Episode 907: Reference and Information Services

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Welcome to Season Nine of Linking Our Libraries! We are so happy to have you join us again! We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and our members are all types of libraries and their staff. I’m Angie/Mary

This season we are focusing on topics that are important to library support staff. We will be discussing each of the ten competency sets in the American Library Association’s Library Support Staff Certification program. Some of these may overlap with our Library Basics series from Season Seven, but this season we will be looking specifically at the material the ALA has identified as important. We will link to the ALA’s program, if you want more information or want to sign up for one of their classes.

Earlier this season we talked about the three required courses in this certification program. This week we are talking about one of the competencies that is optional: Reference and Information Services. 

“These services support library users as they seek access to information in all formats, wherever these resources are located. These competencies require an understanding of basic information resources and of the user’s information seeking behavior and expectations.”

Let’s take a look at each of the nine different components the ALA has identified as important here, and talk about a little information on each one.

  1. Library Support Staff know the general scope of the library’s print, non-print, and digital collections, including areas of strength and specialized collections. This should be pretty easy to discuss – and it’s good to be ready to brag about the cool things your library collects! We’ve talked before about the importance of knowing the books and materials in the collection. You don’t want to be the person who has no idea where to even start looking for a book – it’s embarrassing. 
  2. Staff should know legal and ethical issues involved in reference services, including user privacy, confidentiality, and copyright. We’ve talked about the library code of ethics that protects our patrons and their rights to privacy in the information they request and that they receive from us. And to help protect the patrons, you want to have some basic idea about the importance of copyright – at least enough to know to direct them to someone or to some resources to get information about following federal laws.
  3. Library staffers need to know basic reference, information, and community resources in print, non-print, and digital formats in order to conduct and support basic research/reference inquiries. This is another one of those skills that will vary depending on the size of your library. There may be sufficient staff to have people dedicated to answering questions. But in most libraries, it’s pretty common for everyone to need to be ready to answer some questions from patrons. These skills need to be kept up to date as resources change, so keep working on improving this set.
  4. All the library staff should know classification and organization schemes for collections. Last week we talked about this topic in detail. The short version is that everyone should have an understanding of the way the collection is organized, and be able to explain to patrons what they need to know in order to find the information they need. Classification systems can be very confusing to patrons, who may not even realize there is a system. Some basic explanation will make their time in the library more valuable.
  5. Library staffers all need to know basic search methods, display options, and terminology of the library’s catalog, website, and other information access tools. You can see how this is a pretty fundamental skill for all library staff. You do not need to know where everything is, or how to find the really tricky stuff, if other staff or librarians are around to pick up that part of the work. But everyone should be able to do some basic searching of your library’s catalog, and know where things are on the website.
  6. It is really helpful if library staff can conduct effective reference interviews, helping users define their information needs and determine when referrals are necessary. Again, this is going to vary depending on the size and staff of the library. In some libraries, staff would not be involved in a lot of direct reference work. But again, everyone should have at least a basic understanding of how to find out what patrons are looking for – and then either give some directions, or refer them on to someone who is more prepared to help the patron. Without dismissing patrons, they often start off in the library not really knowing what they need. So a good reference interview can help them to think through it all, and to find what they are looking for.
  7. Staffers can instruct and assist users in basic research procedures including  digital literacy skills. We all know how important good digital literacy skills are for everyone to have today. With all the wacky misinformation, or just plain lies, floating around in people’s information sources, the library should be the place where people find the material they want – and they should be confident that their information is accurate. Libraries are becoming uniquely situated to help people with accurate, trustworthy information – and that is a reputation we definitely want to keep.
  8. Library staff can help users select the most appropriate information resource to meet their needs, and evaluate the quality, currency, and authority of information retrieved. This builds on the last two skills, and emphasizes them. Knowing the source of information is always crucial for knowing how valuable it is. “Some ding dong on the internet” is not a replacement for medical advice over the Mayo Clinic, Harvard Medical School, or the CDC. And of course information can change over time – sometimes really quickly. So we need to not only know what was accurate and truthful ten years ago, last year, or last week – we need to be sure we have that current, best information.
  9. And finally, staffers need to know how to search for and identify materials in all formats, and assist users in accessing those materials from local and non-local sources. Remember that our job is to connect people with information. The days of libraries being all about paper books is over – we are so much more than that! So be ready to help people find information in audio, video, or other digital formats. Be ready to know that although you do not have something, it could be borrowed from another library – or you could give your patron assistance in tracking down what they need somewhere else.

Do you feel like you have a quick understanding of these components? There is, of course, a lot more to learn. We can all spend our careers working on enhancing these skills! Use the CMLE podcast resources as a place to start, and if you want to sign up for the ALA/APA classes to get more information, we link to them in our show notes. 

Books Read

Now, let’s get to the part of every episode that we love: sharing a book we are reading. We will link to these books on our shownotes pages, and the link will take you to Amazon. You probably know this, but when you click one of our links and then buy anything at all from Amazon, they give us a small percentage of their profits. That support really helps us, and although it’s anonymous so we won’t know it was you – we appreciate you taking the time to help us!

Conclusion

This was a quick overview. Stay with us all season to get an overview of all ten of the ALA/APA’s certification topics for library staffers. And if you want to find out more about getting certified yourself, check the website (linked in our show notes), or just email us at admin@cmle.org.

Thanks for spending time with us today. It is always great to have this time to chat with you about libraries and the skills we need to be successful. Come back next week, because we have more information to share about libraries! This is just the beginning, and there are so many other great things to share!