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Try, try again: Defining library research support beyond a “reference desk”

Allison Benedetti and Doug Worsham

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UCLA Library research services

Undergraduates (Powell)

Humanities/Social Sciences/Area Studies (YRL)

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Charles E. Young Research Library (YRL)

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Reference Service before 2011

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Reference Service in the Reading Room

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Reference/Research Help -- Fall 2013

Last summer - reconfigured 2 conference rooms, 1 dedicated to research consultations. Note - the sign uses the word “Research Help” instead of reference. It was our hypothesis that users would better understand a service described as “research help.”

Closed the desk -- Basic catalog lookups and directional/technical questions handled by access services desk. For the summer, our questions were ~95% research related. The previous summer we spent 25% of our times on directional and technical questions, not counting policy/operational inquiries. We also revamped our statistical tools and categories over this past summer to better track how we are spending our time.

Continued model into this fall quarter.

Data:

Fall 2012: 42% questions were directional and technical, only 25% research assistance. 11% of total questions were more than 10 min. 37% of the research assistance were more than 10 min.

Fall 2013: 65% research related/ 85% of our time; number of technical questions down to 39 from 359; directional 112 from 546.

As we move forward, we seek continued flexibility to adapt our service model to meet changing patron needs and library usage habits. We are also looking at our staffing model and use of students.

YRL is not doing this in a vacuum and Doug will talk about the changes at Powell Library.

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Powell Library Reference Desk

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Librarians help student learn.

Librarians train part-time MLIS graduate student employees to help students, too. ��

Librarians train full-time reference assistants + part-time MLIS graduate students + peer consultants to help students, too.

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Graduate Student�Inquiry Specialists

Undergraduate Inquiry Specialists

Inquiry Librarians

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220 Powell - InqSpace

Research Consultations

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Try, try again (again)

Experiment (perpetual beta?)
Gather evidence, adjust, re-assess
Improve library evaluation infrastructure & student training
Increase collaboration across units

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Discussion Time!

Choose your favorite challenge or theme..
Turn to a partner and discuss..
Talk for about 3-4 minutes/challenge.
Group discussion/share for 1 challenge.

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Challenges

Visibility / Discoverability
Terminology - reference? research help? …?
Marketing
Utilizing limited resources effectively (staff, space, technology, time, etc.)
Managing & communicating change (staff, students, instructors, administrators)
Changing conceptions of the role of the reference librarian
…
…
...

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Challenges / Solutions

Visability + Audability, Discoverability
Meeting technical needs
Training (initial and ongoing) - MLIS students - process, skills, knowledge, customer service, different levels of training based on experience of students, …

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Thank you!

The Librarian, Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527–1593)

Contact us:

Allison Benedetti, Librarian for Advanced Research and Engagement abenedetti@library.ucla.edu

Doug Worsham, Teaching and Learning Services Coordinator dworsham@library.ucla.edu