The Art of the Reference Interview

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The Art of the Reference Interview

• Ontario Library Association Conference
• February 2005
• Catherine Sheldrick Ross and Kirsti Nilsen
• Faculty of Information and Media Studies
• The University of Western Ontario

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Librarians As a Keystone Species

• Anthropologist Bonnie Nardi and librarian Vicki
  ODay write,
• We believe that the diverse services available
  in the library are still important and useful,
  and we believe that the increase in online
  information presents more opportunities to
  leverage the skills of professional librarians
  than ever before. Through our fieldwork in
  libraries, we have identified librarians as a
  keystone species.
• Bonnie Nardi and Vicki Oday. 1999. Information
  Ecologies.

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• But is a reference interview really needed?

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The Library Visit Study

• To gather data about what happens in reference,
  users did three things
• They produced a detailed step-by-step account
  of exactly what happened in the reference
  transaction
• They reflected on their experience by
  summarizing which aspects of their experience
  they had found helpful and which aspects they had
  found unhelpful
• They filled out a questionnaire evaluating
  their experience as a user of reference service,
  including would you be willing to return?

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Would You Be Willing to Return?Percent Reporting
YES

• Face to face visits
• (Of 261 visits)
• Total YES 65
• Public libs. 61
• Univ. libs. 75

• Virtual visit
• (Of 59 visits)
• Total YES 61
• Public libs. 70
• Univ libs. 56

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Four Common Problems

• Without speaking, she began to type
• Bypassing the reference interview
• Taking a system-based perspective
• The unmonitored referral

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1. The Without-speaking-she-began-to- type
Manoeuvre

• Occurred in about one quarter of the library
  visit transactions
• An example
• The user asked, do you have information about
  about optical character recognition?
• What happened?
• I stood there for several minutes while she
  searched. I could not see the screen and she did
  not ask me any questions. The silence grew a
  little awkward as I watched her mutter and purse
  her lips as her searches seemed to render
  negative results. Finally she said, this may be
  too technical.

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2. Bypassing the Reference Interview

• Reference interviews are conducted only half the
  time
• An example
• The user asked do you have books about Richard
  Wagner?
• What happened?
• The user was given call numbers for books about
  Richard Wagner. He returned to say that none of
  the books on Wagner contained the desired
  information. At this point, the librarian
  discovered belatedly that the user needed a plot
  synopsis for all of the Wagner operas and
  recommended an opera guide. The librarian
  admonished, you could have saved a lot of time
  if you had just asked for that initially.

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3. Taking a System-based Perspective

• Even when the library staff member does conduct
  an interview, too many of the librarians
  questions relate to the library system, not to
  the context of the users information need.
• Some examples
• Did you check the catalogue?
• Have you used this index before?
• What were the indexing elements?
• Did you come up with some call numbers?
• Have you checked the 282s?
• I suppose youve checked our circulating
  collection?

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4. The Unmonitored Referral

• The unmonitored referral was reported in somewhat
  more than one third of the time.
• An example
• The user asked for information on cellulitis,
  which is a skin infection, and was given a call
  number for a book I found the book (not quite
  in its right place). It was called Cellulite
  Defeat it through Diet and Exercise.

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Negative Closure or How to Make Users Go Away

• Here are some strategies, apart from providing a
  helpful answer, for getting rid of the user. We
  call these strategies negative closure
• The librarian provides an unmonitored
  referral.
• The librarian immediately refers the user
  somewhere else, preferably far away.
• The librarian implies that the user should have
  done something else first before asking for
  reference help.
• The librarian tries to get the user to accept
  more easily found information instead of the
  information actually asked for.

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Negative Closure...

• More ways to get rid of the user
• The librarian warns the user to expect defeat
  because the topic is too hard, obscure, large,
  elusive, or otherwise unpromising.
• The librarian signals non-verbally that the
  transaction is over by tone of voice, by turning
  away, or by starting another activity.
• The librarian claims that the information is
  not in the library is unavailable or else
  doesnt exist at all.
• The librarian tells the user hes going away to
  track down a document but then never returns.

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Moving to Virtual Reference

• Do things change when we move from the physical
  reference desk to the virtual reference desk?

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A Definition of Virtual Reference...

• Virtual reference is reference service initiated
  electronically, often in real-time, where users
  employ computers or other internet technology to
  communicate with librarians, without being
  physically present.
• Communication channels used frequently in virtual
  reference include chat, videoconferencing, voice
  over Internet protocol, e-mail, and instant
  messaging.
• (ALA, RUSA, 2004)

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The Library Visit Study Phase 3

• Comparing face-to-face and virtual reference
  interviews
• We use the same method to gather data, but now
  the questions are asked at a virtual reference
  desk at a Canadian university or public library
  that offers such a service via an ask a
  librarian or similar link.
• Service can be email or chat.
• Advantage copies of emails or transaction
  records of chat sessions provide more data for
  analysis.

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Remember the Measure of Success? Willingness to
Return.

• Face to face visits
• (Of 261 visits)
• Total YES 65
• Public libraries 61
• Univ. Libraries 75

• Virtual visit
• (Of 59 visits)
• Total YES 61
• Public libraries 70
• Univ libraries 56

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Would You Return to Chat? To Email?
Reporting YES

• Chat services
• (Of 17 visits)
• Total YES 71
• Public libraries 75
• University libs. 67

• Email services
• (Of 42 visits)
• Total YES 57
• Public libraries 67
• University libs. 50

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What Behaviours Lead to User Dissatisfaction?

• Bypassing the reference interview
• Unmonitored referrals
• Failure to ask follow-up questions

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How Often Do These Behaviours Occur?

• Face-to-face virtual
  (261 visits)
  (57 visits)
• No reference interview 51 83
• Unmonitored referral 37
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• No follow-up 64 68
• 2 virtual visits had no response at all

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The Unmonitored Referral a Patron Comments
After Receiving a List of Unhelpful URLs

• By simply giving me some URLs of various sites,
  ... the librarian assumed that I would be able to
  effectively navigate these sites. The thought
  hadnt occurred to her that I might not be able
  to surf the sites properly.

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Lack of Follow-up

• After asking for biographical information on
  Albert Camus
• I was happy with the answer I received in terms
  of its accuracy but the information I really
  wanted to know was not provided. I cannot say I
  was entirely satisfied. I am uncertain about
  sending an additional email message to pursue the
  question further since a follow-up offer is
  lacking. I feel I am not encouraged to do so.

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Out of 57 Virtual Visits Only 10 (17)
Included an Interview

• Chat Email (17 chat visits)
  (40 email visits)
• Number 8 2
• 2 email visits had no response at all

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Reference Interviews in Chat

• Only 8 of 17 chat transactions included an
  interview.
• This is 53 with no reference interview, similar
  to the 51 without reference interviews in our
  in-person data.

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Email Reference Interviews

• Only 2 of 40 email transactions included an
  interview.
• What was different about these 2 transactions?
• The email Ask-A-Librarian form substituted for
  the reference interview.

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Options for the email reference interview

• 1. Lots of back and forth emailsBAD IDEA
• 2. We can provide a good detailed form that
  substitutes for the reference interview.

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The Internet Public Librarys Ask-A-Question form
is a good model.

• In addition to Name and email address, and
  question,
• a good form asks questions that clarify the
  information need, such as
• What specifically would you like to find out?
• Please give us some background that will
  provide a context
• for your question
• How do you plan to use this information?

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For more information on the art of the reference
interviews, see

• Conducting the Reference Interview, by Catherine
  Sheldrick Ross, Kirsti Nilsen, and Patricia
  Dewdney (New York Neal Schuman, 2003).

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Questions??