Strategic Planning for Reference in a Team Environment: the Preferred Futuring Model

The USC Libraries Reference Environment

USC is a large research institution located in the heart of Los Angeles with 33,000 students, 4,300 faculty, and more than 14,000 full-time staff. The library system supports the research and information needs of the USC scholars and consists of eighteen libraries with specialized collections located on the main campus. Historically, they have been operated, managed, and have functioned independently. Each library planned and offered information services based on their users needs and not necessarily in accordance with other subject libraries; therefore the reference services offered were decentralized. Librarians in each library set reference service parameters and standards and provided services to their users. As a result, the librarians were in some respects isolated from each other and not necessarily consistent in the service levels offered.

In 2003, realignment of library services brought about the formation of interdisciplinary teams, the coordination of libraries’ core services through appropriate coordinators (reference, instruction, and collection development) within the team model, and the creation of five interdisciplinary reference service desks. In response to this new structure, coordinators for key library services were assigned: collection coordinators, instruction coordinators, and reference coordinators. The team model grouped individuals in specialized disciplines concerned with acquiring and providing access to discipline specific materials.⁸ Based on the team model, team members from each team now contribute to in-person, phone, e-mail, and chat reference services.

Virtual reference services at USC developed through participation in the Online Computer Library Center’s Collaborative Digital Reference Services beta test in 2000–01 and QuestionPoint’s beta test. USC’s University Libraries launched the QuestionPoint Ask-A-Librarian Web-based e-mail and chat reference service in fall 2002. The original service team comprised seven service providers offering 22 hours per week of chat and 24/7 e-mail service with a 24-hour turnaround. By spring of 2004, the number of service providers had grown to twenty-two. The gradual but steady increase in service volume can be largely attributed to the strategic repositioning of virtual reference into our new team-based environment that has facilitated shared service provision.

The main goal for the organizational realignment was to meet the challenges of the University’s Strategic Plan and the Information Services Division Information Pathways, especially the first three pathways:

Pathway 1: Improve seamless access to customer-driven collection of print and electronic resources.
Pathway 2: Create interdisciplinary centers as physical and electronic magnets for educational and research excellence, including facilities for graduate and professional needs.
Pathway 3: Build an electronic “virtual campus” infrastructure that connects faculty and students for cam-pus-based teaching, research, and services for reaching larger regional and global community beyond our campuses.⁹

The reference coordinators’ mandate was to plan and coordinate reference services across the campus libraries and the interdisciplinary teams. Since the opening of Leavey Library in 1994, two different reference service models existed at USC Library system. On the one hand, subject libraries provided traditional reference and research services; on the other hand, the Leavey Library Information Commons presented a unique and an integrated service model providing research and computing consultation to library users from the same desk. The Information Commons reference service desk offers a tiered service model that pairs librarians and highly trained and skilled “student navigation assistants” to provide reference computing services in an integrated service environment. The student navigation assistants provide the first-tier assistance in reference and software applications in a 24/7 service schedule while librarians provide in-depth research consultation. The Leavey Library was conceived as a library for lower division undergraduates who would migrate to specialized subject libraries by their upper division years. Indeed, the notion of “gateway library” was the key concept in this service approach.

The main challenges for the reference coordinators were to plan and develop reference service goals for teams. The proposed goals would allow the four core interdisciplinary center reference service points, Doheny, VonKleinSmid, Science and Engineering, and Special Collections, to integrate the benefits of the tiered reference model in Leavey Libray within their unique environments. Also, the proposed plan would allow centralized service activities that included in-person, e-mail, and virtual chat reference. The Preferred Futuring approach to planning seemed ideal for envisioning integration of reference services in this complex environment.

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