The Patrick Beaver

Reed, Observation 2

The Patrick Beaver

Memorial Library:

An Observation of the

exterior shot of library Reference Desk
Observation 2: Patrick Beaver MemorialLibrary

Reference Service Behaviors

Completing this assignment, an observation of the reference desk in a library, required that I review the class readings on reference service behaviors and then consider carefully what behaviors to watch for during the observation. In Radford (1998), eye contact is described as the most important factor in determining whether or not a librarian is considered to be approachable. Radford describes a naturalistic study in which students in an academic setting were questioned about their perceptions of the approachability of the librarians. In my experience as both a library employee and a library user, I have found that eye contact does play a very important role in encouraging interpersonal communication. Looking someone in the eye signals an acknowledgement of their presence. If additional open body language behaviors are displayed in addition to the eye contact, it seems to signal an interest in the person and increases the likelihood that they will feel comfortable enough to ask a question.

Taylor (1968) discusses decision paths for information seekers and highlights previous experience with librarians as being an important factor in whether or not a user will ask a librarian for assistance. It is very important to note that the previous experience recalled by the user may be interaction with any librarian! This places a serious responsibility on the profession that should be carefully considered as we interact with any library users in any setting.

Our textbook discusses Edward Kazlauska’s study on kinetic movements that affected the perception of librarian approachability in academic libraries. Kazlauska “…found that raising the eyebrow and lowering it when someone approaches, maintaining eye contact, nodding, and smiling all help make the initial encounter more positive and comfortable” (Cassell & Hiremath, p. 17). Negative behaviors include “…lack of immediate acknowledgment of user, failing change in body stance as user comes closer, covering the eyes with the hand, reading, tapping one’s finger, and twitching of the mouth” (p. 17).(A mention of these negative behaviors is important for the later discussion of my experiences during this observation.)

So, armed with a renewed appreciation for the mechanics of interpersonal communication and the importance of body language during the reference interview, I went to the Patrick Beaver Memorial Library to observe the action at their reference desk.

Introduction to the Hickory Public Library

The Hickory Public Library is located in Hickory, North Carolinaand is a department of the City of Hickory. The library system consists of the central library, called the Patrick Beaver Memorial Library and one branch, the Ridgeview Branch located in the Ridgeview community. The library has a legal service population of 40,212 as definedby the State Library of North Carolina for the 2006/2007 fiscal year. (This is the latest year for which these statistics are available.) Thelibraries are open 7,072 hours annually and are staffed by approximately thirty-three paid FTEs of which eight are MLS librarians. The library staff answered 102,098 reference questions during 2006/2007 and this statistic includes interaction with users of all ages.

The Reference Department

The Patrick Beaver library is a fairly new facility that was built around 1990. The building is airy and light and has very good directional signage. The reference space is located on the second floor wherethe reference desk is highly visible. The desk has good work space for staff, but the structure is open and inviting. Here are pictures of the desk and the public computer space that is located directly in front of the reference desk. The reference stacks are located across from the reference desk and across the room on the other side of the public computers.

The Visit and Observation

I visited the Patrick Beaver Library on a Saturday afternoon from 1:00 to 2:45 p.m. It was a cold and rainy day and I expected that the library would be very busy and it was. When I arrived, there was one female librarian at the reference desk and she was alone until 2:00 p.m. At that time, a male librarian returned from his meal break and joined her at the desk. For the first hour of my observation there was one librarian, whilethere were two for the final forty-five minutes. I observed numerous reference transactions, but I would like to focus on one particular case after first describing the body language of the librarians.

The female librarian sat behind the reference desk during the observation, using the computer the entire time that she was not engaged directly with users. The top of her head was even in height with the top of the flat-panel monitor that she sat behind. However, library users who approach the desk are looking down on the seated librarian as the desk is not raised,so they are able to see the librarian’s face well enough. I noticed that she rarely looked up and was very slow to respond to users who approached the desk as they often stood there for an uncomfortable amount of time before she acknowledged their presence. This was very disturbing to me! Also, much of the time that the librarian was at the desk, she was leaning on the desk with her left arm with her left hand on her face and partially covering her left eye. She rarely smiled, but did seem willing to assist users once they approached her. Several interactions required that she pull resources from the ready reference shelf behind the desk and she seemed to have good knowledge of what was there and how to use it. I did, however, sense a reluctance to leave the reference desk as she often nodded (but never pointed) in leading users to other parts of the library. Since the furniture and setting of this reference space and the actions of the librarians purveys a very traditional model of reference service, I presume that the staff is assigned to the reference desk and may not feel empowered to move more freely among library users.

The male librarian who returned to duty at the reference desk at 2:00 p.m. was a bit more open in his interaction with library users. He seemed to have a bit of a hearing impairment as he wore hearing aids, had a slight speech impediment, and spoke a bit loudly. However, this did not seem to affect his communication with library users. Although he too sat at a computer screen, his head was higher than the screen due to his height, and he frequently looked up from his work to view the activity around him. His face was relaxed and pleasant and he reacted much more quickly to users who approached the desk than did the female librarian. When he returned from his break, he handled most of the reference questions from users who approached the desk as well as the telephone calls. It is important to note that he got up from the desk and moved among the computers, straightening the unused work stations and picking up unused books.

I would like now to turn to the case that I mentioned previously in this paper. This interaction occurred while the female reference librarian was alone at the reference desk during the first hour of my observation. Two young teen females walked up to the reference desk and waited for the librarian to acknowledge their presence. After roughly thirty seconds, the librarian looked up. The taller of the pair was holding out her library card and said that her password had expired. The librarian mumbled that passwords do not expire and took the card from the young woman, scanning it and watching the screen. She handed the card back to the teen and told her that she did not have Internet privileges on her card and would need to go down to the circulation desk to fix it. The young woman took her card and pair walked away, but did not head for the stairs and the librarian did not seem to notice this!

The pair returned to the desk within a couple of minutes and the taller girl told the librarian what she was looking for. Both seemed nervous as they were fidgety and using their hands to accentuate their words. The librarian began searching on the computer and spent several minutes looking at the screen. The girls watched her, but the librarian never shared with the girls what she was doing. One girl left while the other stood there during the uncomfortable silence. At one point, I heard her say that they were doing a “historical investigation.” However, there was no real question negotiation and the librarian never responded verbally to this statement. During her searching, she frequently shook her head from side to side and her brow was perpetually furrowed. How discouraging this was to the young woman as she continued to stand there during the uncomfortable silence, shifting her posture, and watching the librarian helplessly! At one point, the librarian spoke to her and the girl leaned over the desk to try and see the computer screen. The librarian shifted the screen slightly and then returned it to its original position. She wrote something down on a slip of paper while the other girl returned, handed the paper to the young woman, and nodded them towards the stacks. The girls turned and left and the librarian did watch them go until she seemed to think that they were headed in the right direction.

Ten to twelve minutes elapsed and the young women returned to the reference desk – empty-handed and appearing frustrated. The librarian conversed briefly with them, then got up and left the desk to lead them to the stacks. I assume that she showed them where to find the resource that she had referred them to and then quickly returned to the reference desk. Although the librarian did not notice, shortly after that I saw them leave the stacks and go down the stairs to exit the building, empty-handed yet again and appearing even more frustrated.

Aside from the librarian’s negative body language and her lack of question negotiation skills, she never attempted to stay in contact with the young women and they had to repeatedly approach her. This interaction was a prime example of Ross’s “…without-speaking-she-began-to-type maneuver” (Kluegel, Ross, Ronan, Kern and Tyckoson, 2003, p.37) as the librarian simply starting typing into the computer without any type of clarifying questions. Also, this interaction was a prime example of how not to end a reference transaction. It represents an example of negative closure by “unmonitored referral” (Ross and Dewdney, 1998, p. 154). The librarian did not negotiate the question and then sent the young women into the stacks without following up.How difficult she made this experience for them!

Before I left the library, I spoke with a staff person whom I knew and casually asked about the reference staff. I discovered that the male librarian has an MLS and is on the reference staff. The female librarian does not have an MLS and is a technical services associate with twenty-seven years of experience and a college degree in English, but no formal training in library work. In hindsight, it is obvious that working in the reference department on the weekend is not her principle duty and she seemed not to enjoy the work. Libraries who are seeking to staff their public service desks should carefully consider the talents and strengths of the employees that that they place there. Mismatched employees can quickly and unintentionally damage the library’s reputation in the community and it is very difficult to recover from this kind of damage.

Conclusions

As I worked on this project, I found myself considering how to incorporate these ideas into staff development for my library. Although my professional librarians should have received training in the importance of the reference interview, question negotiation, and transaction closure, refresher courses help to keep these ideas in the forefront of daily practice. Additionally, I have a large number of paraprofessionals who have not formally studied library or information science and should be aware of these principles strictly from on-the-job training and coworker modeling. Considering the importance of these behaviors in user interaction, I will need to place this topic on our list of staff development sessions for the coming fiscal year. All library staff, and not just the professional librarians, should understand and be able to demonstrate appropriate communication skills as part of their customer service duties including incorporating open body language, appropriate questioning techniques, and follow-up. If the female librarian that I observed at the Patrick Beaver library had demonstrated an understanding of these techniques, the library might have developedtwo young advocates instead of the two disappointed and frustrated teens who left without the information that they needed for their school assignment. It is imperative that we provide better service in our communities for their benefit and for the future of all libraries.

References

Cassell, K.A. & Hiremath, U. (2006). Reference and information services in the 21st century: An introduction.New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers.

Kluegel, K. Ross, C.S., Ronan, J., Kern, K. & Tyckoson, D. (2003). The reference interview: Connecting in person and in cyberspace. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 43 (1), 37-43.

Radford, M.L. (1998). Approach or avoidance?: The role of nonverbal communication in the academic library user’s decision to initiate a reference encounter. Library Trends, 46(4), 699-717.

Ross, C.S. & Dewdney, P. (1998). Negative closure: Strategies and counter-strategies in the reference transaction [Electronic version]. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 38 (2), 151-163.

Taylor, R.S. (1968). Question-negotiation and information seeking in libraries. College and Research Libraries, 29, 178-194.