In this study, the authors examined the value of research consultations, an important component of reference services. Previous research explored the sustainability and scalability of a large-scale research consultation project from the librarian perspective. Through survey responses from the perspectives of more than 1,500 students, the authors gathered evidence on the impact of research consultations on student confidence and their perceptions of the approachability and helpfulness of library personnel.
Librarians at Penn State University piloted the online appointment-scheduling tool YouCanBook.me to determine its effectiveness in facilitating a high number of research consultations and improving an embedded service model. Librarians sought to leverage the tool to work with as many students as possible while balancing other duties. This article details using YouCanBook.me for this specific application, provides data and evaluation of the pilot, and explores possibilities for scaling usage of this scheduling tool in other library settings, both large and small.
In March 2020, many academic librarians were abruptly forced into an online service environment due to the global COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Although some librarians had been providing synchronous video reference consultations prior to the pandemic, evidence of the practice in Library Science literature is scant. This paper presents scenarios sourced from anonymized student responses to a digital badge on the library's chat reference service to illustrate when a video consultation may be the appropriate modality to address an information need.
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