ORE on the Web from Ohio Library Council 2000-2007
Ohio Reference Excellence Web-based Training
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Module 1 Exercises

There are no "right" answers for many of these questions. Discuss the questions with your supervisor or other staff members to learn how things work in your library.

Reference service

     1. Does your library have a mission statement, general policy, or reference policy that describes reference service polices, procedures, goals, or mission?

     2. Does the reference policy discuss the value of reference service to your community? If not, ask staff members what they think is the value of reference service in your community.

Community needs

    1. Does the library's reference policy describe the community served or what makes your library's community special? If this is not part of a written policy, talk to the staff. They know all the answers (or at least have heard all the questions)!

     2. Does the reference (or collection development) policy discuss the information needs of your particular community,  i.e. what kinds of information the users of your library want or expect to find at the library (topics or subjects) and in what formats (books, videos, software, etc.)?

    3. Does the library's reference policy include serving the community with remote/virtual services?

First Contact

     Answer the following questions about your library. If you don't know the answers, ask your supervisor or reference staff.

  1. Is it possible to allow some privacy for working with a patron with a very personal question?

  2. What do you do, or see others doing, to make patrons feel comfortable when working to find answers to information needs?

Misconceptions

  1. If you were looking for information about your town, how many different places in your library could you find that information? "Places" can be departments, special collections, fiction, non-fiction, A/V material, online material, etc.

  2. Do you think a new library user would think of all the places? How about a regular library user?

Role of staff

  1. 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.

 

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