Instructional Strategies for Digital Reference: Methods to Facilitate Student Learning

1. Catch Them Being Good

In digital reference transactions, librarians can actively reinforce the positive information-seeking behaviors students demonstrate. Librarians who acknowledge and compliment student behaviors achieve three goals. First, they reveal to students that information-seeking is not random, but rather has a logical problem-solving process. As a result, students feel reassured that they are taking steps to solve their information need. They also become aware—or are reminded—that there are frameworks upon which information is structured. Students can apply new knowledge of information structures to solve their information needs. Second, librarians who catch students being good provide positive reinforcement of skills. Students feel that the information expert recognizes their hard work and that the information search they conducted before contacting a librarian was useful. Even students who have not engaged in preliminary information-seeking before contacting a librarian can be praised for their decision to seek expert assistance! Third, providing positive reinforcement offers librarians a way to cement productive behaviors in the students’ minds and minimize their mistakes. As a result, when students look back on the information-seeking experience, they are more likely to recall the behaviors librarians wish them to add to their repertoire of information-seeking strategies.

2. Think Aloud

In the digital reference environment, librarians should make the effort to make their thoughts, as expert searchers, transparent to students through using think aloud techniques. Librarians who employ the think aloud strategy describe their cognitive process throughout the steps of the reference transaction. By making the effort to reveal internal thought processes, librarians achieve two important goals. First, thinking aloud allows students insight into the expert information-seeking process of librarians. Students can learn how librarians define an information need, or which tools librarians use and why they use them. They can also learn how librarians evaluate the sources they find. This strategy allows students a window into the minds of information professionals as they wrestle with information needs. Students can seek clarification, ask questions, and compare their own techniques with those the librarian suggests. Second, by making the information-seeking process transparent to students, librarians can share not only their successful strategies, but also their failures. In many cases, failed information-seeking strategies are even more instructive to students than successful ones. When a strategy fails, librarians are placed in situations students often encounter. However, librarians can reveal strategies for coping with failure by thinking aloud about why the strategy failed, what needs to be adjusted, and when to try an entirely new technique. Students share the journey and can benefit from witnessing the struggle. Finally, because students often save the transcripts of digital reference transactions, students can “replay” their conversation with a librarian whenever they encounter similar information needs. Consequently, librarians should not hesitate to put energy and enthusiasm into their digital reference transactions—their words may live on far longer than they think!

3. Show, Don’t Tell

In digital reference transactions, reference librarians often have the opportunity both to describe the information-seeking process and to demonstrate it. While the think aloud technique highlights the importance of making expert information-seeking processes clear to novice library users, this strategy goes a step further. Whenever possible, librarians should show, not tell, students the steps of the information-seeking process. The options librarians have for showing students the information-seeking process vary depending on the technology used to provide digital reference service. This strategy may include “co-browsing” websites with students, “pushing” URLs or prepared materials (slides, audio files, or tutorials) to students, or encouraging students to open a browser window and follow along as the librarian completes a series of steps during the chat. Regardless of method, it is important to move beyond narrative to images and interaction. Librarians who use technology to engage students using visuals and real-time interactions achieve the important goal of addressing multiple learning styles. When librarians show, rather than tell, students how to proceed through the information-seeking process, they can appeal to multiple learning modalities. By addressing more than one learning style, students are more likely to internalize and retain the lessons they learn during the digital reference transaction.

4. Chunk It Up

In digital reference transactions, reference librarians should assist students with their immediate information needs and identify any additional steps students will face after the immediate need is met. Librarians may make students aware of future challenges and opportunities, offer advice, or—if students are ready to move to the next step—continue the reference transaction. During longer transactions, students may need time to work independently to complete a step. In such cases, librarians can “step out” of the conversation and reenter when students are ready to continue. When students complete their information-seeking process, librarians should encourage them to return to the digital reference service when a new need arises. Librarians who guide students to the next step of an information-seeking procedure reinforce the concept that information-seeking is a logical process and broaden students’ perspective beyond the current stage of their search.

5. Let Them Drive

Because students learn more quickly and thoroughly when they are actively engaged in the learning process, it’s important to “let them drive” during digital reference transactions. Librarians who employ this strategy can begin transactions by inviting students to describe or show what steps they’ve already taken in their information-seeking process. Throughout the reference transaction, librarians can encourage students to initiate actions while the librarian observes. The overriding principle for this strategy is to allow students to make decisions and take actions while librarians serve as guides who create connections, help students see patterns, ask relevant questions, and encourage reflection. Librarians who engage students in active learning achieve a number of goals. First, allowing students to drive provides librarians with the ability to view student information-seeking behaviors and identify areas to improve or reinforce. The observation of student behavior not only helps librarians assist individual students, it also may contribute to librarians’ understanding of student information-seeking behavior over time. Second, the use of this technique ensures that students are actively participating in the reference transaction rather than passively waiting for their problems to be solved.

6. Be the Welcome Wagon

Digital reference transactions offer opportunities for librarians to support novice information seekers as they progress toward membership in the community of expert information seekers. To use this method successfully, librarians must focus on the goal: to prepare a new member to join their community. To achieve this goal, librarians should show enthusiasm for student requests for assistance. They should also respond to students in the context of a community of learners by fostering a climate of collaboration—explaining that others wrestle with the same issues and recognizing that students will pass on what they learn to others. Finally, librarians should acknowledge their students’ current level of expertise and actively elicit feedback from students as the newest members of the information-literacy community.

7. Make Introductions

In digital reference transactions, librarians should direct students to other reference venues or specialized librarians when appropriate. As a rule, reference librarians should respond to students as completely as possible in the primary transaction. However, they may also wish to transfer the student seamlessly to another form of reference communication if the student’s instructional needs can be better met by an alternative medium. Librarians may also make referrals to other library staff members who can augment the transaction with a specialized level of expertise. The referral might take the form of a second librarian entering the chat, a library staff member calling the student with additional information, or the provision of additional contact information to the student so that a consultation can be scheduled. The goal of redirection in the digital reference environment is to facilitate the acclimatization of students into the community of information-literate people by providing instruction in the most efficient and effective manner. If the student’s needs are specialized, it may be that a specialized librarian can offer additional information that will facilitate the acculturation process. Thus the goal of a referral to another library staff member is to ensure that the student is brought into the proper community of specialization.

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