Module 2 Quiz

ORE on the Web (http://www.olc.org/ore/)
from Ohio Library Council 2007 (http://www.olc.org)

Ohio Reference Excellence Web-based Training, Print Version Document

  1. Identify the four steps of the reference process in this example. (These are not in order.)
    _________ You have helped a patron find information for a school report.
    _________ He says "yes" when you ask if he has everything he needs.
    _________ He also tells you that he's glad he saw on your library web site that you answer questions because you've saved him a lot of work.
    _________ You agree - his first question was about snakes and it turns out that wasn't what he wanted at all! It took careful questioning on your part to send the patron home with enough information for a school report (due the next day, of course) on the Pink Mucket Pearlymussel.
  2. Why is important to use the "reference process" instead of   "just answering questions"? In the example in Question 1, what would have happened without the first step in the reference process?
  3. Describe the purpose of the reference interview, when the reference interview starts, and when it ends. In the example in Question 1, what would have happened without the reference interview to get past the patron's first question?
  4. Discuss several reasons why patrons may not want or be able to express their real information needs.
  5. List and describe the "Six Pieces of Evidence." What are the Six Pieces of Evidence in Question 1?
  6. An outline for a possible reference interview for our patron in Question 1 is given below. Use your skills to conduct the interview for the patron. You will use one each of the four types of questions plus a follow-up question in the following reference interview with the patron.
    • "Do you have stuff on the copperbelly water snake?" What type of question should you ask at this point? Give an example.
    • The patron wants the information for a school paper, but doesn't say so. What type of question would you ask to find this out? Give an example.
    • You still don't have the real need pinned down. What type of question would you use to get him to tell you that "The report has to be on an endangered species in Ohio, and I'd rather do one on birds, but the teacher used that snake as an example, and I didn't know anything else to use."? Give an example.
    • You show him a list of Ohio endangered species and he chooses the Pink Mucket Pearlymussel (a clam, not a bird!). Before you actually get him information on the clam, what type of question should you ask? Give an example.
    • After you help him locate information for his report, what type of question should you ask? Give an example.
  7. What can you do if you don't find any information in your library on the Pink Mucket Pearlymussel?
  8. The following story was used in another Module. The patron's real information need was for Bob Vila's address. What type of question could have been used to get the real information need? Give an example.

    "I was working near the circulation desk when I heard a patron ask the clerk if the library had any copies of Bob Vila's books on the shelves.  The clerk immediately checked the computer, went to the shelf, etc. and was gone for several minutes. The clerk came back,  asked the patron for her library card, typed a few minutes, and then informed the patron that there were no books on the shelf, that she had reserved several of the titles for her, and that she could interlibrary loan another title if the patron so wished. The clerk then left the desk to seek Interlibrary Loan forms."

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ORE on the Web, Ohio Library Council, 2007.
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