Reference and Information Services (RAIS) - Victoria
Does Your Reference Desk Need a Makeover?
By Doreen Sullivan for the RAIS Victoria Committee
The big question of the night: does your reference desk need a makeover, a refurbish, or does it need to be razed?
Anne Armstrong from Monash Public Library Service and Gayle Rowden of Yarra Plenty Regional Library presented two different perspectives.
Anne Armstrong examined the 'traditional' reference desk and how its placement within the library, plus colour, lighting and other environmental factors affected both customers and staff.
Gayle Rowden spoke about the elimination of an entire reference desk (and most of the physical reference section) at one branch library, and the effect of the removal on both customers and staff.
The session opened with Anne Armstrong, 2002 Barrett Reid Scholarship winner, and her 'The Art of Placement and the Reference Desk' presentation.
For the Barrett Reid Scholarship Anne Armstrong studied over thirty libraries in three Australian states, for the look and feel of their reference desks. She took an ethnographic approach. Sometimes she worked behind the desks as a reference librarian. Sometimes she blended in as a patron. Sometimes she simply observed. She examined:
The clues libraries place to make it easier to orient oneself.
How people approached the reference desk. Was there something about specific desks that made them more approachable than others? Did the desk have barriers that made people reluctant to approach?
The furniture, the placement of staff, and how finding the 'way through' the library was organised.
The criteria she used to evaluate the reference space included:
Desk design and placement.
Use of colour.
Skilled staff / Friendliness.
Internet availability-that is, are there complicated booking systems to navigate before someone can use the Internet?
Online databases.
Way-finding. (Ease of finding our way around.)
Anne Armstrong showed photographs of libraries she had studied-both good and bad-to make her points. You can find her photographs at http://www.infolibraries.net.
The retail sector in particular has long studied environmental psychology, or atmospherics, to determine what makes people stay, go, or browse. Anne Armstrong's research showed how environmental factors influenced the reference desk servicescape.
Features of successful reference desks-people knew where to find help and appeared comfortable in the reference transaction-included:
Good combinations of colour, light and storage.
Staff easily identified, often through a uniform or name badge.
Clear signs.
Rounded corners on desks were better than sharp edges.
Desks set in a semi-circle were favoured. Faster service seemed to come from this arrangement.
Plants gave more than one library a 'living' feel.
'Soft' light from downlights is more welcoming than the draining effect of fluorescent lights.
Features of less successful reference desks included:
Dull colour shades, such as brown and beige. These colours often drain the atmosphere. Some shades such as Mission Brown hark back to another era, and can imply a lack of progress.
Desks with barriers, such as being too high, so the librarian 'looks down' on the patron, or with nowhere for the customer to sit.
Too much shade (too dark) or too much light (too bright; too washed out) will affect the reference transaction-in fact, will affect if there even is a query.
Clutter and too many colours create overstimulation and disorientation.
Anne Armstrong answered questions from the audience throughout her presentation.
Gayle Rowden, Manager Operations of Yarra Plenty Regional Library and 2004 Barrett Reid Scholarship winner, delivered her 'Who'll Come a Waltzing Matilda?' presentation next. She is responsible for eight branches...which includes the now deskless Ivanhoe Library.
The Ivanhoe Library opened in 1963. At that time it had room to move, and the top floor of a three-floor library was used by staff only. However...life moves on. Customers now use all three floors. Wireless is a way of life. Still, Ivanhoe Library needed space...space to move, space for a few more computers, space to sit and relax. So the reference collection and area were examined. Were print resources the best use of funds? The print reference collection was minimized drastically.
It took one mere day (plus a carpe diem attitude) to remove the reference desk.
And in its place are librarians with two hand-held 770-gram PC tablets loaded with the catalogue, databases and Internet. The librarian, after being called on a mobile phone, comes to the patron, rather than vice versa.
The reference area was also formerly right up the back of the library-not easy to see at first glance. The first place people see when they come in the door and naturally gravitate to is the circulation desk.
Borrowers who knew where the reference desk was, were a trifle perplexed at the start of the new service.
The roving service is new here and not fully integrated yet, but it is well on its way. Some of the other branches may later adopt this model.
Questions came thick and fast from the audience and included:
Occupational Health and Safety issues-if the tablet is 770 grams, how is it carried and for how long?
Security and privacy
do the librarians ever put the tablet down, given the amount of information (personal addresses etc.)on it? Answer: a resounding no. Never.
Was the library perhaps running too far ahead of its patrons? Did customers want such technology? (Answer: seemed to be working quite well as just another way of delivering a service.)
Gayle Rowden and Anne Armstrong-with strong audience participation-delivered two talks about different ways to enhance the reference experience, regardless of whether or not a reference 'desk' was involved.
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