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Bailey Library Observation 1Running Head: REFERENCE INTERVIEWS AT THE BAILEY LIBRARY
An Observation of Reference Interviews at the
Denver Museum of Nature and Science Bailey Library
Jennifer Dibbern
Emporia State University
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Bailey Library Observation 2Abstract
This paper is an account of observations and conclusions drawn from my
time spent at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science Bailey Library. I spent
two and a half hours on a Friday morning observing reference interactions
between library visitors and the librarian. Being a special library within a
museum, the library is relatively slow and the patrons are familiar. There are two
examples where the librarian provides excellent reference interviews. In one
instance she provides sources based on natural questioning to a volunteer
searching for information in the library. In the second instance the librarian
provides information in response to a curators email in reference to correct
bibliographic information. It was concluded that Kathy Gully gives proper
examples of how reference interviews should be conducted.
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Bailey Library Observation 3Introduction
On the morning of September 25th, 2009, I had the opportunity to visit and
observe reference interviews at the Bailey Library and Archives at the Denver
Museum and Nature and Science. Unknown to many people, it is a lending
library that is open to the public. The library sits on the third floor of the museum,
adjacent to the South American and African exhibits. It was started in 1920 and
now houses over 40,000 periodicals, books and other published sources (Alton,
2000, p. 116). The collections range from anthropology and zoology to space
science and museum studies. The library even has a childrens corner.
The library recently moved locations in 2006. However, they did not move
very far. The move from the neighboring classroom to the site where the library
now sits has proven to be a beneficial one. Instead of the visitor having to enter
a hallway that feels unwelcoming and inaccessible, the visitor can enter the
library through an open door situated right in the gallery space. Librarian Kathie
Gully explains that on a daily basis, passing visitors enter the library with a
surprised look on their faces and exclaim, I never knew the museum had a
library! As well as visiting the library in person, the visitor can access the
libraries online catalogue. Kathie Gully says that most online enquires come
from curators and researchers double-checking questionable resources. In the
short time I spent at the library, I gleaned important information on how to
correctly conduct a reference interview depending entirely on the questions
presented by patrons.
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Bailey Library Observation 4Setting the Scene
As the visitor enters the library they immediately encounter a desk. This
desk is the renaissance man of desks. It is the reference desk, the checkout
desk and the librarians desk. Because the majority of the general public doesnt
know that this library is here, it is a pretty low traffic library. As explained in the
article by Kenneth Lavendar, Scott Nicholson, and Jeffrey Pomerantz (2005),
the typical user is not concerned with a specific collection within a specific
library, but rather with getting an answer to his or her question from any
collection. The complete opposite is true for a special collections library like the
Bailey Library. The majority of the patrons are curators, museum researchers
and museum volunteers. Therefore, the librarian and library volunteers can
usually predict the needs of the users before they step foot in the library. This
advantage makes this libraries reference interactions unique and very different
from a specifically public library.
Library within a Museum
On the other hand, Lavendar, Nicholson and Pomerantz describe a
special collection department within a public library as a museum within the
library (2005, p. 107). As I sat in the Bailey library I wondered, But, what about
a library within a museum? Even though the Bailey Library and Archives is
primarily focused on specific collections, those collections are still pretty broad.
Because the museum is a nature and science museum, the library collections
cover many of the topics that general public libraries house. So, the bailey library
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Bailey Library Observation 5has a very unique position when it comes to the users they receive through their
doors.
Patrons and Users
As mentioned above, the majority of the patrons that visit the Bailey
Library are from within the museum. Therefore, the librarian and library
volunteers have the ability to predict what the patrons are expecting in their visits.
In doing so, the library mainly operates on the ready reference form of expected
answers (Lavender, Nicholson, & Pomerantz, 2005, p. 109). For example, a
preponderance of the volunteers who visit the library, do so to research
information on upcoming exhibits in which they will be volunteering. There is an
upcoming exhibit on Genghis Khan, so the librarian, Kathie Gully, has organized
a study corner specifically on Genghis Khan for the volunteers to use. Although
she has gathered a number of books for them, there are still specific things that
they look for.
The library was very slow on a Friday morning so I was given a tour of
their collections and storage spaces. When I returned to the library with the
librarian, there still were no visitors, so I watched a collection handling video and
waited for someone to visit. I was so into the cheesiness of the video, that I
almost missed a patron/librarian reference interaction. I took off my headphones
just in time to hear, But, do you have any magazine articles on this same topic?
Both the librarian and library volunteer were helping the man. Wearing a badge,
the man was clearly a museum volunteer and was looking to study up on the
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Bailey Library Observation 6upcoming exhibit. He appeared to be happy with the collection of books offered
in the study corner, but was looking for other material on the same subject.
Ms. Kathie Gully
The librarian calmly responded with, Yes, we do actually. She walked
him over to a magazine rack and showed him some National Geographics and
others that contained stories about the Mongols. She asked if he knew what else
he was looking for specifically and pointed him in the direction of some other
books not yet pulled for the study corner. The dialogue went roughly as follows:
Patron: Im looking for a bit more information on the Mongols.
Kathie: What information are you missing and looking for on the Mongols?
Patron: Maybe some other sources about life in 13th Century Mongolia.
Kathie: Anything specific that I help you find on life in 13th Century Mongolia
or just general information sources?
Because she knows the majority of her patrons and the information they seek,
Kathie Gully and her volunteers appear to use a lot of neutral questioning to
figure out what specifically it is that they are searching for. Brenda Dervin and
Patricia Dewdney (1986, p. 509) define neutral questioning in their article as
questions [that] are open in form and structured in content terms that invite the
user to talk about specific elements. She is sympathetic and agreeable in her
approach and seeks to understand the patron from their perspective. She
actively pays attention and seeks to leave the patron fulfilled and informed.
Likewise, it seems that the library volunteers are just as helpful and follow in the
neutral questioning footsteps.
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Bailey Library Observation 7Another way Kathie receives inquiries is online. She primarily receives
emails from curators and museum researchers. One example she gave was an
inquiry from one of the curators wanting to follow up on a bibliographic reference
that he couldnt find anywhere. She checked it out and promptly found the
solution. The bibliographic source was in fact incorrect and the paper the curator
was looking for was out of a university in Thailand. Kathie Gully, being the
amazing librarian and reference specialist that she is, tracked down the university
in Thailand. She sent an email requesting a copy of the paper for the curator and
is awaiting a response from their reference librarian. Of course, in that instance
the patron knew exactly what they were looking for and no neutral questioning
was needed. Instead, the situation was strictly Bibliographic Instruction and
falls in the Taxonomy of Forms of Expected Answers (Lavender, Nicholson, &
Pomerantz, 2005, p. 109). The curator was just looking for help on an
information source he found on his own.
Conclusion: Just Plain Ol Excellent Customer Service
Working in customer service my whole life and especially now at Whole
Foods Market, I know good customer service when I see it. If a reference
interview is boiled down to its core, it is just simply a different form of customer
service. In most situations one would think that customer service is common
sense. However, most would be surprised to find out that it takes a lot to give
exceptional customer service. In the General Information Guide for Whole Foods
Market, a guide that is read like a bible, it gives some applicable words of advice
when it comes to dealing with customers/patrons. The GIG (WFMRMR, 2007)
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Bailey Library Observation 8states, The single most important aspect of your job is customer service. WFM
wouldnt exist without our customers. The same can be true of libraries and
their patrons. The librarian at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science Bailey
Library, Ms. Kathie Gully, has done an excellent job providing reference services
and has taught her volunteer staff to do the same. It may just be that the library
is small or there is an ample amount of time and many helpful volunteers on staff
to assist patrons, but I believe this level of service should be able to be achieved
in any library. The WFM General Information Guide (2007) will leave us with
some parting customer service thoughts, Always treat every customer with
courtesy and respect. Walk with customers. When you get there, stay until you
know they are satisfied. Be helpful and dont preach. Take care of all
customers. And finally, the most important lesson of all, if we take care of our
patrons they will probably leave happy and tell their friends about the amazing
experience they had. This is especially important for smaller libraries that may
be looking for funding to build a new site, like the Bailey library. Donors may be
more willing to contribute if they know the service at the library is outstanding.
Much like Kathie Gully and her Bailey Library, we should all strive to satisfy and
delight our patrons (WFMRMR, 2007).
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Bailey Library Observation 9References
Alton, James T. (2000). The Official Guide. Denver, CO: Denver Museum
of Nature and Science Press.
Dervin, B. & Dewdney, P. (1986). Neutral Questioning: A New Approach
to the Reference Interview. RQ 25(4), 506-513
Lavendar, K., Nicholson, S., & Pomerantz, J. (2005). Building Bridges for
Collaborative Digital Reference between Libraries and Museums
through an Examination of Reference in Special Collections. The
Journal of Academic Librarianship, 31(2), 106-118.
Whole Foods Market Rocky Mountain Region. (2007). General Information
Guide (Rev. Ed.). Boulder, CO: Whole Foods Market