Shahla Bahavar and Judith A. Truelson
Shahla Bahavar is Reference Coordinator at USC Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
Judith A. Truelson is Outreach Coordinator at USC Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Submitted for review October 19, 2006; accepted for publication December 5, 2006.
In 2003, realignment of library services brought about formation of interdisciplinary teams and the coordination of Uni-versity of Southern California (USC) libraries’ core services. This article explores how the reference coordinators have used the “Preferred Futuring” planning process as a foundation for successful planning for reference services in this environment. A brief profile of reference services at USC is followed by an overview of the function and operation of Preferred Futuring and its application at USC. The article concludes with a summary of lessons learned in hosting preferred futuring workshops and with a checklist of planning and preparatory steps for conducting a Preferred Futuring workshop. »»
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Some library users come in the door knowing exactly where to go, with clearly defined and communicated needs. However, many more enter the library on an exploratory mission and often stop at the first service desk that catches their eye. In many libraries, this point of first contact is a security or general information desk, not a full-service reference desk. This opens the question, are users being served effectively and their expectations being met? »»
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Studies indicate that a lean reference collection is the ideal, but how does a librarian determine what to pare? A small academic library did a five-year reshelving study to guide in collection management. Dots were applied to books as they were reshelved, with different colors for each year. Data indicate that, while many items were heavily used, many others were not used at all in five years. As a result of the study, reference staff are reconsidering the nature of the reference collection, beginning to develop a collection management policy, and determining the disposition of the good, but unused, items. »»
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The purpose of this study was to determine the effective behaviors of reference librarians during the chat reference interview, with particular emphasis given to whether the service users would feel more satisfied when librarians adopt the behaviors recommended in the revised “RUSA Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Services Providers.” The data analyzed for this study consisted of 422 chat reference transaction transcripts and corresponding user surveys obtained from a public library system that participated in a nationwide chat reference consortium. »»
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Interdisciplinary research offers increasing information challenges for researchers and scholars as well as for librarians. Quaternary research is an example of a highly interdisciplinary area incorporating research ranging from geochemistry and microbiology to planetary science. This study compares retrieval performance of eleven online indexes that can be used for Quaternary research, and discusses three others. »»
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Women living in a rural Canadian county were interviewed about how they locate health information. The experiences they described raise interesting questions about the efficacy of government sponsored e-health initiatives, particularly when such programs are intended to compensate individuals who live in remote communities for lack of access to health care services. »»
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This article presents a study of source citing in telephone reference service at the twenty-five largest public library systems in the United States and Canada. The results showed that in eighty-six out of the 125 total reference transactions analyzed (68.8 percent of the cases), respondents gave no sources for their answers. »»
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Electronic, full-text resources, and on-line forms have become more and more established in most libraries. As a result, foot traffic has decreased significantly, leading to fewer opportunities for personal contact between librarians and patrons. Innovative outreach efforts are required to counter this trend. In the past two years, some University at Buffalo (UB) librarians have set up office hours in the departments they serve to provide onsite reference and instruction services. »»
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Using a combination of surveys and interviews, this research project explores the relationship between educational and recreational outcomes of leisure reading, the importance of learning to the leisure reading experience, the role of learning in leisure reading, and the educational outcomes reported by leisure readers. »»
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This exploratory study of unsolicited thank you messages from e-mail digital reference users analyzed the information provided in these messages for user perspectives on digital reference success, outcomes, and quality elements in answers. Digital reference interactions receiving thank you messages were also compared with nonthanked interactions. »»
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Academic libraries play an important role in making numeric data collections available to their researchers and providing assistance in identifying and accessing appropriate resources. The University of Tennessee Libraries have been working to strengthen the numeric data component of their reference services and have expanded promotion and outreach activities to make this specialized service more visible. In fall 2003, the Data Services Awareness and Use Survey was conducted to learn more about the university’s users of research data and assess their awareness of the service and the effectiveness of promotional activities. Results of the survey are being used to plan, promote, and provide data services. The survey portion of this manuscript was presented, in part, at the International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology Conference on May 26, 2004 in Madison, Wisconsin. »»
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One of the valuable offerings of librarians in the digital age is the human intermediation of information needs. In physical libraries, these reference questions are answered, and few artifacts remain from the transaction; therefore, the knowledge created through the work of the librarian leaves with the patron. Due to the medium of communication, digital reference transactions capture the knowledge of information professionals. There are hundreds of digital reference services generating knowledge every day; however, the lack of a schema for archiving reference transactions from multiple services makes it difficult to create a fielded, searchable knowledge base. »»
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This research examined the literature on instruction in academic libraries to determine the journals in which such articles were published, the types of articles, and changes in the types by year. Results show that Research Strategies, Reference Services Review, College & Research Libraries, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, and Reference & User Services Quarterly have published the most articles on academic library instruction. »»
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During the 2002-2003 academic year a team of reference librarians at the Kent State University main library began working with two freshman learning communities as part of an initiative to learn more about the needs of first-year students. This article reports on the outreach to one of those, the Science Learning Community, and on the results of a focus group undertaken with members of that group. The study found that the students valued the library instruction offered »»
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This study found that Ulrich’s and Serials Directory offer a wide, and often disparate, amount of information about where serials are indexed or abstracted, with Ulrich’s indexing more titles overall than Serials Directory, and more dead titles than the other directory. Serials Directory is the only provider that lists where EBSCO serials are indexed or abstracted. Both directories also provide different information on basic serial facts, such as price, address, and editor. »»
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The University of Maryland, Baltimore County Information Literacy Task Force developed a survey primarily based on the Association of College and Research Libraries Information Literacy Standards to gather baseline data about the skills of incoming students. Although multiple departments were involved, the biological sciences provided the highest number (151) of initial participants for the 51-item online survey. Findings indicate that the majority of students have some understanding of information literacy skills; however, a significant number were not familiar with important concepts »»
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Because reference sources are a staple of reference service, reference source education is an intrinsic part of reference education. However, limited information exists about the strategies reference instructors use to teach their students about sources. Reference instructors at forty-eight ALA-accredited programs of library and information studies were surveyed as to what strategies they used to teach ‘about sources, what methods they felt were effective, and what challenges they faced in teaching about reference sources. »»
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The stereotype of the reference transaction is more or less unchanged since Samuel Swett Green’s day, as involving precisely one librarian and one user. There are many common situations in which the reference transaction is not a one-to-one interaction, and this article will explore those situations. »»
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The “contact zone” has emerged as an important concept for conceptualizing cultural difference in educational institutions. »»