Summary & Report
LAUC-B Public Services Task Force
Reference Services at UC Libraries: Issues and Trends
May 25, 1999
noticed at Berkeley (1) a slight decrease in the number of professional librarians, (2) calls to rethink reference and try more cost-effective approaches such as the use of paraprofessionals, information desks with tiered referral arrangements, shorter hours of service, and the utilization of websites, email and other electronic tools, as well as (3) the general increase in the complexity of the world of information resources we must utilize and teach students to use, and (4) a gradual decline in walk-up traffic at most reference desks (except at UCSC!)the overall message appeared to be that each of these other campuses is still very committed to high-quality, one-on-one reference service delivered largely by professional librarians, for as
many hours a week as possible. In addition, although all remarked on the importance of electronic tools, which in many cases now substitute for or complement print reference sources, none saw a significant decline in our need to continue to build substantial print reference collections.
Phyllis Bischof , co-chair of PSTF, introduced the panelists and moderated the program. Corliss Lee, co-chair, described a background handout summarizing comparative data about the five campuses. Corliss cautioned against taking the statistical data as gospel, since many of the counts proved more difficult to compile than they expected, and were at this point relatively rough. For that reason, the data will not be distributed further in printed form.
The four panelists were Rafaela Castro, Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian, Shields Library, UC Davis; Cheryl Gomez, Head of Reference Services, McHenry Library, UC Santa Cruz; Miki Goral, Public Services Coordinator, Reference Dept., Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA; and Susan Lessick, Acting AUL for Research and Instructional Services, UC Irvine.
Desks, Staffing, Hours Overall Summary
At each of the other four campuses, one service point functions in practice as the campus general reference serviceusually the Humanities and Social Sciences reference desk. It is staffed primarily by librarians and provides service at least until 7 weekday evenings and at least 4 hours each weekend day.
Of course, it is important to keep in mind that there are other major reference service points on each campus which do a considerable amount of general reference. On both the UCSC and UCI campuses, there is a single, large Science library which the second principal library on each campus. UCD has both a Biology & Agriculture Reference Service in the Shields Library and a separate Physical Science & Engineering Library. UCLA has a number of sizable branch libraries and also has a separate Undergraduate Library, with its own reference service.
Reference vs Collection Development
At UCD and UCI, all librarians who provide reference service also function as subject selectors. One drawback to this approach, mentioned by Rafaela Castro, is that at UCD, the 8 librarians in the Humanities/Social Sciences department all identify primarily with their selection function (75% of their time and energy) and see reference as a secondary role.
At UCSC and UCLA, there are separate Reference Departments, dedicated to reference and instruction. At UCSC, the Reference Department consists of six librarians, a reference specialist
(LAV) and Reference Stacks Supervisor (LAIII). Only three of the librarians also have selection responsibilities, and they differentiate clearly between these selectors for
whom reference/instruction is primary and selection is secondary, and the bibliographers who work in a separate Collection Development Department, and have collection
development as their primary or sole responsibility.
.
At UCLA, the Reference Department consists of 8 librarians and 3 Library Assistants, supplemented by students from the Library and Information Science program on campus. (In addition, UCLA
has a full-sized undergraduate library, with another 5.5 librarians providing reference service and instruction to undergraduate students.)
One potential advantage of having separate reference departments is that there is a group within the library with a clearcut commitment to quality reference service as its highest priority. Both Cheryl Gomez and Miki Goral conveyed a remarkable level of enthusiasm, and passionate devotion to reference service. They clearly love doing reference work.
Government Documents
Three of these other UC campuses maintain Government Documents units separate from the main Humanities/Social Sciences Reference desk.
At UCI, Government Information has been combined with the Humanities/Social Sciences Reference service, but there are still two reference service points, at either end of one long desk. Generally, an effort is made to schedule a Government Information specialist every hour the desk is open, to work in parallel with the generalist reference librarian, but UCI does not have enough Government Information specialists to actually cover all the hours required. The reference collection of government publications is shelved adjacent to the Humanities/Social Sciences reference collection, much of it in Superintendent of Documents or other specialized classification.
At UCSC, the Government Documents unit is also physically adjacent to the Humanities/Social Sciences reference area, so that reference staff can utilize both reference collections if they choose.
At UCD and UCLA, the Government Information unit is entirely separate from the Humanities/Social Sciences Reference desk, in another part of the building.
Use of Library Assistants
All the other UC libraries utilize Library Assistants to varying degrees at their reference desks, but generally only within carefully defined parameters. At Davis, there are two (an LAIII and an LAIV) who each work about 8 hours/week during the M-F 9-5 schedule. They may be scheduled alone, or with a librarian. At UCLA, the Department has three Library Assistants. They cover the 8-10am time slot working alone, but are otherwise always assigned to work together with a librarian.
At UCSC, there are two Library Assistants in the Reference Department, one a Reference Specialist (LAV), who works on the reference desk either solo or with a librarian, and the other a Reference Stack Supervisor (LAIII), who works some hours at the desk with a librarian. In addition, UCSC has a Reference Aide program, which utilizes Library Assistants from other departments in the library, working along side librarians during the busiest periods, weekday afternoons.
UCI employs four Library Assistants as Reference Assistants in the Science Library Reference Department, and four in the Main Library Reference Department. Most are LAIIIs, and reference work is a major part of their job assignment. Most work 15 hours a week on the desk.
The Science Library instituted this Librarian/Library Assistant partnership arrangement four years ago, calling it the Library
Assistant/Reference Partnership program. These specially-trained Library Assistants from the Reference Department work together with a librarians at the Science Reference desk,
providing triage and referral either to the librarian partner or to the companion Research Consultation Service, where a question requiring a longer response can
be immediately referred to a librarian who is scheduled to be on call and will come on request to provide in-depth assistance. The Library Assistant/Reference Partnership
program was evaluated recently through anonymous surveys to all the Science Library staff,
and found to be very successful. The Science librarians unanimously agreed that the program had improved the quality of reference service, and allowed them to spend more time with users who
have difficult questions. In January 1999, the Reference Partnership program was extended to the Main Librarys reference service. In both cases, the program was a net addition to the
Reference desk staffing. Even though there had been a small reduction in the number of librarians, there was no prospect of reestablishing the earlier number of librarians, but additional
staffing resources WERE made available to hire new LAIIIs.
Hours & Staffing Levels
UCD: M-F 9-1 [1L or LA]; 1-5 [2L or 1L,1LA]; M-Th 5-6pm [1L], 7-9pm [1L]; SS 1-5 [1L]
UCSC: M-F 9-5 [2L,1LA], M-Th 5-9pm [1L], SS 1-5 [2L]
UCLA: M-F 8-10am [1LA], 10-5 [1L,1LA or 2L]; M-Th 5-7pm [1 SLE/Intern, 1L], 7-9 [SLE/Intern]; F5-6pm [1L]; Sa 9-1 [1SLE/Intern], 1-5 [1L, 1SLE/Intern], Su 1-5 [1L, 1 SLE/Intern], 5-9
[1SLE/Intern]
UCI: M-F 10-1 [2L], 1-5 [2L,1LA], M-Th 5-8 [1L]; SS 1-5 [2 L] (Main) or [1L,1SLE/TechAsst] (Science)
At Davis, librarians from the two principal reference desks in the Shields Library, Humanities/Social Sciences and Bio-Ag, combine to jointly provide service at the Humanities/Social Sciences desk from 5-8 pm. At UCLA, students from the Library and Information Studies program on campus are hired to provide limited reference service from 7-9 pm weekdays, from 9-1 on Saturday and from 5-9 on Sunday, as well as work with a librarian 5-7 daily, and 1-5 Saturday and 1-5 Sunday.. At Irvine, a technology assistant (advanced student employee) works with the librarian on the weekend in the Science Library. Irvines Main Library reference service extends until 8 pm; the Science Library, with otherwise identical hours, has service only until 7 pm. Irvine is considering some new arrangement for hiring librarians for weekend work, in order to reduce the number of weekends the regular librarians must come in to work the desk.
Information Desks
Three of the four campuses have Information Desks in addition to the Reference Desks. These are generally staffed by Library Assistants, students or librarians not regularly assigned to
the reference desk. They are all intended to handle directional questions, basic information about the campus and the library, and straightforward lookups using the catalog and (to some
extent) other online tools. They are all mandated to refer routinely to the reference desk any questions that require more expert assistance. All the speakers, however, expressed some concern
about whether questions are referred on to the Reference
Desk as often as they should be.
In part, this problem of referral in a tiered arrangement is greatly affected by the physical locations of the desks. At UCD, UCLA and UCI, the first desk visitors encounter (beyond security) is the Information Desk, which is supposed to refer to the reference desk. But the reference desk is not always even visible from the Information Desk, and in the cases of UCD, and UCIs Science Library, the Information Desk is one floor below the Reference Desk..
All the speakers agreed that the physical location of the reference desk is very important. Only UCSC, however, has an optimal locationthe first desk one finds inside the main entrance. In their case, the desk is always busyin fact, they have not encountered the declining desk statistics reported elsewhere.
Changes In Use Patterns
All four campuses acknowledge that the majority of those served at their general reference desks are undergraduate students. Santa Cruz articulates this quite prominently in its reference department mission statement.
Except for Santa Cruz, all have been experiencing a gradual decline in transactions at their reference and information desks in recent years. Irvine has the best evidence of this, since they began taking a systematic survey of use two years ago, and recently did the same survey a second time.
They found that total transactions at all reference and information desks had declined by 20%. The breakdown of transactions by category, however, showed little change. Directional questions run about 33%, training assistance, 8%, holdings checks, 21%, and reference questions, 38%. Of users served, 57% were from UCI and 43% were from off-campus (mostly students from other institutions), and recently, the percentage of non-UCI users has been decreasing.
In fact, at UCI, desk transactions of all types have been declining over the last five years (reference down 30%, directional down 21%), even though there has been a 12% increase in student
enrollment, a 23% increase in the number of people entering the building, and a 14% increase in the number of volumes used. Why? Librarians have noted a steady increase in the complexity of
questions, the number of resources that must be consulted, and the length of time it takes to answer questions, so next time, the survey will try to assess these factors. Beyond that,
however, it has been widely assumed in the field that the increasing ability of users to access electronic resources directly accounts for the decline in questions at desks. At UCI
this
seems to be borne out, since there is increasing use of all electronic resources, including the Librarys website.
At Davis, their recent survey found that most students asking questions at the reference desk now fall into two categoriesthose who are relatively new to the library and need basic
orientation, and those who have already made a considerable effort to find materials on their own, using the Internet and other available online resources, and who only
come to the reference desk when they feel they have been unsuccessful or need more specialized assistance.
All speakers, however, agreed that the information environment was becoming increasingly complex and difficult to deal with, and that it generally takes longer to assist students with the average research project. All felt that there is just as much need for our assistance as everprobably more so!even if fewer students find their way to the desk to ask for our help.
Reference Staff Training
All agreed it is more and more difficult for reference librarians to maintain effective expertise, given the steady expansion in the number of electronic tools we must utilize.
Cheryl Gomez gave an impassioned argument for the importance of a shared departmental and library vision, a commitment to valuing quality reference service, giving it a high priority in the organization, and an attitude toward what we are doing which, to quote Melvil Dewey, gives our work the quality of a ministers vocation or calling. While we need to constantly upgrade our skills and knowledge, we also have to be willing to work within our resources, rather than beyond them, so that we can maintain balance in our lives and be able to bring to the reference interaction the energy, intellectual curiosity, caring, patience and flexibility that such a demanding public performance role requires. No one can do quality reference work who is stressed out from working 50-60-70/hr weeks with an impossible workload.
Susan Lessick gave the fullest account of current training programs. One consequence of UCIs Reference Partnership Program has been the development of a structured training program for Library Assistants III and above who work on reference and information desks. There are eight modules, each with a pre- and post- assessment, covering the reference interview, the use of the online catalog, referral and consultation with librarians, training on specific desks, and two 1 1/2 hour observation periods. Recently several LAs completed the set of eight modules and were presented with graduation certificates.
Reference training for librarians at UCI is handled in several ways. The Main Library has a training team which identifies reference training needs and develops learning opportunities, and every reference staff meeting includes a 15-minute discussion of new, favorite or underused reference sources. The Science Library devotes one meeting a month to an electronic forum, with overviews and updates by various subject librarians. The Library has also hired a half-time technology training coordinator who has surveyed the staff and is developing a program for electronic competencies for all staff including librarians.
Even all this is insufficient; more needs to be done. Reference training will continue to be a high priority for the Reference Division and they plan to do more next year.
Impact of Electronic Tools on Print Collection
No one felt the importance of the print reference collection was substantially affected by the increasing availability of electronic tools. At Santa Cruz, they have noticed an
increasing need to coordinate with subject bibliographers on electronic licensing arrangements. At Davis, and undoubtedly at the other campuses, certain toolsprincipally indexing and
abstracting servicesare being cancelled and moved from the reference collection as they are superceded by electronic versions, but this represents a small fraction of the total. At
UCLA, they find the costs of the electronic tools are so high that more and more of their budget is diverted to their support, and the library is unable to purchase all the print reference
tools it would still like to get. They must also weed their print collection because of space considerations. Yet all four campuses have larger print reference
collections in their humanities and social sciences reference service than does UCB:
UCB: 20,000 (Info Center + HAS Reference Stack)
UCLA: 40,000 (Social Sciences/Humanities)
UCD: 30,000 (Humanities/Social Sciences)
UCSC: 27,445 (Humanities/Social Sciences)
UCI: 30,000 (Humanities/Social Sciences/Business/Govt Publications)
New Initiatives
Susan Lessick described three new electronic initiatives at Irvine:
An Ask-A-Question Service, a centralized electronic reference service, is featured prominently on the Library webpagethe reference desk in cyberspace. About 10 questions a day are fielded by a team of librarians (with one library assistant).
Video teleconferencing between the Science Library reference desk and a computer lab at a remote facility was instituted a couple of years ago. It was taken down for two quarters, but is now being re-established between the Science Library and the Medical Center Library in Orange (13 miles away).
Call messaging will be installed soon on several public workstations, allowing students to simply click on an icon to communicate with the reference desk, alerting librarian that they need help.
At UCLA, library administration has encouraged the reference department to expand its program of course-integrated instruction sessions, and they have a new electronic classroom, so this is an area into which they are putting considerable new effort.
What They Would Change
All agreed they would like more staff, and in several cases, libraries have created new professional positions relating to the support of electronic resources and access, that they are recruiting or planning for. Cheryl Gomez mentioned wanting better coordination with campus technical support at Santa Cruz. Miki Goral feels keenly the need to better position the reference desk at UCLA, so that it is more readily visible from the entrance. Librarians at Davis see a need to better evaluate the quality and effectiveness of service at both the reference and information desks, and to provide much more ongoing reference updates, training and review for reference staff.
Conclusion
All four speakers agreed that traditional reference service is just as important as ever. Everyone found the article Whats Right with Reference, by David A. Tyckoson, in the May issue of American Libraries, to be a timely reaffirmation of what they all had come to believethat in spite of all their efforts to implement innovations in the area of reference service, from tiered arrangements, to email reference, to web guides and increased library instruction programs, nothing could lessen or substitute for the continuing need for what Cheryl Gomez characterized as one-on-one, quality reference service, by professional librarians, as many hours a week as possible, with undergraduate students the principal focus. Susan Lessick, who had the most to report in terms of the utilization of new technologies, still spoke for the panel when she declared herself an advocate for the continuing importance of traditional reference service as well as for the increasing utilization of electronic technologies to enhance reference service in the digital age.
Bill Whitson
Revised, July 12, 1999