I
admit it was a bit strange starting the readings this week, as the first topic
was about the telephone reference interview, which I felt was incredibly outdated.
It just simply never occurred to me that you could call a library and ask if it
had a certain journal article or if they knew who won the Academy Award for
Best Actress in 1934 (SPOILER: it was Katherine Hepburn for Morning Glory). There might be a
generational gap in who utilizes this type of service, but there is still a
tremendous value in having the necessary skills for when those types of
reference interactions do occur. I used to work at the front desk at a small
hotel, whose entire reputation was built on word-of-mouth rather than a
household brand. By answering the phone calls that came in, I was the first
impression a guest would make about the hotel, or as Ross, Nilsen, and Radford
would put it, I was “literally on the front lines” [1] of the business. The
same applies to any library that has a telephone – the quality of the
institution will automatically be judged based on the interview performance,
which is true of any reference interview, but it is particularly difficult to
perform on the phone.
A
few of the challenges with a telephone reference interview is that, according
to Ross et al, “You lose all visual cues when you conduct a telephone reference
interview; you can’t see the look of annoyance, the shrug, the unsure or
worried expression, or the look of doubt in the eyes,” [2] nor can you see the “look
of pleasure and appreciation when a user gets exactly the answer needed.” [3]
The ability to hear vocal cues does come in handy, but it can be difficult to
discern the user’s emotions if they are not accompanied by visual cues. It is
certainly a skill to conduct phone interviews well, a skill that has been
readily practiced by older generations as compared to younger generations.
For
millennials, the most comfortable and accessible space is the internet, where
vocal and visual cues are off the table, and instead, the librarian must depend
on cultural and syntactical cues to discern a question from a user. Above all,
a user must interact with an interface in order to determine where one must go
and what one must do in order to get a question answered. What information is
included on this interface? As Ross, Nilsen, and Radford state, there are two
types: “first, there is information that users need to access and use the
service; second there Is information that staff need to do their jobs.” [4] The
user should only be able to access the information necessary to start asking
questions, while the staff need all the resources and management tools in order
to answer the question effectively. For the older and less skilled online, the intuitive
aspects that come with navigating websites do not occur as easily. Therefore,
it is important that librarians, no matter the age of their user, are able to
answer questions effectively on any medium while solving the basic challenges
of a user adjusting to a technology where they are unfamiliar with its customs.
--
[1] Ross,
Catherine S., Kirsti Nilsen, and Marie L. Radford. Conducting the Reference Interview: A How-To-Do-It Manual for
Librarians. (New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers Inc., 2009), p. 131.
[2] Ross,
Nilsen, and Radford, Conducting the
Reference Interview, p. 129.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ross, Nilsen, and
Radford, Conducting the Reference Interview, p. 194.
Phone reference still happens - but from a much smaller and more predictable set of "regulars."
ReplyDeleteFrom my current work experience I can say telephone reference is alive and well. I've gotten some funny questions, like "Could you tell me the name of the resort where Movie was filmed in Thailand?"Some of my favorite questions have been very obscure and I feel as if I'm on a treasure hunt. I've gotten questions from quite an array of individuals so I would be hesitant to say that it's a generational thing. I also have gotten questions over the phone from people who have exhausted their own internet research and are looking to the library on the phone.
ReplyDeleteI also like how you point out librarians need to be comfortable in multiple formats for providing reference services. There are a wide range of abilities and that should be kept in the forefront of our minds as we go out into the world.