1. !
The Reference
Interview:
They DO Still Ask
Reference Questions
Nicolette
Warisse
Sosulski
Business Librarian
Portage District
Library
Staff Librarian
QuestionPoint

2. About Me
SO where
do I get
the gall to
present on
what all of
us do?
•
.
BY DAY
Portage District Library:
• Biz Librarian
• Reference & Database
Collections
• Mistress of Many Dewey
Centuries
• IB Liaison
• > 10K desk hours
Delete text and place photo here.
BY NIGHT
QuestionPoint:
• Public Librarian, US, UK
• University Librarian, US, UK
• Biz Librarian
• Community College Librarian
• Military Librarian
• Spanish Public & Academic
Chat Librarian
• > 10K desk hours

4. Two of them in one day. That's more than I've had in, oh several
months I think. Harvard doesn't generate actual reference
questions, only just "Where's the bathroom?" and the kind where
you point out the dictionary or encyclopedia.
---blog posting, http://altivo.dreamwidth.org/
An unpublished study of …Anaheim public library revealed
that only 14.2% could be classified as “real” reference
questions….
From Past-Present to Future-Perfect: A Tribute to Charles A. Bunge and the Challenges of Contemporary
Reference Service by Linda Katz

5. "Hi. I'm doing a research project examining the use of art for social justice and
forwarding counternarratives. Right now I am needing to do a lit review so am trying
to get an understanding of the current discourse surrounding this question. Do you
have any advice about promising Journals or Databases, or other suggestions to get
started on the lit review process?"
I can’t find “botox” in the dictionary and I do not understand
why because I am hearing on the news it has been found in
babies’ stomachs.
I am supposed to go to a party dressed as a person from a country and I
want to pick China and all the books keep having is pictures of maps.

6. But Why Would
Reference Questions
Be Dying?

7. Physical Barriers

8. Physical Barriers
Desk, Computers, Materials
Where is the librarian? Yep, she’s still there….

9. Psychological Barriers:
Societal Messages

10. Psychological Barriers:
Societal Messages
We all want
to be
INdePENdent

11. Psychological Barriers:
Societal Messages
So when
we are
not we
feel…..

12. Psychological Barriers:
Ignorance
They
don’t
know to
ask….

13. Psychological Barriers:
Ignorance
They think
they know
what we
offer…..

14. Psychological Barriers:
Ignorance
But there
is stuff in
the back…
online, in
another
format

15. Psychological Barriers:
Ignorance
And our
labels look
like this

16. Reference Questions are Easy to
Crowd Out
The day after everybody gets a Kindle for Christmas….

17. Reference Questions are Easy to
Crowd Out
Reference Questions are not always
asked—sometimes they are actually
midwifed, and can die a-borning
--Nicolette Warisse Sosulski
Most ordinary people do not ask Reference Questions.
Librarians ask Reference Questions
--Nicolette….again!

18. Reference Questions are Easy to
Crowd Out
In our quest to deliver good service,
reduce waits, get to everybody as fast
as we possibly can, and not be
intrusive, could we be part of the
problem?

19. !
The Reference
Interview:
Questioning Techniques
Approachability and Nonverbal Communication
The 4 R’s of Reference
Follow-Up
RUSA Behavioral Guidelines

20. Questioning Techniques
Open-Ended Questions Closed Questions
• What about [insert
subject] would you
like to find?
• Where have you
looked so far?
• What kind of sources
would you like?
• Tell me more about
your topic.
• Are you looking for
books or articles?
• Do you want current
or historical
information?
• Do you want that in
English?
• Did you look in the
catalog?

21. Overcoming Barriers:
Approachability and Nonverbal Communication
Library
Approachability
Research
Giving over 500 people
a questionnaire in
which two very similar
people were pictured,
patrons were asked to
rate choose the more
approachable
Approachability Hierarchy
Dave Tyckoson
Associate Dean
Henry Madden Library
California State
University, Fresno
Most Approachable
•
•
•
•
Smiling 93
Eye Contact 90
Helping Another 12
Writing 10
Least Approachable
•
•
•
•
Sitting 10
Using the Computer 10
Reading 5
On the Phone 1
In fact, being on the phone was deemed even less
approachable than having one’s back turned!

22. Increasing Rapport—
Through The 4 “Rs”
Dave Tyckoson
Associate Dean
Henry Madden Library
Reassure
Respond
• Yes, this is really quite
a complex question
(you are not an idiot)
• We could approach this
from a sociology or a
historical point
• I can help you or get
you somebody who
can (you are not
wasting your time)
• We can find you
examples and articles
that will work
California State
University, Fresno

23. Increasing Rapport—
Through The 4 “Rs”
Dave Tyckoson
Associate Dean
Restate
Henry Madden Library
Repeat
California State
University, Fresno
•
You need all the Chinese
restaurants in Kalamazoo
County
•
Your teacher wants three
web pages, two books and •
six articles
•
You are working on a
speech on why homework
is bad for kids
•
•
You are going to start in a
keyword search in Psych
info under “impact of
depression”
You have the biographies
and those articles and that
is where you need to be
You remember how to get
to Reference USA

24. What the Experts Say:
The RUSA Guidelines
http://www.ala.org/rusa
/resources/guidelines/g
uidelinesbehavioral

25. What the Experts Say:
The RUSA Guidelines

26. The Reference Interview
as Marketing Tool
“Fries with That
Librarianship”

27. The Reference Interview
as Marketing Tool
“Fries with That Librarianship”
The Waitress:
“Can I interest you in a cocktail?”
or better yet
“Will you be starting out with a Shrimpwreck Mary
[a large, spicy, expensive Bloody Mary garnished by a skewer
of three prawns instead of a stalk of celery] this afternoon?”
“Can I show you our dessert tray? The Chocolate Molten Lava
Cake is to die for, or we have fresh strawberries in a crème
anglaise.”

28. The Reference Interview
as Marketing Tool
“Fries with That Librarianship”
1)
The client does not know everything on the menu.
2)
The client might want something if s/he knew it was
available.
3)
The client cannot order it if s/he does not know it exists.
4)
If the client learns something about the establishment that
s/he did not know before, it makes the server look more
knowledgeable.
5)
The client will have a higher experience with a wider
knowledge of the riches on the menu.
6)
The higher experience will make the restaurant look
better.

29. The Reference Interview
as Marketing Tool
“Fries with That Librarianship”
• ASVAB and GED book queries get taught Learning
Express—show a different resource type
• Series order queries are shown Fantastic Fiction,
Books and Authors, or Novelist—show that the librarian
has tools you can use immediately
• Investment Database Printing Problem is introduced to
the Muffins and the Market group—push the
programming
• Computer Support Problem on Possessed Bullet
Points in Word is told about job search resources—
they do not know what they do not know.

30. The Reference Interview
Challenge
How many
“real reference questions
can you create today?