Making It Work for Everyone: An Evolving Reference Service

Abstract

At an academic health science center, librarians identified problems, weaknesses, and strengths in reference services. The on-call reference schedule was discontinued and a question flowchart was developed for circulation staff. Only research questions were referred to librarians, who would respond if available. Circulation staff perceived the unscheduled, voluntary model was not working well for the patrons or the staff. After two months, the schedule was reinstated with a hybrid version of the previous on-call format. In the process of changing the service model, the library staff also underwent a cultural change.

Connections, Conversations, and Visibility: How the Work of Academic Reference and Liaison Librarians Is Evolving

“…13 A University of Connecticut librarian described dismantling their reference collection and going to a distributed model of reference, 14 while a medical library discontinued their on-call schedule and then reinstated a hybrid model when problems arose. 15 Despite this clear movement away from the visible symbol of the job, the desk still looms large in the psyche of reference librarians. There are recent case studies, 16 opinion articles, 17 transaction analyses, 18 and even an ode that continue to discuss its presence in libraries.…”