Reference Blog #5

Today was not the last day I will be covering the reference desk in the near future, but it will be the last one I am writing about. (November 20th)

I got to do some different things today as the library was rather slow. For example, I learned a lot about interlibrary loans and processing them. Our library is involved in two different library link systems, one with academic libraries and the other with public libraries, all within the state. It is very heavily used (the most heavily used in the country, as of late) and so reference librarians at the Westerville Public Library play a big part in helping pull items for remote patrons, sending them off, and on the other end receiving items from other libraries and checking them out to our local patrons. Because these are special items, they must be checked in and out a certain way as well as obtain a particular label that makes patrons aware these items do not belong to us (or do, if they are remote patrons). Because it is so heavily used, we can have three full carts of items to process. Thankfully, we were slow today and I was able to participate in this process and get a grasp on what the reference librarians here to every day.

On that note, I think it's important to remember that the patrons we serve we don't necessarily meet face to face, or even talk to in any semblance of a conversation. However, we still participate in a transaction with them. In this way, it's really satisfying to see other libraries helping remote patrons. Ultimately, our jobs are public service. These relationships are valuable and should not be discounted as anything else.

Another thing to mention is that we do occasionally get reference questions in snail mail form. While I did not personally answer any of these, I have spoken with several librarians who do respond. Many of these letters are from patrons who cannot physically come inside the library; to be more specific, incarcerated patrons. Dealing with these patrons is different because there are additional privacy issues involved on the side of the librarian (especially the female ones). Sometimes they have to refuse information because patrons will ask for say, 50 pages of printed material. I hope to learn in the future what good policy is with communicating with these patrons (and quite honestly, to see if I personally agree with our current methods of communication, or if they could be improved somehow).

All in all I've learned a lot during my reference shadowing experience and I'm very grateful to the many librarians who advised me and graciously provided me with their time throughout writing my blog. (And thanks for reading it too!) I hope to continue working in reference and constantly learn new things to help patrons.

Reference Blog #4

I covered the reference desk again on November 10th with Erik Johansen, a longtime reference librarian. The greatest thing about working with Erik (that he's presumably learned over the years) is that he is superb at multitasking. He can help a patron in person while helping someone on the phone and scheduling something on the computer. In short, Erik is more than the ideal reference partner if you're at a two person desk: he's the ideal reference librarian I'm trying to become. And I'm not even saying that because Erik might read this. It's simply true.

With that in mind, I only watched this desk for an hour on this day, but it was a very busy one. As soon as I came out a patron approached me and asked me for help locating a Francisco Goya sketchbook. He didn't know any titles, so I conducted a search of the area where it might be (knowing it wasn't very big and we both happened to be standing near the art section) and decided to visually scan the shelves for a sketchbook he might be interested in. I shouldn't have been surprised that I wasn't able to find anything, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to look while we were there.

I asked him to come back with me to the desk so we could sit down at a computer and do some research to figure out a better idea of what he was looking for. He was able to identity the color of the book's cover, but no title or author. After doing some extensive searching in our system, SearchOhio and OhioLink (SearchOhio being the busiest library exchange system in the U.S.) and not locating the item, I googled the terms we had discussed and was able to find the item's title on amazon.com by having the patron locate the cover picture.

After doing all this I was able to locate the the title through SearchOhio and told the patron I would be happy to put it on hold for him. He provided me with his card and I looked it up. This particular patron had over $100 in fines, meaning he couldn't check out or reserve anything until he had paid it down to $5. I informed him of this and he shrugged and said, "Yeah, I know about that. Whatever." I explained the policy to him after which he left (without paying any of his fines).

This would not be abnormal except for the fact that I later found out this is a regular patron who has been made very aware of his fines. This has not been the first time I've experienced this, so I think it's worth writing about in this blog. Just because I am new (and relatively so) does not mean I will change policy or break rules. That patron spent nearly 30 minutes with me knowing that he couldn't get that item with any other librarian. Knowing that he spent my time having me look for an item in hopes that I would be ill-trained or be willing to make an exception is frustrating. How does someone gain respect in the public eye without physically being the person they see at the desk every day?

I've come across this same issue as I have been trained and now regularly cover several other departments in my library. As much as I want to love the patrons we serve (and usually, I really do), occasions like this make me frustrated. I don't want these interactions to influence how I treat other patrons, so this experience was a great way to measure if I was doing that or not. I paid close attention to my mood with the following patrons. It's important for me to remember that whoever comes in line next with perhaps an equally challenging search is probably nothing like the patron who knowingly wasted my time.

I guess in the meantime, until I'm more familiar in the public eye here, I'll hang tough and keep learning, one day at a time. After all, at least 95% of the patrons I serve are reason alone to develop an interest in reference librarianship.

(And just in case you do read this, thank you Erik!)

Reference Blog #3

I covered the reference desk again on November 2, this time with a non-reference librarian. The two of us had been asked to cover the desk while the reference librarians had a meeting. This person normally works in technical services, so we were both praying something extraordinarily difficult didn't happen that neither of us knew how to deal with.

This was an interesting experience by itself. The other person is older than me and communicated with patrons as well as conducted searches in a different way. Her knowledge of the catalog was immense, considering her experience in ordering and processing the majority of our library. However, I found that when a patron didn't know exactly what they want, I was able to quickly use some newer searching tools and databases that she may not have been aware of. To be clear, I am not saying that this person was unhelpful, we just performed the same functions very differently.

This leads me to the point that staying in touch with technology is a vital part of being a reference (I repeat, reference) librarian. The primary goal is to answer the questions of patrons, and the fewer resources you have at your disposal, the harder time you may have locating what the patron wants. At this particular desk it is necessary to work as a team since questions can come in through a variety of means, sometimes all at once. Knowing how to delegate these tasks should not happen because one person does not know how to perform a certain task. I guess what I'm trying to say here is being a reference librarian is always a learning experience. This is not only due to evolving technology, but evolving forms of communication (i.e. instant messenger, text, etc.) There are absolutely still things that I don't know how to do and being at the desk can be overwhelming. It can be very personally challenging to have a patron stare at you because you clearly don't know what you're doing.

That feeling is going away for me as I gain plenty of experience at the desk, and I'm enjoying learning new (and some great old) techniques.