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Changes in Reference

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Staffing patterns at Reference Desks is a topic that has been well-studied for at least 35 years. This paper looks at two articles on staffing, Staffing the Reference Desk and Reference Desk Staffing Trends. Although they were written 27 years apart, they both address the issue of staffing reference desks with nonprofessionals, a long-standing practice in college and public libraries. While the studies asked different sets of questions, there were some similarities in the responses. The 1975 study found staff at colleges and universities were shrinking and hours were increasing due to an increasing number offering trimesters and summer programs (Peele, 1980, P. 1708). To fill the void, the two most common methods of staffing reported were the use of non-professionals and staff catalogers to fill the reference desk for specified periods of time. Both Canadian academic library administrators and a sampling of college libraries in the United States came to the same conclusion, “85% … of questions at public service desks can be answered by nonprofessional staff “ (Peele, 1980, p. 1078).

Training of the student assistants varied at the different institutions. At State University of NY at Cortland, nonprofessional staff received a total of 10 hours of training that focused on providing the answers requested, not teaching the user to find it. There were surprisingly positive results with this method; “only 21 of the 299 questions…had to be referred…and some students were able to relate more effectively to a peer than to a professional” (Peele, 1980, p. 1709).  Of the colleges that responded, all but one reported that the use of nonprofessionals was a successful way to cover reference desk hours.  Professional concerns that arose, however in the 1980 article cite potential problems with the union using nonprofessionals, perception of faculty that professional library duties are easily fill by a student, and in the use of catalogers, difficulties arose when they were asked to fill a job that that were not initially hired to do.

In Reference Desk Staffing Trends, a 2007 survey of 101 academic libraries in the Midwest, Julie Banks and Carl Pracht administered a survey via the Internet using U-Test in comparison to the 1975 study that was conducted by standard mail. In response to the number of questions asked over the past three years. This study showed a decrease of 44% in the number of questions asked at the desk while 24% reported an increase in questions and 26% reported the same number of requests over the past three years. This is in contrast to the earlier study when increased staffing was needed due to the increased use of the reference desk. A difference in this study is that the use of catalogers was not mentioned.

Many librarians in the 2007 study stated “the Internet had transformed reference because of its vast reach and information, reducing questions at the desk” (Banks, 2008, p.58). An interesting point raised in the 2007 study was that librarians felt “strongly that the word needed to get out that library databases offered better information than Google”(Banks, 2008, p. 58). In terms of the use of nonprofessionals, 62% used them while 38% did not (Banks, 2008, p. 56). Surprisingly, this figure is only 7% less than in the 1980 study. Librarians surveyed stated that cost was a factor in employing nonprofessionals, the same as in the earlier study. The conclusion of this article was that nonprofessionals are used as frequently now as 35 years ago and that they are an important part of the services offered at the reference desk. Both articles concluded that the use of nonprofessionals is here to stay. 

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Works Cited


Banks, J., & Carl, P. (Fall 2008). Reference desk staffing trends: a survey. Reference &
          User Services Quarterly, vol. 48 (i), 54-59. Retrieved February 2, 2009, from
          Ebscohost database:
          http://:0-web.ebscohost.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/ehost/
          pdf?vid=7&hid=117&sid=c0a73ba9-c72e-4a44-9f65-
          c30d474f0daf%40sessionmgr104


Peele, D. (1980, September 1). Staffing the reference desk. Library Journal, v105
          (15), 1708-1711.
          Retrieved February 2, 2009, from Ebsco Host database:
          http://0-search.ebscohost.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/
          login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ23