An Introduction to Reference Services in Academic Libraries

Citation

Crofts, S. (2008), "An Introduction to Reference Services in Academic Libraries", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 78-79. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330330810851627

This title is the first in a series of textbooks to be published by Haworth Press aimed, as stated in the preface, at “graduate students, entry‐level librarians, newcomers to academic librarianship, library support staff, and others interested in academic reference services”. It is made up of case studies and essays on various aspects of academic librarianship supplemented by exercises to be undertaken by the reader.

The case studies, which make up the larger part of the book, are mostly discussions of real‐life examples of work carried out in academic libraries, for example the implementation of online information literacy tutorials, types of provision of reference services, marketing library services and evaluation of services by way of customer surveys.

Not all the case studies are drawn from real life. My interest was caught by Rollins and Gaspard's “Occasional occurrences at Owl Creek University”. Being a fan of horror and ghost stories, I had to read this first. It is a horror story of a different kind, but one with which many academic librarians in the UK will be familiar – a fictional account of lack of communication between libraries and academic staff, students with impossible quizzes and exercises set with no reference to library resources, difficulties in arranging induction and so on. The good humoured and thoughtful way in which the librarians deal with the problems provide a good model for any academic library.

Paul Blobaum's “Uninvited change” describes changes in staffing the reference desks following financial cuts and restructuring at Governors State University in Chicago – another feature of life all too familiar to academic librarians in the UK. As at my own institution, paraprofessional staff were trained to deal with enquiries, IT and library desks started to work more closely together; and greater use was made of virtual learning environments and other tools to help deal with enquiries.

The exercise that follows each chapter includes the suggestion of summarising the case study for different audiences, such as college administrators or fund‐raisers. This would be a valuable exercise as academic librarians dealing with projects often need to produce reports at short notice but tailored to meet the needs of different readers, e.g. head of library services, head of school.

The essays in the final third of the book are more personal observations on the position and experiences of academic librarians; it is very much a US perspective. Reading Tammy Guerrero's “Academic librarian as the Rodney Dangerfield of University Faculty: ‘I get no respect’”, I realise how lucky I am in my academic colleagues as I rarely receive such remarks as those she quotes:

Oh, they let librarians serve on committees too?

Self‐evaluation and reflection are important aspects of continuing professional development these days and Mark McCallon's essay on “The teaching portfolio: explaining what we do so well” describes the development of the teaching portfolio. This enables academic librarians to build a portfolio to demonstrate their skills. CILIP Chartership candidates will be familiar with this process, but having the documentation readily available will always be useful in any job where you need to demonstrate your value to the institution.

James Langan's essay “Serving unusual patrons in the library” entertains with its descriptions of odd‐ball customers at his library, but of course the serious message is that all customers deserve courteous attention no matter how eccentric they may seem.

Elizabeth Connor has gathered an interesting collection of essays that are relevant to readers in UK academic institutions although possibly confusing to newcomers to an academic job because of the US setting and terminology. These essays would also offer a useful starting point for discussions on library school courses.