Eliminating the Physical Reference Desk: One Year Later
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Presented at GaCOMO14 by Sharon Holderman, Tennessee Technological University
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Eliminating the Physical Reference Desk: One Year Later
- 1. ELIMINATING THE REFERENCE DESK: ONE YEAR LATER Sharon Holderman Coordinator of Public Services Tennessee Technological University
- 2. PREVIOUS STATUS desk location staffing hours stats
- 3. PREVIOUS PROBLEMS chained librarians empty desk syndrome limited hours wasted time perception of librarians decreasing stats substitution nightmare comp time meaningless stats
- 4. FINDING A SOLUTION worked with librarians no solutions reference triage the pager
- 5. HOW IT WORKS front desk for everything answer if possible push the paging button help to the rescue!
- 6. NEW STATUS ddeesskk llooccaattiioonn staffing hours stats
- 7. NEW BENEFITS mobility of librarians no empty desk syndrome expanded hours recognizing circulation staff student workers more engaged easier scheduling larger staff for substitutions better statistics
- 8. WHAT WE’VE LEARNED who’s on board? moving desk was KEY stats went down pushing the button is hard patrons have no clue chat reference / reference email circulation plays a huge role
- 9. OVERALL success time will tell pager system will continue feedback
Editor's Notes
- Introduce self describe our library/university briefly so they understand the size and scope State university Master’s degree university with a few PhD’s 11,000 Students Very popular and busy since we’ve put in a learning commons….we get on average over 5000 students a day and 6000 on Mondays. In the 13-14 academic year we had a gate count of 745,898 which is approximately double what it was in 2008-2009. I’m going to describe the details and process of our reference desk and how we migrated to a pager system
- Desk location was away from the front desk and used only for librarians to sit at during their times at the reference desk. It had a computer with dual monitors and then some resources in the desk (like maps and whatnot). It had its own phone line as well. It was staffed only by reference librarians Hours the desk was staffed had been declining. When I got there, librarians were responsible for 68 hours a week on the reference desk, and we had 4 librarians to staff it. Considering each librarian works 37.5 hours per week, it was almost half of their time. We decreased the hours soon after I arrived to try and address some issues, which I’ll discuss next, but that didn’t solve enough of the problems. Statistics were kept only as hash marks on the day and hour, and there were not strict guidelines for what constituted a reference question or a directional question – everyone put their own judgment on it.
- Librarians were chained to the desk during their shift, and even if no one needed help they had to be at the desk – no special project work like weeding Empty desk suggested there was no way to get help if no one was at the desk (even ran to the restroom) Limited hours – since we only had four librarians sitting at the desk, we could not staff it for long hours Wasted time in that they were answer basic questions and just waiting for someone to need help There was a perception that the librarians were not doing much at the desk by other staff (and there is a big pay difference between staff and faculty librarians at my school) so that was dangerous (and honestly sometimes they weren’t doing much because they were waiting for someone to need help) Stats were declining, which isn’t a problem of the structure but magnifies some of these other problems Trying to find someone to work your shift for vacations or meetings was nearly impossible with four people. Plus to schedule a meeting we’d have to put up a sign at the desk that we were unavailable. This problem was something I came into when I arrived at the library. So what was happening is librarians were working Sunday and then using that as comp time to take off later. Although the university does not give our librarians comp time, because they are faculty, they were using it anyway. And not to just come in later on Monday but to save up and take three weeks extra off at Christmas. That was really bad. The stats we were keeping, although not necessarily related to the desk structure, were not meaningful. This is just a snapshot of the stats we had, the number of reference interactions by the hour. That didn’t tell us a whole lot about duration of appointment, who the patron was, etc.
- I worked with the librarians over a period of time, asking for their ideas and brainstorms. I wanted them to be involved in the process so they were vested from the start and would hopefully minimize resistance in the change I anticipated resistance because many loved their comp time and sitting at the desk with no major responsibilities during that time They really didn’t come up with ideas…..they were so used to the traditional reference desk they couldn’t think outside the box. One librarian had been there 32 years already, so I had a lot of “this is they way we’ve always done it” working against me. Although I knew I wanted to propose a pager system, I started with the concept of reference triage. They all agreed that it would be great if the student workers and circ staff could handle the easy questions like how to print, where the bathroom is, if we have a specific book, etc. So I didn’t have to convince them that reference triage was in our best interest. Then I proposed using the pager system. Now what worked to my advantage is although this was so outside the box, it was still in their realm of experience because we used the pager system during breaks when school wasn’t in session. They were used to being on the pager, so I wasn’t introducing a new idea. I was just introducing a new way to use the idea: full time.
- So the way it work is everything funnels through the front desk. All questions, no matter what kind, start at the front desk The person at the front desk tries to answer the question if possible This is often student workers, sometimes circ staff or something a librarian who happens to be out front If they cannot answer the question, they push the pager button, and ask the patron to wait a moment for help The person wearing the pager comes to the front desk to help the patron
- So here are same logistics on our NEW pager system without the traditional reference desk: The desk we had was moved to the end of our front desk. So it is no longer separate, and somewhat around the corner from the obvious front of the desk. We kept the desk because librarians did not want to bring patrons into their offices and still wanted a place to help them with a guaranteed computer that is available and has dual monitors The pager is staffed by librarians and full-time circulation staff (and a Graduate Assistant we have to cover for a librarian who is part time in the Learning Villages). Librarians cover the pager from 10am-4pm Monday through Friday. The pager is in operation, and reference help is available, any time the library is open. We are collecting stats via an online form (WuFoo) from those wearing the pager only. We are not tracking statistics for the questions the students ask at the front desk.
- The librarians had freedom! The cover the pager now but they are able to work on special projects, go to meetings and step out as needed, etc. As long as they are in the building! This allowed us to do a lot of things that were on hold because we didn’t have librarians with enough time There isn’t an empty desk – there is always someone at the front desk so people always know they can ask for help! Since there is someone on the pager at all times, the hours of ‘reference help’ are anytime the library is open! Not only is this a great message to send to patrons, it’s one less “list of hours” we have to put on our website. Turns out our circ staff was doing reference when librarians weren’t available, especially on nights and weekends. This way we are officially recognizing them as part of the process and properly training them how to do it Student workers are more engaged and they get more traffic – since book circ is declining and so much of what we offer is self-serve, the student workers are often just sitting there (much like the librarians used to do, but it’s much cheaper to pay a student worker to do it than a faculty librarian!!!) Getting them to talk and work with patrons helps them be better student workers. Scheduling is easier because the pager shifts are now longer – since they can be mobile it’s not like asking someone to sit at a desk for four hours. The smallest shift is now 2.5 hours and the longest is 6 hours. Subs are also easier because we just pass the pager off and we have more people now that circ staff is involved, and we have backups in myself and the Dean, which is more possible than it was when we had to sit at a desk. We are now collecting more meaningful stats. It is no longer just hashmarks, but a short survey They have the time because they aren’t so ‘busy’ with walkups We ask date, time, and who did the reference, then we ask the following (IMAGE) Most valuable from my end as a supervisor is knowing who is doing them and how long they are helping them. So if there are many <10 minute sessions is way different than many >20 minute sessions!
- Not everyone was on board, and although it was obvious I couldn’t figure out why. I would just say be prepared for those not on board because it is a monumental change in the land of libraries for some Moving the desk was a key because even when we moved to the pager system but facilities hadn’t moved it yet, it was very confusing to patrons. So I suggest moving it, repurposing it, or completely eliminating it. Make it obvious it is no longer a reference desk space and just unstaffed The stats went down. I expected that because this plan hinged on the idea that the student workers could take over answering quite a few questions. And since we were only tracking the interactions with those on the pager, that should be less Just be prepared for this and realize you can’t compare it to the years of ‘the desk’. Here is just a snapshot of the total number of reference interactions so you can see how much they went down. There is a little carrot at the top of the years and that relates to a statement that describes the major change we made. Our student workers HATE to push the button. It’s a point of training we need to drive home. Not sure why that is – this was the most shocking discovery, but it is true. So we have to constantly reinforce this on a regular basis. It’s comical to me, but a reality! Patrons have no clue – but in a GOOD way for us!! Patrons have no idea whether a librarian or a circulation person is helping them. They just know they were able to get help when they need it. When librarians were sitting at a separate desk and computer that was not their own, it was easy for them to be on chat reference and check the general reference email. The new system resulted in us ignoring these. Oops! After the first semester, we reiterated to sign on to chat whenever you are at a computer We also had the general reference email forwarded automatically to someone’s email account so that it didn’t require checking separately. We actually have eliminated chat reference. It turns out that we mostly ignored it the second semester because it wasn’t convenient to be attached to a computer for chat, and there was NOT A SINGLE complaint. That was pretty telling. So we stopped the chat reference as of July 1, and I still haven’t heard a complaint. The circulation staff plays a large role in this process It requires training of the students in some easy reference and tasks The circ staff needs to be trained in reference and IL help The circ staff needs to be okay with doing some librarian work at a staff pay…this was not an issue for my existing circ staff, but it could be a problem elsewhere or even if we had different staff (and I do have a retirement coming up before too terribly long)
- Overall I think this is a big success for us Our librarians are able to do more instruction (which was at its highest last year since the 1980s and even beat that number by 500 students) They can also devote more time to the faculty and work on other special projects Some special projects we have been able to complete is microform weeding and print journal weeding Time will tell if our reference stats are still declining because we need multiple years on the pager system to determine what statistics look like over time We definitely plan on continuing the pager system! A change we started flirting with but will continue to expand is to not treat all librarians the same Used to have all librarians have the same amount of reference/pager hours and spread instruction evenly We are going to go with people’s strengths and preferences where possible so some will be more reference pager and special projects while others will be more instruction less pager This came about because a librarian revealed she LOVED reference and did not feel comfortable doing instruction. I want to know those things and we can make some changes Of course these changes are all with librarians’ We do not have a formal feedback venue from the patrons (but to be honest we never did) Students have only noticed a difference in two ways: They ask their questions in a different spot And they can get help anytime the library is open I’m great with that!