Coping with Cuts: Reimagining Reference Servicesina Trying Budgetary Climate

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Coping with Cuts Reimagining Reference
Services in a Trying Budgetary Climate

•  
• Katie Gibson, Andrew Revelle and Elizabeth
  Sullivan Miami University Libraries, Oxford OH

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Reference The "Old Way"

• Tiered reference model
• Student employees
• Reference consultation

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Reference The "Old Way"

• Virtual reference services
• Email
•  
• Instant messaging 
• RAKIM and Gaim
• RAKIM and Meebo 

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Motivations for change

• Cuts to budget
• Room for improvement
• Changes already happening
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•  

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Guiding Principles for Change Process

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• President's model for university's response to
  budget crisis don't let crisis effect students
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• Making lemonade from lemons - Try to use budget
  crisis to improve service
• Using transaction data to derive new schedule
• Not privileging in-person at the expense of
  virtual
• Avoid losing research help service due to
  immediacy of help desk needs

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First Steps

• Group met and decided plan of attack
• Established a list of necessary changes
  irrespective of scheduling. 
• Looked at reference desk statistics to determine
  peak periods in the semester to use as models for
  scenario creation.
• We were informed that there was a good chance
  that we could get a GA position, so we were to
  figure on this in our scheduling. 
• Left this meeting with plan to reconvene to
  establish set of scenarios. 

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Blanket Changes to Operationalize Guiding
Principles

• Introduction of an on-line research consultation
  request form to divert some questions from the
  service point. (Principle 4)
• Request that librarians log into virtual system
  while in office to relieve pressure from on-desk
  librarians. (Principle 3)
• Establish information desk wiki to share
  information about assignments. (Principle 1)
• Use Libstats system to comment on challenging
  assignments in detail so that others may learn
  from your experience. (Principle 1)

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General things that the data told us

• Morning 8-10 slot had low traffic both at help
  and research help service points
• Move starting hour for research help at 1000 am
• Sunday - Wednesday nights from 8-12 had a high
  degree of traffic and needed to be staffed
• Schedule GA for Sun-Wed 8-12
• There were times where the help desk numbers were
  high but few questions were referred back for
  research consultation service
• Librarians being at the main service point allows
  directional questions to morph into reference
  transactions.

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Summer Scheduling

• First order of business was to establish a
  schedule for the summer session.  In the past,
  librarians were on call and on virtual during the
  summer.  The new schedule was as follows
•  
• On Mon-Thu the desk will be scheduled from 9-9
  and 9-5 on Fridays.  Librarians will work both
  virtual and in-person in three-hour shifts at the
  desk during the days.
• Shifts will be 9-12, 12-3, and 3-6.  There will
  be a 6-9 shift at night.
• 900-500 on Fridays in two hour blocks, Sat and
  Sun. 1-5. 
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•  

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Time Commitment under Previous System

• One of our first steps was to calculate the total
  reference commitment of public service librarians
  at King Library under the then extant system.
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• In-Person 68 hrsOn-Call 10hrsVirtual 63
  hrsTotal current commitment for King
  Librarians 141 hrs

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Ideal Scenario

• Two on Desk, both doing in-person and virtual.
• Strengths 
• Strong professional presence at the service
  point. (Principle 1)
• Librarians able to coordinate actions to balance
  virtual and in-person service. (Principle 3)
•  
• Main Weakness
• Increases in-person hours from 68 to 125.

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Scenarios 1 and 2

• One on Desk, One on Virtual in Office
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• Notes
• 1-5 Monday - Thursday, both librarians on the
  desk
• Librarian Hours
• On-Desk 97 hrs
• Virtual in office 35 hrs
• Total 132 hrs

• Two on Desk, One on Virtual
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• Notes
• 21 M-R 10-630
• 11 F 1000 - 500, Virtual in office
• 11, both on desk, Sunday 1-10 and M-R 630-1000
  
• Librarian Hours
• On-Desk 115 hrs
• Virtual in office 41 hrs
• Total 156 hrs

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Scenarios 3 and 4

• One on Desk, One on Virtual, with Two on Desk,
  one on Virtual during Peak Hours
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• Notes
• 21 M-R 100-500
• Librarian Hours
• On-Desk 97 hrs
• Virtual in Office 51 hrs
• Total 148 hrs

• Hybrid Solutions
• Possibilities
• Scenario 1 with 2 during peak periods (October
  and April)
• Scenario 1 with 3 during peak periods

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Presentation to PS Librarians and Dean and
University Librarian

• Presented Scenarios. Librarians came up with our
  ideal scenario on their own.
• Two on desk, both doing virtual.
• We went back and ran the numbers and presented
  the formal document to the librarians at the
  following meeting.
• Presented the document to the Dean, which
  included summer hours as well as the in-semester
  scheme.  She approved the plan.

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Other Steps

• Library H3lp training.
• Libguides with direct IM links to librarians.
• Libstats inplementation and training.
• Research Consultation cube dismanteled and Info
  Desk moved back.

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Research Consultation Request
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Outcome 1 Improved Service

• Step One - the professionals
• Two Librarians for the price of one
• Getting help you didn't know you needed
• Improved communication between librarians

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Outcome 2 Remaining Flexible

• Schedule adjustments
• Mornings
• Saturdays

Image http//www.flickr.com/photos/lululemonathle
tica/3954218236
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Outcome 3 Virtual Reality

• Busy!
• Backup

Image http//www.flickr.com/photos/helico/4046406
81/
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Outcome 4 Research Consultation

• Modest beginning
• Breaking old habits/learning new tricks
• Room for growth

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Lessons Learned

• Don't just collect statistics Use them
• Evaluation should be an ongoing process, not just
  something done when forced
• Sometimes a negative situation can have positive
  outcomes