Helping patrons at the reference desk is one of the most important aspects of a librarian’s job. But even the best librarian can often leave a patron asking more questions than they had when they arrived.
Today’s How-To-Do-It Tip comes from Conducting the Reference Interview: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians, Second Edition by Catherine Sheldrick Ross, Kirsti Nilsen, and Marie L. Radford, where you can find hundreds of other exercises and examples to help you practice effective reference transactions.
The reference interview tends to go wrong in predictable ways that can be avoided or at least remedied through the use of basic microskills. Avoiding these predictable communication accidents can go a long way toward increasing reference success, well beyond 55 percent. Here are six common problems together with suggestions for how to avoid them.
1. Not acknowledging the user. Establish immediate contact with users by acknowledging their presence through eye contact and other immediacy behaviors, and by restating the initial question.
2. Not listening. The inexperienced interviewer talks more than the experienced interviewer who does more listening. Librarians who are talking or thinking ahead about search strategies might be trying to help but they aren’t listening, and they will probably miss important clues. Practice active listening; pause or use an encourager instead of responding at length to everything the user says. To show that you are listening, use appropriate body language and show that you have understood what was said by using the skills of reflecting content or summarizing.
3. Playing twenty questions. An open or sense-making question such as, “What would you like to know about X?” will get you further in less time than playing twenty questions and asking, “Is it this? Is it that?”
4. Interrupting at inappropriate times. If you are talking or cutting off a user who is telling you something that’s relevant to the query, you’re not listening. Use pauses or encouragers to signal to users that it’s their turn to talk. When you need to redirect the conversation back to the purpose of the interview, wait until the user finishes and then employ closure.
5. Making assumptions. Some assumptions are necessary, such as assuming that a user would like some kind of help. But assumptions based on the user’s appearance or on your own perception of the problem are usually inaccurate and may be offensive if you make them explicit. Instead of premature diagnosis, ask sense-making questions such as, “Could you tell me a little bit about how you plan to use this information?”
6. Not following up. Recover from other communication accidents by following up. Ask a closed or open follow-up question such as, “Did that help you?” or “What other help would you like?” Even when you’re busy, invite the user to ask for further help or give instructions (“If you don’t find it, ask the person at the Information Desk”).
-Excerpted from: Conducting the Reference Interview: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians, pp. 15-16. ©2011 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
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