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Asking the right questions

A half-day reference skills workshop conducted by Angela Vilkins
Anne Collins ALIA Qld Library Technician committee member

On Saturday 12 March 2005 the ALIA QLD Library Technicians Group hosted 'Asking the right questions', a half-day workshop on reference interview skills conducted by Angela Vilkins who currently teaches in the Diploma of Library Studies and Information Technology at SBIT and also works in the special libraries sector. Angela's background is in academic libraries where she has performed roles such as reference librarian, library staff trainer and information skills co-ordinator.

The workshop was aimed towards those people working in the library and information field who wished to refresh and increase their interview skills. Angela outlined the basic components of reference interviews, the types of questions to expect and when to use them in a reference interview encounter, and, so that they could practice the skills learned, she allowed time throughout the session for role-playing situations by the workshop participants.

The workshop covered the following topics:

• The definition of a reference interview - it's a conversation with the purpose of asking questions to obtain a clearer, more complete picture of what the user wants and to link the user to the library system.
• The setting - it should be quiet, friendly, free of distraction, approachable, welcoming, there should be chairs around an accessible desk and the library staff should be visible and not hidden behind a computer screen.
• Interpersonal skills - the interviewer has to be able to put the user at ease.
• Types of questions the interviewer can ask to correctly identify what information is needed:
  
  1. Closed - can be answered with a simple 'yes' or 'no'.
  2. Open - begin with 'who', 'what', 'why', 'where' or 'when'.
  3. Neutral - a strategy for asking questions to enable the interviewer to understand the question from the user's point of view. These questions (sometimes called the sense-making theory) are used to assess the situation from which the information need arose, assess the gaps in the user's knowledge and to assess the uses to which they might want to put the information they are seeking.
• The use of minimal encouragers during the interview - words such as 'uh-huh', 'I see', 'go on', 'that's interesting', 'tell me more', anything else', 'can you give me an example' combined with appropriate body language and eye contact will help to obtain information from the user.
• Types of questions to expect from users:
  
  1. Unspoken questions - users often appear lost and reluctant to approach, and appear to be asking 'am I in the right place?', 'are you available to help me?', 'have we made contact, are you listening?', 'have you understood my topic?'.
  2. First questions - these rarely convey the real information needed and are usually asked because the user is unsure of the service, the resources available, how to ask, doesn't want to appear foolish and has assumptions about libraries based on previous experience - they usually ask a question they feel will be easy for the interviewer to answer because they don't know him or her, whether he or she will be friendly and may not know exactly what they want. It is up to the interviewer to draw the information out.
• Follow-up - this allows the interviewer to gauge the user's response, look for signs of dissatisfaction and ask if the information provided answered the user's questions.

Angela finished with a discussion of digital reference, and real-time chat, interview situations, both of which call for special interpersonal skills. Angela also mentioned the increasing in-house use of online 'chat' by users (especially students in academic libraries) either because it saves them the embarrassment of asking a 'dumb' question, they are in fear of losing their seat at the computer terminal if they go to the reference desk, it's easy to use and they are familiar with the medium, through the increasing use of instant messaging.

The workshop was held at the Brisbane City Council Library's theatrette from 9:00am to 12:00pm. It was very well attended with over twenty participants.

Trish D'Arcy, Lynn Bogaarts, Angela Vilkins (trainer), Anne Collins conducting a mock reference interview

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