it
might be different than what I did before, but it was the same, she didn’t try to go through all of
them like I did, and she gave up from the first page of the results, unfortunately , that was
wasting of my time, she didn’t add anything new to my searching, and she also didn’t introduce
any other searching tools beside the library catalog.

The reference transaction does not end when the librarian leaves the patrons. The
librarian is responsible for determining if the patrons are satisfied with the results of the search, e
librarian also is responsible for referring the patrons to other sources, even when those sources
are not available at their local library.

After I thanked the librarian when she gave me that form, I didn’t feel satisfied, however I got
an answer to how to locate that unavailable items, but I expected more than that. As a good
reference librarian, she should come with me to see the search I was doing and she might come
up with another suggestion that would help me better than filling that form and waiting more
days to get it. After I thanked her, and returned back to my seat, she didn’t get back to me to
see if that all what I needed? She didn’t offer any more interest after I left , also she didn’t ask
about the request form which I didn’t fill it out, and she didn’t follow up by asking me "How is
your search going?" or Is there anything I could do for you? That might encouraged me to ask
for more assistance.

2- My reference Interview at Trumbull library

Reference librarians at public libraries should have special skills to respond to all the
information needed by the members of their community, they should have the most current
reference materials that help their patrons. For my face to face interview with Trumbull
reference librarian I chose a ask a question concerning the information about Trumbull, I asked
the librarian on duty an open –ended question ( it is also true) : “ I want to buy a house in
Trumbull, what information could help me to know more about the houses in Trumbull, and
about the town?”I thought with that question, I could get the most complete information I could
ask for.

As I mentioned before there were two available reference librarians at the reference desk,
which is located in a special place inside Trumbull library, they were greeting and welcoming
their patrons with a nice smile. The librarian offered me her help, and encouraged me to ask that
questions.

The librarian should ask patrons to clarify their word if they didn’t hear them well. That
what happened when I first asked my question, the librarian asked me to repeat my question
again to make sure she listened to my question correct. I thought she heard all the words of my
question, but she concentrated only on the last part of my question, which is the information
about the town, and that distracted her from following up what she heard when I answered “No”
to her closed- ended question: “Did you try looking at the real state web pages for house on
sail?” That “No” didn’t stop her from searching for the missing pamphlet she was looking for,
she was talking to the other librarian who was listening to our conversation, trying to find the
latest information about the town of Trumbull but online. I was focusing with the first librarian
who was helping me, and I didn’t get the chance to know how the other librarian was doing to
get that information from the web.
 Acting quickly to answer my question didn’t show that she was interesting to help me,
because she was not facing me while I was answering her closed- ended question. She didn’t
focus her attention on me while I was answering her, I added that I need more than looking in
Real State web sites, but she didn’t show her interest in that by asking more and more questions
to clarify what I really wanted, she was trying to find all the available reference resources they
have at the reference desk, and also she didn’t ask me why I didn’t search for houses online?

I expected that the reference librarians at Trumbull library would have more information
about their local area than what I could get from any other resources. I didn’t ask for specific
information, I left that opened to give them the chance to give me all what they have either from
the library resources they have at the reference desk, or from the library databases, or from their
experience as reference librarian dealing with all what belongs to the town, I thought I’ll leave
the reference desk with all the information and resources that would satisfy me, they handed me
couple pamphlets about Trumbull, and a map, but no information about the houses in Trumbull,
they tried hard to find the latest statistics about Trumbull, but that was part of my searching
topic, and they didn’t teach me how to get these information online, these general pamphlet
were not the right reference materials for my question.

The lack of follow- up after providing the resources is a critical error, because follow- up
questions is really important to end the reference interview with the patrons in a right way. After
the librarian offered me these free pamphlets, she didn’t follow- up by asking me if that
information I received were helping me. Also she didn’t ask me if I need anything else they
could help me with. After she handed these pamphlets to me she ended the interview
prematurely. I didn’t feel comfortable to continue that interview with her, I stayed one more hour
after that at the library to check any important information from these pamphlets but I couldn’t
find much, and no one come to offer any further assistance.

Conclusion

The starting and the closing of a reference interview are highly specialized art, and once
the patrons approached the reference desk asking for help, they have to feel comfortable, and
confident that they will have their questions been answered by the reference librarians, and once
it has been confirmed that they have all the information they asked for, the reference interview
would succeed to build more trust between the library and their patrons, then the visit to the
library would be the best way to feed the patrons with the information they desired.

In this assignment I was the judge and the patron at the same time ; I‘ve never evaluated
reference librarians before, I used to ask them any questions I had trouble finding their answers
by myself, I’d be happy if they helped me finding the satisfying answer, but if not I never asked
myself why? I might not go back to the same librarian to ask him or her any question in the
future, but again I didn’t know why. Now after I knew all about the reference guideline and the
criteria for good reference behavior and services, I found out the answer for those “Whys”. The
evaluation experience I gained from this assignment will help me a lot if I had the chance to
work as a reference librarian, then I will be judged by myself before patrons judge me.

Reference :

1- Reference and User Services Association. (2004). Guidelines for Behavioral

Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers. Retrieved Sep. 25, 2009
from :
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rusa/resources/guidelines/guidelinesbehavioral.cfm
2- Cassell, K.A. & Hiremath, U. (2006) Reference and Information Services in the 21st
Century: An Introduction. New York: Neal-Shuman Publishers.
3- Do We All Look Alike? The Patrons View (2008) Retrieved on 09/ 23/ 09 from

http://www.librarystudentjournal.org/index.php/lsj/article/viewArticle/96/174