Design, provide, and assess information services.
| Course: | LIS 601 – Introduction to Reference and Information Services |
| Instructor: | Dr. Vanessa Irvin |
| Semester Completed: | Fall 2019 |
| Assignment Description: | LIS 601 Syllabus |
| Artifact: | Query Search Exam |
Reflection
Typically, LIS students take LIS 601 Introduction to Reference and Information Services during their first semester but, in my case, it was not offered during my first semester. I started the program in Spring 2019 and, after my first semester was over, I started working part-time at the Science & Technology Reference Desk in Hamilton Library. Usually a student hired to work at the desk has already had LIS 601 and knows how to conduct a reference interview and how to properly search the databases, but I did not. So, when the Fall semester started and I was finally able to take 601 and learn these skills, I was able to see firsthand through my performance at the reference desk how this knowledge helped me to become a better librarian.
The focus of SLO1 is information services, namely providing them to our users, assessing the services, and creating them. Prior to taking 601 I was already familiar with using Hamilton’s OneSearch from completing a semester of classes in the Spring, but I had not learned search techniques or how to conduct a reference interview yet. I also had virtually no experience with the reference databases. When I got a reference question, I honestly do not know that I was much better than the students asking the question when I was helping them to find the answer. I was lucky that I started in my position over the summer and there was very little traffic at the desk, so I did not get very many questions. Those that I did, I generally took down their email address and sent them the results later, which allowed me extra time to search and to ask for help. It was not an ideal situation. As the semester progressed, I was able to see my skills improve and the time it took me to find the appropriate resources for students decreased. I was not fumbling as much and my search terms got more complex. I was able to find the appropriate resources much more quickly, typically while they were at the desk. I learned how to conduct a proper reference interview as well, namely what questions to ask to determine what the user actually wants, so the initial search results were more relevant.
I remember one particular reference question because it was complex and I was able to help the patron at the desk without assistance from the librarians. An undergraduate student came in working on a literature review about teenage pregnancy in the United States. All the statistics he quoted in his rough draft were the same as the CDC quoted them, i.e. “18.1 of every 1000”. However, his professor told him he wanted actual numbers cited in the paper, for example, 237,400. The student has no idea how to get real numbers from the CDC statistics, so he asked me. After searching, I found the formula to convert them to whole numbers. I even wrote out an example for the undergraduate student so he could plug in every statistic and convert it to a whole number for his paper. I was so proud of myself for being able to help him without any assistance. When I told the Sci-Tech librarians about it later I felt even better about it because they did not think they would have been successful in helping him because of the math involved. This was when my personal philosophy of service began developing. I enjoy helping others and going that extra step to help the patrons find the information they need. I discuss this further in my SLO2 essay.
My artifact for this SLO was much like what I was doing at the desk. We were assigned several reference questions and had to write about our search strategy and results in great detail. Since we had to include so much detail, I searched in more ways than I normally would for a reference query and compared the results. This comparative process taught me that taking the time to determine the subject headings at the outset and then searching for them as subject headings instead of keywords gives more relevant resources than searching for the keywords. I also learned that sometimes your first search result is your best one, because I often kept looking and came back to that first search result as the best one.
While doing my presentation of my artifact I was reminded how important it is to know where the information is coming from and give credible resources to patrons (Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), 2003, 5B-2). I recommended a source to the patron for information about the sous-vide cooking method and my instructor asked me why I recommended that particular blog to my patron; who wrote it and why did I feel it was a legitimate resource on that topic. Especially today, with fake news and bloggers writing opinions, not facts, we as information professionals need to ensure that we are recommending legitimate fact sources to our patrons, so we do not perpetuate the circulation of misinformation.
A challenge I encountered was that I needed more experience with the various databases. If I am going to be a competent reference librarian, I really need to learn my collection (Kern & Woodard, 2016, p. 64), and a big part of that today is the digital resources that are available. I received a reference request from someone researching Pacific Islanders’ views of suicide and they were only searching in one EBSCO database. Being familiar with the other EBSCO databases allowed me to expand the search and find them the relevant articles they were looking for. I have also learned that knowing where to search is just as important as knowing where not to. I discovered that Google is not always best search engine and that it is beneficial to know how to use other search engines, such as DuckDuckGo. Others often give more impartial and relevant search results than Google because sponsored results are not being pushed to the top of the list.
This project and my experiences at the reference desk taught me that library science is still a necessary profession, even though I am asked more often than I can say why I am going into a dying field. We are information managers, and we have an over-abundance of information to manage. It used to be that people needed librarians because they did not know how to find the information. Now, they get so many search results the problem is they do not know how to find the correct information. This artifact taught me that I did not know everything and still had a lot to learn, but I also understand now that librarians are always learning. It is part of the profession. The way information is stored and retrieved is always evolving so we as librarians must evolve as well. The recent COVID-19 pandemic is a prime example of why it is necessary for us to evolve. The way we provide services has changed since March 2020 and it has become even more critical to create instructional and outreach services. Patrons can no longer come up to the reference desk to ask questions. Librarians are now available by phone and web chat, but we must also try to anticipate what our patrons need and create new services and resources to address those needs (American Library Association, 2020).
If I could do anything different on this project, I think I would have tried to have more fun with it. I loved helping library users when I worked at the reference desk. I loved discovering sources for them and learning about a new topic, and I enjoyed knowing that I helped a student or a staff member find exactly what they needed and made their project just a little bit easier. This project was the same as what I did at the reference desk, only for a grade, and I think that grade made me lose sight of the part of it that I enjoyed. I have heard it said that “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey” and I think I was so focused on the end goal, the grade, that I forgot to enjoy myself. It is like going on vacation to Europe and being so focused on not missing your plane home that you do not enjoy the sights.
References
American Library Association. (2020, June 3). ALA survey shows effects of pandemic on library services. American Libraries Magazine. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/ala-survey-shows-effects-of-pandemic-on-library-services/
Kern, M. Kathleen, & Woodard, Beth S. (2016). The Reference Interview. In Linda C. Smith & Melissa A. Wong (Eds.), Reference and Information Services: An Introduction (5th ed., pp. 63–97). Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.
Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). (2003). Professional competencies for reference and user services librarians. Retrieved from American Library Association website: http://www.ala.org/rusa/resources/guidelines/professional
Mandi Hull 