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I (NOT A), ROBOT: ACCESS SERVICES AND THE HUMAN AT THE DESK IN DIGITAL-FIRST ENVIRONMENTS

CAITLIN LINDSAY

ACCESS SERVICES LIBRARIAN

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LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The UBC Vancouver Campus is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people.

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OVERVIEW

  • review of trends and literature on librarians & service desks
  • “digital first” – what does this mean for libraries?
  • discussion by library staff
    • intersection between the digital first and interactions with patrons
    • challenges and opportunities

Figure 1: LinkedIn. (2026). CAPTCHA statement. [Screenshot]

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UBC & KOERNER LIBRARY

  • 2 Campuses – Vancouver and Okanagan
  • 72,000+ students
  • 8 library branches
  • Koerner Library - Humanities and Social Sciences. Serves both undergraduate and graduate students.

Figure 2: UBC Koerner Library exterior © UBC Library Communications and Marketing, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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LIBRARIANS AND SERVICES DESKS

  • Gradual removal of librarians from service desks
    • Technology & virtual reference
    • Alteration of day-to-day duties
    • Budgets and staffing constraints
    • Change to type of questions asked
    • Philosophy of librarianship

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TECHNOLOGY & “DIGITAL FIRST”

  • “Remote access at global range is now a permanent feature of higher education…Academic libraries must make digital the default in outreach, instruction, collections, services, preservation, and research” (Canadian Association of Research Libraries, 2021, p. 1)

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  • “Having human experiences computed requires a person to constantly navigate between these platforms and the intertwined duality of physical and digital reality.” (Baskerville et al., 2020, p. 516)

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DISCUSSION WITH LIBRARY SPECIALISTS

  • Jayne Griffiths, Koerner’s Public Services Supervisor
  • Wing Chung Ho, Koerner’s Course Reserve Supervisor
  • David Harakal, Koerner’s Library Accounts and Access Specialist

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Figure 3: UBC Koerner Library exterior © UBC Library Communications and Marketing, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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CHALLENGES AT SERVICE POINTS

Themes:

      • Complexity of patron questions and resolutions
        • Library Staff and technology ‘reference interviews’ with patrons
      • Emotional labour involved when dealing with upset patrons or managing expectations
      • Time involved in communicating answers

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LITERATURE & THEMES

“the designer who tries to eliminate the operator still leaves the operator to do the tasks which the designer cannot think how to automate…the operator can be left with an arbitrary collection of tasks, and little thought may have been given to providing support for them” (Bainbridge, 1983, p. 775)

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Figure 4: UBC Irving K. Barber Learning Centre Library study space © UBC Library Communications and Marketing, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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OPPORTUNITIES

  • Bring Access Services staff into consultation:
    • Websites & guides
    • Marketing services
    • Instructional content & orientations
  • Share contacts for related departments
  • Establish connections for low-friction referrals between the Library and IT

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HUMAN VALUE & COLLECTIVELY DEFINING STRENGTHS

“professional humility reflects not only an accurate assessment of the limitations of one’s professional abilities and knowledge and a related acceptance of what other…professions bring to the table – but also the willingness to account for, and respond to the occupational status hierarchy” (Michalec et al., 2024, p. 587)

Figure 4: UBC Media Library. (Sept 26, 2014). University Boulevard looking east towards the bookstore. [Photograph]

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THANK YOU!

Jayne Griffiths, Koerner’s Public Services Supervisor

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Wing Chung Ho, Koerner’s Course Reserve Supervisor

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David Harakal, Koerner’s Library Accounts and Access Specialist

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CONTACT ME:

Caitlin Lindsay

Access Services Librarian, University of British Columbia

cailtin.lindsay@ubc.ca

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Questions?

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Figure 5: UBC Media Library. (Jun 27, 2016). Aerials summer 2016. [Photograph]

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REFERENCES

  • Bainbridge, L. (1983). Ironies of automation. Automatica (Oxford), 19(6), 775-779. https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-1098(83)90046-8
  • Baskerville, R. L., Myers, M. D., & Yoo, Y. (2020). Digital first: The ontological reversal and new challenges for information systems research. MIS Quarterly, 44(2), 509-524. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2020/14418
  • Bicknell-Holmes, T., Aagard, M. C., Doty, S., Dworak, E., & Kurtz-Shaw, G. (2025). A cautionary tale: Merging library service points and department cultures amid internal change and external disarray. Journal of Access Services, 22(4), 113-131. https://doi.org/10.1080/15367967.2025.2576193
  • Bowman, M., &; Samsky, M. (2020). Access Services: Not Waving, But Drowning. In Deconstructing Service in Libraries Intersections of Identities and Expectations (pp. 79-94). Sacramento, CA: Litwin Books.

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REFERENCES

  • Canadian Association of Research Libraries. (2021). CARL Principles on Digital Access to Collections and Learning Resources. CARL. Publications and Documents. https://www.carl-abrc.ca/publications-and-documents/
  • Garzón Vargas, C., & Garcia-Olvera, B. (2026). Making access possible: The human impact of digital initiatives. Information Technology and Libraries, 45(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.5860/ital.v45i1.17431
  • Hill, C. (2014). The professional divide: Examining workplace relationships between librarians and library technicians. The Australian Library Journal, 63(1), 23-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049670.2014.890020
  • Lapidus, M., Bond, I., Wentz, E., King, S. B., & Mahnken, S. S. (2020). Measuring the quality of reference services provided by paraprofessionals at an academic library. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 46(5), 102198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2020.102198

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REFERENCES

  • Michalec, B., Xyrichis, A., & Arenson, C. (2024). “Professional humility”: Introducing a new framework to advance interprofessionalism. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 38(4), 587-592. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2024.2326974
  • Regier, R. (2024). OpenAthens and the ironies of automation: Have we made things harder by making them easier? Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, 36(3), 247-248. https://doi.org/10.1080/1941126X.2024.2390808
  • Weare, W. H., Alabi, J., & Fullerton, J. (2025). What’s working and what Isn’t: An exploratory study of current reference models in large academic libraries. Portal (Baltimore, Md.), 25(4), 753-780. https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2025.a971031
  • University of British Columbia. (n.d.) UBC Overview & Facts. https://www.ubc.ca/about/facts.html

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REFERENCES [IMAGES]

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