“Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one.” ― Neil Gaiman

 

Customer service is at the heart of many professional librarian positions. Librarians are there to help patrons who are seeking information to find resources that meet that information need. Most library jobs include interacting with the general public extensively. In the role of information professional, you are providing a service to these patrons, but it is also important to remember that while providing good service is one aspect of the job, another, and perhaps more important aspect is providing accurate, relevant, and appropriate information.

 

One of the places where patron interactions occur often is at the reference desk. In some cases, this might be a physical desk where patrons approach and ask questions. In other cases reference is conducted over the phone, by email, and even through social media channels. It is important when providing information to patrons to remember that, as an information professional, it is likely that the information that you provide will be weighed more heavily than information that they receive from non-professionals. Because of this, information professionals have an ethical obligation to provide the most relevant and accurate information possible. During my coursework, I took INFO 210, Reference and Information Services. In this course, we learned several resources to assist in searching for information on a wide range of topics. Each week, we answered practice reference questions, using the resources that we had learned about in class. This was a wonderful experience, and the hands-on application was valuable in teaching me the importance of looking for information in appropriate places.

 

Reference is, on the surface, about providing answers. In the pursuit of this, certain considerations can be argued as being more important than others. For example, studies have demonstrated that providing excellent customer service can often be judged as more important than providing the correct answer in the eyes of the patron (Durrance, 1995). While customer service is no doubt an important consideration, the reference desk is in the business of providing information, and can often influence a patron’s initial impression of a library’s service. Cassell and Hiremath (2013), describe three levels or “types” of answers. They describe answers as being value-added answers, skilled answers, and elementary answers (2013). They further explain that, “the highest level of utility can be assumed to derive from the value-added answer (2013).” Value-added answers provide details for the patron, with the librarian taking care to provide the best resources available to answer the question. In addition, a value-added answer provides information like resources and citation information so that the patron can continue their research independently (Cassell & Hiremath, 2013).

 

Providing exceptional customer service and value-added answers can go a long way in combating and preventing library anxiety, a topic that Lesley Brown covers extensively in the article, “Trending Now—Reference Librarians: How Reference Librarians Work to Prevent Library Anxiety.” In the article, Brown advises that reference librarians can play a role in helping to prevent and reduce instances of library anxiety among patrons (2011). Brown also discusses the importance of understanding that there is such a thing as providing patrons with too much information, which may overwhelm them and have the opposite than desired effect on the interaction (2011).

 

Evidence

 

For my first piece of evidence, I submit an assignment that I completed for INFO 210, Reference and Information Services. For this assignment, I had to use the reference services at one physical reference desk, providing a face-to-face reference interview; one virtual reference interview; and then to go into the field and observe at a reference desk at an institution of my choosing. I visited a public library for my face-to-face interaction, an academic library for the virtual interaction, and I observed at the reference desk of my alma mater for the final part of this assignment. I had to evaluate each interaction, including whether a reference interview was conducted, and if so, evaluate the methods used by the information professional who conducted it. This piece of evidence demonstrates my mastery of competency I by demonstrating my knowledge of how to conduct a reference interview to ensure that I can provide accurate, relevant, and appropriate information.

 

The second piece of evidence that I submit to demonstrate my mastery of competency I is another INFO 210 assignment. In this assignment, our instructor provided a set of practice reference questions. For the assignment, not only did I have to speculate as to how I would conduct a reference interview, but also how I would go about answering the patron’s query. This assignment was valuable in teaching me where and how to look for answers to reference questions, and how to evaluate the information that I was providing to ensure that it met the information need. This assignment demonstrates my ability to consider the information needs of the user and to find the best resources available to answer the question.

 

The third piece of evidence that I submit to demonstrate my mastery of this competency is an assignment that I completed on readers’ advisory services. Patrons often seek out librarians to ask for particular books, or for recommendations of books that fit their reading interests. Readers advisory can be one of the most difficult, yet most rewarding services provided to patrons. Using service principles, an information professional should first determine the reading habits of the patron to discover what elements of story that the patron enjoys. Is it a particular genre? A certain point of view? Do the protagonists need to be someone the reader relates to? Connecting patrons to the right resources requires a combination of service principles, and knowing which tools are appropriate for the job. For this assignment, I had to evaluate a readers’ advisory tool, and then, using a tool of my choice, create my own reading list. I used Fiction DB and NoveList as my readers’ advisory resources for the purposes of this assignment.

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Conclusion

Providing patrons with relevant and appropriate information is one of the most important tasks for the information professional. Often providing information at this level is conducted at the reference desk, but providing other services, such as readers' advisory can also fall under this category. When providing information services to patrons, it is important to remember the steps for conducting a reference interview, but it also important to remember service concepts, and to practice good customer service to library patrons. Studies have shown that things like perceived interest and helpfulness are often considered just as important - of not more-so - than providing the best answers. Despite these findings, the information professional should always strive to provide the most accurate information possible.