Reference Services, Chapter 1

I’ve been thinking for a while how to pass on the information from this class and finally decided just to share my notes (and thoughts) chapter by chapter. So here’s chapter 1.

Chapter 1 - Reference Service Overview

Reference service consists of four major activities: Ÿ

1. Answering patron questionsŸ
2. Teaching how to use the libraryŸ
3. Advising users (recommending materials)Ÿ
4. Promoting the library and its services within the community

There are several different methods of evaluating the effectiveness of a reference transaction. The four methods discussed in this class are obtrusive, unobtrusive, willingness to return, and WOREP.

Obtrusive – The librarian is observed while working with patrons. The observer listens to the question and follows the librarian through the reference process, but does not intervene.

Unobtrusive – The librarian is asked test questions by observers posing as patrons. The answers to the test questions are known by the evaluator, who then determines the accuracy of the response. This study may be conducted by phone, email or instant messaging as well as in person.

Willingness to return – Actual patrons are asked to evaluate how well the librarian met their information needs. This method focuses on “willingness to return: -- whether or not the patron would return to the same librarian with a future question.

WOREP – The Wisconsin-Ohio Reference Evaluation Program is a two-part survey form used for rating the accuracy of a reference transaction. One part is completed by the librarian, one part by the patron. The data is analyzed by computer, which matches the librarian and patron responses. To be considered accurate, both the patron and the librarian must indicate that the question was answered correctly and completely.

Here are a couple of things that particularly interested me in this chapter:

Both unobtrusive evaluation and the WOREP, which measure the accuracy of a transaction, indicate that no matter what type or size library is tested, the average performance of a reference librarian is to answer 55% of the questions correctly.

Willingness to return studies show that patron satisfaction does NOT depend on the accuracy of the information received. A study at the University of Michigan showed that patrons who get a wrong answer – and know for a fact that they received the wrong answer – are still willing to return if the librarian was personable, helpful, and made a strong effort to answer the question. The study also showed that patrons who get the right answer are not willing to return if they perceive the librarian as arrogant, uninterested, or unhelpful.