6B: Reflection on Readings

In “Conducting the Reference Interview” book, chapter 5, it talks about how the telephone is still an important feature that is still used today even though we now have better technology (in some people’s opinions). The book states that the phone is still used because it is easier “to complete the negotiation of a complex question or to communicate detailed explanations” via phone than email or chat (page 127). This is very true at my workplace. Luckily, I haven’t had to do a virtual chat yet (now that I’ve said this, I’m sure it will happen this Sunday), but I have seen the transcripts of my coworkers and lots of times they are LONG. And you can easily see that the chat could have been cut down at least by half, if not more, if the reference interview had been on the phone or in person. One problem that causes such a lengthy virtual chat, especially timewise, is that the patron on the other end will get distracted with what they are doing on the computer and not answer the librarian right away. Other times, the chats get disconnected for a variety of reasons.

The book lists that one important step in a telephone reference interview is to LISTEN (page 132). This is a very important skill to have. A couple of months ago, we had a phone call about something and a student worker picked it up. They then transferred it to the reference librarian who ended up transferring back to the circulation desk because they didn’t know what the patron wanted either. So the student then transferred it to me. At first I didn’t understand what the patron wanted, but eventually I figured it out. They just weren’t explaining themselves very well. I felt bad, that it was bad customer service on our part because no one understood them, they got transferred a number of times (BAD BAD BAD) and I had almost transferred to someone else before realizing at the last second what they really wanted. The answer was simple. You just sometimes have to not just listen to the patron, but also analyze what they are saying and sometimes have to pull what they really want out of them; which, yes, many times, is a chore to do, but you gotta do it.

One thing I hate about the phone is it gets hard to hear the person on the other end sometimes because of static or echoes, or they love to call with music in the background blaring or they will occasionally scream at a kid or someone. Plus, I’m deaf half the time so that also doesn’t help. I hate having to ask them to spell things out all the time, especially because they then rattle the letters off too fast, and sometimes I still can’t hear them. Then they get frustrated or angry with me because they have to keep repeating themselves.

I’m surprised the chapter didn’t talk much about what you do when you are on the phone and someone comes up to you and asks a question. That happened to me last Thursday. I had a caller who kept calling back about APA style (which I’m not familiar with). I was on the phone, flipping through the style book, when a patron asked me something. I felt rude to tell him to go to the circulation desk. I don’t think he realized I was on the phone because my hair might had been covering it. He never came back so I think what he needed was something circulation provides. But I still felt bad, like I was kind of rude to him. But he had just walked right up and started talking to me.

In Chapter 6 of the book, it says that virtual chat has been around for 10 years (page 191). I had no idea that it’s been around for that long! I thought maybe 5 years, but not 10. That’s kind of surprising, but it shouldn’t be considering I had a screen name on my internet provider and I did instant messaging 15 years ago.

The book also talks about how “increasingly reference librarians have become early adopters of emerging technologies that promote reference” (page 192). I know this to be true at my workplace. Our library has accounts with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and I’m sure there are others I’m not familiar with. Some of the librarians are always talking about some new technology and if we would be able to incorporate it in our workplace. Sometimes I hear about the technology first from them before I hear about it anywhere else. The fact that librarians are employing these tools is further proof that libraries are not going to go anywhere.

The book also mentions how virtual chat is usually busy at the same times when a lot of walk-ins are coming in (page 192). This happened a few Sundays ago. The reference librarian on Sundays is a student like me and she had 2 chats going, a phone call, and people lining up to talk other. I had to help her out. Then we were texting our boss because of the crazy questions we were getting. Usually we can figure things out together, but this time we couldn’t and we felt overwhelmed. The circulation desk was also busy at the same time. Thankfully, the Sundays since then have been pretty quiet. I don’t know what was going on that day.

The book states that for virtual chat, the staff member needs to know “who is eligible to receive this service and what do users have to do to demonstrate eligibility?” (page 195). This is very important because if not, one could violate the terms of contract the library has with databases and other subscriptions. What the Sunday reference librarian does is check in our library system to see if the person on the other end is indeed affiliated with the university. I have no idea what the other librarians do (another question to add to our list that we are compiling). A lot of them don’t know the library system very well. I know that when someone who is not affiliated with the university comes in, we legally can give them what they are asking for, but I don’t know if the same rules apply to virtual chat or email.