Ohio Reference
Excellence
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Role of
Public Service Staff
Public service staff carry out the reference process.
Working with the Public
Staff are the intermediaries between patrons and
information. Staff perform the mediation required to find and fill real information
needs. Reference staff also promote information literacy by teaching patrons to be skilled
information seekers. Public service people work in reference, information services, adult
or children's services, or circulation. They are responsible for conducting library work
with regard for professional ethics and patron rights (Module 6).
Discovering Needs
The public service staff talk to patrons, discover needs, and
follow up to make sure those needs have been met. This is true for any type of library.
Many people in your own library and throughout the state work to support library service,
but the public service staff are the ones who have direct public contact. No one else has
the same influence you have on the daily success of the library in meeting information
needs of people. Staff must achieve certain competencies to provide quality reference
service.
Competencies and Guidelines for Reference Services
Professional
competencies guidelines focus on the reference behaviors, the abilities, skills, and
knowledge required for quality reference service:
1. Access: analyzing and responding to needs for information services and understanding
how services are designed and organized.
2. Knowledge Base: staying aware of, applying, and sharing new concepts in the library
and information services environment.
3. Marketing/ Awareness/ Informing: evaluating services, communicating about them to
others.
4. Collaboration: maintaining positive relationships with users, colleagues, within the
library, and beyond.
5. Evaluation and Assessment of Resources and Services: Understanding user needs,
information services trends, resources, methods of service delivery, common methods of
access and interface, and knowledge of information service providers.
Working Remotely
Skills and behaviors that you will be learning apply to
in-house or to remote reference. New categories have been created for behavioral
guidelines. The categories apply to the model behaviors of approachability, interest,
listening/inquiring, searching, and follow-up covered in Module 2,
Reference Interview. The three categories reflect the differences and the similarities
in providing reference services with a variety of services, chosen to match community
needs and library capabilities:
- General guidelines for any reference interaction.
- In-person guidelines specific to face-to-face encounters.
- Remote guidelines for reference encounters by telephone, email, chat, etc., where
traditional visual and non-verbal cues do not exist.
Major Point: Public service staff performance is critical in meeting a community's
information needs.
- Who is involved in reference service in your library? A whole department? A reference
librarian? Anybody who's available? Just you! Large or small, the reference service
provided by the library is critical. Identify everyone at the library who provides
reference service.
Answer Key
Review module one.
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What is your role?
To get some good ideas (and see how wikis and blogs work to allow cooperative building of information sites), look at a library blogs list on the Blogging Libraries Wiki or a list of librarian and library blogs with links to individual, library, organizational, medical, and other topical library blogs.
Public service staff performance is critical in meeting community
information needs.
Miami Township Branch Library staff make the library a great place to be!
 Virtual Reference Desk, now part of WebJunction, has standards, Aska Digests, DIG_REF forum, conference proceedings, evaluation and research about virtual reference practices and procedures.
The State
Library of Ohio web site has job
descriptions that describe duties for reference staff. Look at the duties listed in a
few of them. Reference people are obviously busy people!
For example, job responsibilities listed for Job Title: Clerk II - Reference
include:
Maintains
reference collection and advises staff of new materials and use of catalog and reference
materials;
Answers patrons'
reference questions; researches questions as requested;
Assists in the
selection of reference materials;
Keeps current on
reference materials, issues, policies, and new techniques by reading professional journals
catalogs, and other related literature;
Updates
reference index and summaries on the computer;
Trains,
supervises, evaluates, disciplines, and hears Level I complaints of Aide or Page assigned
to Reference Services.
Prepares orders
for and displays public information forms and publications, including IRS forms, college
catalogs, financial aid forms, etc.;
Opens and closes
the library, assumes responsibility for the operation of the library on Saturdays and
evenings as scheduled. Keeps daily statistical reports, as necessary;
Performs
circulation desk duties, as needed;
Answers questions and assists patrons, as requested.
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Interview
People
Strategies
Resources
Ethics