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Why do you ask? 3. The concept of reference workA fuzzy conceptLoans and visits are convenient concepts. A loan is defined by an entry in a data base. A visit is defined by crossing a barrier. Measuring reference is not that simple. Many patrons are unaware that libraries provide something called reference. They know that library staff, like normal adults, will respond to questions. They turn to information desks when they need help. But they do not define information and assistance as a professional service that involves exceptional skills. Borrowing a book from a library is both a social and a technical act. The social act of lending is completed when the book has been registered to the lender in the library system. The parties involved - lender and staff person - have a shared understanding of the process. They speak the same language. A loan is a loan is a loan. Reference transactions are much more open and fluid. "Reference" is not a user-friendly term. It belongs to the technical language of librarianship. For statistical purposes, Statens bibliotektilsyn - the Norwegian Directorate for Public Libraries, defines reference as:
Reference work is interactive: it starts with questions and leads to responses. But not every verbal exchange between user and staff counts as reference. Some questions are too routine or too trivial to be included. They belong to the helping function, but not to librarianship. This, I believe, is a crucial point. Professions are socially constructed. To survive as recognized and remunerated entities, they must occupy meaningful positions within the social division of labour. For many generations, reference has been one of the pillars of librarianship. But the pillar is sagging. Mass education and web technology make traditional reference services less unique. Customers manage more on their own. Reference staff is threatened by disintermediation. What`s so special about reference, anyway? The reference function needs reinforcement. A meaningful concept of reference must be linked to the special role of the library: to provide documents and skills that patrons cannot easily provide on their own. Standards and boundariesHelp desks are general service points. Anything goes. Some of the questions are routine: "what is the time?", "where is the coffee machine?", "how do I get a membership card?". Many are easy: "who wrote The Buddenbrooks?". "when was Thor Heyerdahl born", "what is graphite?". A few are demanding: "how do you carve a turkey?", "when was St. Jerome born?", "what is a buckyball?". But the boundary between the trivial and the professional is not signposted. The average customer is not aware of the transit from Routineland to Upper Reference. Only specialists can distinguish betweeen the two. And even professionals feel the strain. Library systems in several countries struggle with the measuring problem.
The Norwegian Authority excludes routine enquiries about location, library policy and services as well as technical instruction. But what about non-routine enquiries? The Authority includes questions that demand the use of library collections or the expertise of library staff. But what about questions that require the use of library collections without demanding the expertise of library staff? To count reference transactions properly we must draw a boundary between reference and non-reference that makes it easy to classify queries as they occur at the desk. The definition must work for different people in different libraries at different times. Faced with a series of questions they must sort them - roughly - into the same boxes. They must mean and do the same thing. This is a typical problem of standardization. For statistical purposes, the U.S. Association of Research Libraries (ARL) defines a reference transaction as
The transaction must involve
The ARL does not distinguish between simple and more demanding reference questions. But this is clearly an important issue when we plan work and allocate staff. Many information questions are routine in nature. Simple searches for facts or documents do not require the services of a trained librarian. They can be handled by a trainee or by a student worker with a few weeks of experience at the library in question. Most of them could, in fact, be managed by the users themselves. Warner (2001) gives a good analysis of the conceptual and technical problems involved in staffing a reference desk. Her organization - the Briscoe Library, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio - now uses four categories of questions:
Categories (1) and (2), which comprise between 80 and 90% of the number of queries, can be handled by paraprofessionals. But note that questions in categories (3) and (4), which require trained librarians, take more time. For planning in public libraries we would distinguish between three types of questions (Table C) Table C. Types of questions at information desks
Orientation questionsOrientation questions include general questions about the location of materials and about library systems and services. For instance:
Technical assistance with physical equipment - photocopiers, microform readers, PCs, CD players - also fall under this heading. Basic referenceMany questions require the use of library resources without demanding professional expertise. Some users are unable or unwilling to find information for themselves. They dislike catalogues, avoid encyclopedias, and cannot perform the simplest search on Internet. We define a search for facts as basic if it requires a single consultation of a basic source like Britannica or Google (information found on page one, among the first ten hits). A search for specific documents is basic if it requires a single search in the public library catalogue or from a standard web portal. Basic reference
Professional reference
As people become more familiar with the web, they learn to handle basic reference queries on their own. Many experienced searchers believe this is happening already. The visible decline in reference demand must be caused by the web. Information literacy make users independent. In the future, we suspect, people will only ask for help if they are beginners or if they face really difficult questions. The middle range of demand tends to disappear. Professional referenceProfessional work is specialised. Professions demand special skills and training. These are usually acquired through accredited programs of study. We define professional reference as questions that require more than routine use of basic library resources. They must also draw on the skills, the knowledge and the judgment provided by a library education. Some typical reference tasks are illustrated in Table D. Table D. Professional reference tasks
We would normally classify a search as demanding if the average searcher must consult several different standard sources, speak with colleagues or subject experts, apply specialized search tools or refer the question to institutions outside the library. We consider even simple subject searches to be professional reference work, since the results must be adapted to the specific needs and abilities of the user. Defining these tasks as professional does not mean that only librarians can undertake such work. Experienced library assistants can have advanced reference skills. Nor does it mean that all librarians are, necessarily, well qualified for such tasks. But these are the kind of skills a good library education will provide. They illustrate the level of expertise we would expect from a professional librarian. |