New tracks for old journeys: rediscovering reference services at the Northern Territory Library

Robin Hempel and Brian Flanagan

Our paper this morning is very much about the Northern Territory Library in its 'state library' role as collector and preserver of the history and culture of the Northern Territory. In its mission to provide Territorians with access to their documentary heritage, the Northern Territory Library has forged links, not only with the National Library and the state libraries of Australia, but with institutions such as the Library of Congress, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France and the British Library. These great libraries connect back into a tradition almost as old as western culture itself to the ancient library of Alexandrina in Egypt founded by the Ptolemies in the 330's BC, the famous Biblioteca Capitolare in fifth century Verona, the seventh century monastic library at Bobbio, the wonderful manuscript collections of the Ambrosiana Library founded in 1606 and the priceless collections of the British Museum Library, opened to the public by King George II in 1759.

However, as Alex Byrne remarked in his address entitled The end of history, censorship and libraries, presented at the Beacon of Freedom Conference at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria , Egypt 2003, ' ...libraries are more than treasure houses. They play an important role in defining and supporting the identity and culture of peoples' (Byrne, Alex: 2004). Byrne sees libraries as having 'vital roles in protecting heritage, offering individuals and societies opportunities to improve their lives and contributing to civil society'. In adopting this broad focus to the symposium's theme, Switching tracks: new roles for library workers, we have chosen to look at new and innovative ways of providing reference services to the 'serious researcher' at the Northern Territory Library.

One of the most important functions of the Northern Territory Library (NTL) is to provide high quality, innovative reference services to serious in-depth researchers, including those whose queries delve into historical and cultural matters of particular significance to the Territory. Often these queries involve exploring historical questions which require access to original documents and primary sources rather than secondary commentaries. The Northern Territory Library has a policy of retaining and preserving such historical resources, but it must also ensure ease of access and location of these materials for the researchers who depend on them. In order to illustrate this point, we have chosen to refer to three clients recently working on long-term projects with the reference staff at NTL.

Perhaps the most frequent user of the libraries resources is a geodetic engineer from Toowoomba, Qld who is researching the fate of explorer Ludwig Leichhardt. He had heard of the treasures in our library's Northern Territory Collection, applied for leave and headed north to Darwin, 'only meaning to stay a week'. His quest has led him to steer away from secondary sources and seek the expertise of the reference team in accessing a whole new range of primary historical material ranging from maps to news reports, aerial photographs, diary entries, journals and original field notes. It is over a year since he became our most frequent 'visiting resident researcher'.

The Leichhardt researcher's quest, however, did not follow the path of the typical researcher as outlined in the textbooks. At the outset, he had not approached the reference desk to seek an interview with the reference librarian. Staff had observed him working in the library intermittently over a period of months until he had begun to cause some disquiet with the increasing demands of his requests to have access to rare and special collection material. The heritage staff who had been dealing with this researcher eventually sought the aid of the reference manager. An informal reference interview was arranged, and once the burning question, '...and what are you really hoping to find?' had been asked, the reference process began to flow much more smoothly. Our researcher explained that he had traced the path of the ill-fated Ludwig Leichhardt Expedition as it ventured into the far north of the continent across the Gulf of Carpentaria to Port Essington. He had discovered how the party had been forced by heat and drought to abandon the attempt to traverse Australia from east to west but shortly afterwards had set out on an overland journey to Perth. What he wanted to find out was how and why the entire latter expedition had vanished. What lay behind the complete and total disappearance of that final expedition into central Australia in 1848?

The situation that we have outlined highlights some of the barriers that can be encountered between the long-term researcher and the library staff. One of the obstacles that faced our Leichhardt researcher was the fragmented nature of communication with the library staff. It is inevitable that the researcher cannot necessarily deal with the same staff member on a regular basis. This can make the process of establishing a solid relationship between the staff and client awkward, as some staff members may not be as familiar with the query as the others. Another difficulty is that it may not even be obvious from the outset that the request is going to be an on-going process. A staff member who is unfamiliar with the request may meet the client's immediate needs, without being aware of the ultimate goal. Also, an in-depth query can go off on a number of tangents as far as accessing resources is concerned, meaning that the single purpose of the query (ie. to discover the fate of Leichhardt) can be obscured by the many requests for a variety of apparently unrelated materials. It is for this reason that open communication between the staff and the client is essential. It is important for the library to establish trust by confirming to the client that their request is an ongoing concern and will be treated as such.

Two of the fields the researcher was most interested in researching were the history of aerial surveying and mapping in early Australia especially concerning tracks, creeks, gullies, watercourses and sink holes across the areas traversed by Leichhardt and his contemporaries. He had already begun to source valuable information leads in original journals, diaries and field notes in the Qld and SA State libraries and was anxious to discover what NTL held in these primary formats. In his search for clues regarding Leichhardt's disappearance he had begun a study into the history of water bags and water canteens - how early had they been introduced into the equipment used on the early Australian exploratory journeys? With this latter query, he hadn't had much luck searching the internet.

Terrence Huwe, in a recent article in Computers and libraries, gives us a highly interesting description of the traditional reference interview set against the modern information landscape in the following passage;

'With the open web and our digital libraries as key tools, I think we hold an edge in working with the Google generation--the reference interview. I regard the reference interview as the ultimate digital killer application. Moreover, everything important about this complex dialogue can be tailored to a digital library environment. The strategies are legion: 24/7 reference call centres, virtual reference, e-mail-based reference, and so on. At the core of the interchange lies a simple, but powerful, moment in the interview. Usually it involves the reference provider saying, in a casual sort of way, "What were you really hoping to find?" At this point, the hunt is on, the abstract becomes concrete, and the service provider has an opportunity to demonstrate library skill, which depends upon a comprehensive, thoughtful approach to using all media, both new and historical, and both digital and print.' (Huwe, Terence: May 2004)

The point Huwe is emphasising relates to the willingness and skill of the reference librarian's to use the appropriate reference tools to search a wide range of resources in a variety of formats including print, multi media and digital. When dealing with a long-term researcher, it is essential to remember that the entire information landscape is available to be used. Ignoring the electronic realm is not possible in the modern library, however to rely entirely upon online and digital resources is equally ineffective where long-term researchers are concerned.

Before we consider the ways in which the reference staff at NTL assisted the researcher to access the wide range of primary sources available in its rare and special collections, it is significant to note that the reference manager approached members of the reference team, advising them of various strategies that might be used in order to ensure that lines of communication with this particularly client were kept open and flexible. Most importantly, staff needed to understand the serious, complex and long-term nature of the Leichhardt researcher's task. For his part, he needed to know that staff acknowledged and affirmed his quest and were ready to assist and guide him through the process.

There are methods that a reference librarian can use to ensure efficient communication between staff and client. Firstly, it is important to ask questions of the client. This is necessary if the librarian is not familiar with the subject that the researcher is exploring. More often than not a serious in-depth researcher will be more than happy to talk about the subject that he or she is interested in. This is a good opportunity for the librarian to clarify exactly what the client wants to find, as opposed to what the librarians thinks is the objective. It is also important for the librarian to find out what resources the client has already looked at in order to prevent a duplication of effort. Also, it is important for library staff to find out the client's expectations of the library's services and resources. If a client such as the Leichhardt researcher has heard of the rare historical documents held by the NT Library, then it is only natural to assume that he wants to be able to physically access them. What he may not be aware of is the procedures involved in doing this.

The NT Library has an extensive variety of rare and valuable physical resources in its collection. The primary concern is to make sure that the in-depth researcher is made aware that these materials exist. The next priority is that they can be efficiently accessed, taking into account both the needs of the client and the responsibility of the library to preserve the materials. The Leichhardt researcher has spent a great deal of time accessing these types of materials over the last year. One such resource has been the rare maps and artworks collection, which is kept both in the mezzanine level and the archives room of the Library, among other areas of the library. The rare maps and artworks collection is promoted via a weblink on the NT Library's website under the heading collections and services. Once the link to collections and services is accessed, a list of library resources is displayed. These resources include the map collection and the rare maps and artworks collection. Accessing the weblink to the rare maps and artworks collection reveals an index of the collection's contents. The information in this index includes the physical location of the item (ie. whether it is in the mezzanine level, the archives room or elsewhere in the library) and the drawer number it can be found in. Also listed is a brief description of the item and its date of publication. The researcher then examines the index to find out which of the items he would like to access, then brings his request to the reference desk.

The Leichhardt researcher's usual approach is to examine the electronic index of the library's resources through the NTL website. For example, he may scroll through the rare maps and artworks collection index before printing out the relevant page and marking which items he would like to see. He then approaches the reference desk with his list of requests. The staff then retrieves the materials.

It is worth bearing in mind that during the process of conducting an in-depth, ongoing reference query, it is often necessary to balance the needs of the client against the preservation of the materials. In this case the researcher needs to look at materials that are often old, rare and in delicate condition. Procedures are in place to deal with materials from the special collections, and part of the communication process involves the staff fully informing the client of these requirements. For example, upon receiving a request for materials from the special collection the reference librarian asks the researcher to fill out a special collections form, which allows the NT Library to keep statistics on the use of our old and rare resources. Once the form is filled out, it is filed in the special collections registration folder which is kept behind the reference desk. The librarian then has the item retrieved for the client from the relevant section of the library. White gloves are used by both the staff and the client to protect the materials. The staff performs all photocopying, a measure taken to protect items that are old and fragile.

Another point to remember is that physically accessing materials from the special collections can be a time consuming task. In some cases it may not be possible for the items to be brought out immediately upon request, particularly when the staff are busy with more immediate priorities. If a degree of trust has been properly established between the staff and the client, then it would be possible for the staff to accept the client's request and deal with it at a later point. In this instance it is important for the reference librarians to assure the researcher that his request has been acknowledged and will be acted upon as soon as possible.

As the reference staff assisted the researcher with his enquiry, it became apparent that some of the materials that he needed were in fact available in digital form. When he enquired about purchasing an old and rare text called 'Narrative of an expedition into Central Australia' by Charles Sturt, one of the library staff did a Google search to see if it was available. It turned out that the entire text was available on the internet (see web resources in the end references). This indicates that more and more resources are becoming available on the web, and underlines the point that all avenues of the information highway should be explored. (Leslie, Fiona, 2004). In addition, the heritage staff at NT Library located a rare book in the collection written by Leichhardt in 1847 called 'Journal of an overland expedition in Australia, from Moreton Bay to Port Essington'. The book is listed in a printed handout of resources that the heritage staff had made for National Heritage Week in September 2004.

The important point is that although there are procedures in place to preserve special materials, the items in these collections are clearly and conveniently laid out in the electronic index for the user to see. It is also important that the user has the chance to browse the various collections through the website. The general collection, Northern Territory collection and the periodical collection are also listed and described on the collections and services webpage. Due to the layout of the NT Library's electronic resources on the website the Leichhardt researcher is able to identify the materials that will help with his work. The following statement sums up the role of the reference staff in the process, 'Librarians need to be integrated with the virtual environment as coach, mentor, and information advisor.' (Abram, Stephen and Luther, Judy: May 2004)

The second cry for help arrived in the form of a hand written letter from an English scholar and engineer, residing in Bournemouth, UK, who has been preparing for the publication of his gazetteer, Railway contractors and engineers of the Northern Territory 1865-1940. His request for 'one or two good illustrations' developed into a search from track maps to line drawings of viaducts and formations, to photos of old and interesting crossings, bridges and stations, to diagrams and pictures of 'locos'.

This researcher faced a different set of challenges in pursuing his query than did the Leichhardt researcher. Clearly one of the demanding factors was that the client was based overseas. The arrival of a hand written request from across the seas, delivered by snail mail, raised a variety of reactions from the reference team ranging from amusement to alarm. Consequently it was passed to the reference manager to 'deal with', and she approached the task in the following way. Firstly she sent a written reply acknowledging receipt of the researcher's query and enquired as to whether or not he has access to the internet. The purpose of this was twofold; firstly, it could make communication faster. Secondly, he may be able to play a role in the search himself if he were able to access our electronic resources. When it became apparent that he did not have access to the internet, the reference manager set about collecting resources for him. This reference process would follow a different path to that used to manage the needs of the researcher. This was more a 'hand-holding' exercise, as the client was based overseas and therefore had to depend almost entirely on the skills of the NTL reference librarian to source the information he needed. The request was straightforward but specific in its nature, and in pursuing it the reference librarian relied heavily on the NTL guide to rail in the Northern Territory which included the Lou Marks collection, the Northern Territory collection (including both contemporary and historical material) and the general and reference collections. The NT Library's online picture collection Territory images also provided a range of useful images.

The first step taken by the library staff was to search the catalogue and iportal for relevant books. A number of monographs and pamphlets were found in the library's collection that contained historical information on the railway. In addition, a search was conducted via the online database Ebscohost to locate recent articles from the Northern Territory News on the railway's recent arrival in Darwin. The Territory images online database was also accessed and a number of historical images were retrieved. The materials were mailed to the client along with a remote user declaration form and photocopy request form. The request was completed and the clients needs were fulfilled. Amongst the materials sent included a print-out of a subject guide on the railway in the NT, which was taken from the NT Library's website. This provided the client with some additional reading to follow-up if he wished.

Had the railway researcher had access to the internet the search could have taken a different path. He may have been able to look at the NT Library website and examined our resources under the link collections and services. He could have also looked at our internet topic index and our subject guides. Combining this with a search of our catalogue and iportal, he may have been able to gather a list of the necessary materials himself. The NT Library currently uses web links to advertise our unique historical records. The Territory images online database is one such example. Thousands of historical photographs that have been donated to the library are available to the public for viewing and purchase via the Territory images web link. The NT Library homepage also displays subject guides, which allows users to locate materials in the library on a variety of topics. However, it is important to remember that this electronic access must be combined with the constant presence and assistance of reference staff. In most cases the materials needed by researchers for their work is not available in electronic form. While contemporary journal articles can be accessed in online databases and current information can be found on websites, the information needed by someone working on a historical project is often available only in the traditional hardcopy format. This naturally imposes limitations on remote researchers. Even if the client was able to locate a monograph in the collection using our electronic web guides or the catalogue and iportal, he still may not have been sure if the book properly suited his needs. For example, the book may be about the railway in Darwin, but it may not have had line drawings or illustrations. He also could not have known which part of the book he needed. This is why interaction with the reference staff is important. The staff was able to examine the resources personally and send him what he needed.

This reference process was conducted by a series of handwritten letters between the reference manager and the railway researcher. The correspondence took place during the period when the Ghan and the freight train made the historic first journey from Adelaide and Darwin. Back in his college in the UK the railway researcher began to follow these events in the international media and became keen to include some of the NT media coverage in his gazetteer. When finally the packages of information were sent off, the accompanying bibliography contained monographs, journal articles, pamphlets, newspaper articles and digital images.

The cover story to this year's May edition of the library journal sums up the situation most succinctly: 'Our libraries increasingly serve remote users who access databases, web pages, distance education support, and portals. Too often, though, the magic of the reference librarian gets lost.' (Abram, Stephen and Luther, Judy, May 2004).

Local historian and former acquisitions librarian with the Northern Territory Library service Kathy De La Rue spent a number of years researching information for her book on the history of Darwin during the years of South Australian administration 1896-1911 called The Evolution of Darwin 1869-1911. A good proportion of this time was spent in the NT Library. Even in this third case, the traditional reference process was not followed. It did not occur to Kathy to seek a reference interview because her years of training had enabled her to focus on the main themes of her research. She possessed the searching skills and knowledge of the collection to largely self-manage her project.

However as she proceeded she did need to seek out the support and expertise of the NT Library staff in assisting her to acquire a wide range of secondary sources through interlibrary loan. Much of her material was contained in the actual government resident and senior civil servant correspondence of the period. This required many hours of perusing old newspapers, archives and parliamentary reports and debates, largely in microfilm format. Kathy relied heavily on the staff to retrieve this material for her. The staff also helped to establish an appropriate research space so that her lengthy and often tedious research could be accommodated more effectively. Kathy relied very heavily on archival sources. In the first instance she worked very intensively with NT Archives and her task was made so much easier by the mutually sound working relationship between the NT Library and the NT Archives. Her research frequently took her to the South Australian Archives where she also worked extensively in the Mortlock Library (an extension of the State Library of South Australia). The liaison between the two South Australian bodies was not as well developed as between those in the NT, and Kathy found that this created barriers in her research process that had simply not existed in the NT. Kathy was quite expert at using the iportals and catalogues of the various institutions at which she worked. Quick and advanced searches, boolean operators, location filters, drop-down menus and the like presented no problem to this experienced researcher. But some of her important indexes and leads to information were not available in electronic format. Manual lists, card catalogues and huge physical collections of archival papers all had to be thoroughly searched in order for Kathy to unearth the details she was looking for in presenting her story about the Northern Territory administration of the time.

Kathy was also an expert searcher of the internet and the world wide web and at the outset she spent many hours pursuing the records she needed. Her results on the web were of negligible value. Consequently, the lengthy and extremely valuable bibliography at the end of her book lists archival sources, both in the NT and SA, parliament and government sources in the Commonwealth, the NT and SA. There is also an impressive list of unpublished papers, report and theses and a long a detailed list of published books and articles, but no mention of electronic and online resources. An interesting outcome of Kathy's research was the marked gap of information particularly in terms of inward and outward correspondence on which she relied so heavily in the research from the period 1901 to 1911. This is the period that marks the transfer of administrative power regarding the NT from SA to the Commonwealth. To the present day this gap in information is largely accounted for.

In this case, the provision of reference services needed to be offset with the most efficient document delivery services possible and the building of stronger and more flexible networks with other information organisations. Due to the fact that she used to be a librarian, the researcher was well-skilled in the field of information retrieval, and she was able to locate and access resources held within the library without a great deal of interaction with the staff. In this respect she differed from the previous two researchers who depended much more heavily on the assistance of the reference librarians.

In her work Kathy De La Rue relied more heavily on archival sources than on library resources. However, she is very generous in her praise of the services and support lent to her over a lengthy period by the staff of the NT Library. She relied heavily on NT library's microfilm collection and when she needed to approach the NT Archives the reference staff greatly facilitated the process. The interlibrary loan and the document delivery service of NT Library was essential to her research and the reference staff were relentless in supplying her with material that was often difficult to locate and helped her manage the inevitable delays and frustrations that occurred. Although Kathy's book was officially launched at the Charles Darwin University an informal celebration was also held at the NT Library when she kindly donated copies for the general and Northern Territory Collections. She acknowledged her debt to the NT Library with the following inscription; 'This book could not have been completed without the help of the staff at the Northern Territory library and the resources of the Northern Territory Library collection. Thank you so much.'

The value of these materials lay in the fact that they were important historical documents on the Northern Territory, unavailable in electronic form. In addition she searched newspaper articles on microfilm, with many of the articles going back a century or more. Newspaper articles dating back that far are not covered in electronic form. All of this is extremely relevant to the long-term researcher, as explained in the following quote;

'Many people assume that you can find anything you are looking for on the internet. True, there are full-text articles from journals and magazines on every conceivable subject on the internet. There are oral histories, archives, electronic books, and live video cams. But the internet has its limitations for researchers in the field of history. Simply put, the vast majority of most scholarly historical books must be purchased or tracked down in a library. But if searchers can reach those libraries, they may get to enjoy the hunt. Fortunately for the hunters, librarians are happy to share their knowledge' (Fink, Kenneth D., Nov/Dec2000).

While the former librarian may not have depended on electronic resources to complete her book, she did rely heavily on document delivery and interlibrary loans. The NT Library did not hold many of the resources that she needed. Therefore the library had to employ efficient and flexible relationships with other organisations such as the local and Commonwealth archives, with national and other state services. While she was able to locate materials held in the NT Library's collection largely on her own, she needed assistance in accessing materials outside of the library. The reference staff played a vital role in helping her to locate the whereabouts of certain items and then bringing them to the library so that she could use them.

In 2004 the reference staff of NT Library attended the train the trainer workshops conducted by Elizabeth Swann and Maree Lipschitz. Many of the practices advocated by Swann and Lipschitz in their workshop were applicable to the situations presented by our long-term researchers. One of the techniques put forward was the encouraging use of feedback to a client so that they do not feel separate from the reference process. Another is to keep the lines of communication open, looking for clues by constantly asking questions. The one aspect that departed drastically from their teachings was the fact that none of the long-term researchers received a formal reference interview at the beginning of their quest. This underlines the fact that long-term researchers often pose challenges that fall outside the realm of the conventional reference query. The NT Library had also attended customer value discovery workshops, which gave the reference staff insight, into how the public perceived the library's collections and services. The reference staff of NT Library came to realise how highly the customer valued the ability of the staff to understand the needs of the client and to adapt the reference service to their individual needs. This ability is particularly relevant when discussing the needs of long-term researchers.

Each of these researchers was handled in different ways by the NT Library according to the nature of their circumstances. However, they all had similar aspects to their queries. They each needed to find and access historical materials that were not readily available in electronic form. In each instance modern electronic systems were used to find these resources. Most importantly, the expertise of the reference staff was essential in supplementing the electronic resources. The case of the Leichhardt researcher indicates that even though the client can search the electronic indexes and catalogues provided by a library, it is still necessary for the staff to retrieve the items for him and instruct him on how to use them properly. The example of the railway researcher demonstrates that access via electronic means is not necessarily effective for all clients. The case of the former librarian shows that although a client may be skilled in searching for information, actually accessing the materials still requires the hands-on assistance of reference staff.

Biography

Brian Flanagan is a lifelong resident of Darwin and has worked in libraries for over ten years. He graduated from the Associate Diploma of Library Practice and the Bachelor of Information and Library Management from the Northern Territory University (now Charles Darwin University). His career in libraries began with a traineeship with the Power and Water Authority Library, the Department of Transport and Works Library and the State Reference Library.

He worked in the Northern Territory University Library for over seven years where he worked for approximately five years as a serials assistant. He worked extensively in reference services making a positive contribution to the information literacy program. Since January 2004 he has been working as a reference librarian at the Northern Territory Library.

Robin Hempel holds postgraduate qualifications in arts, education and librarianship, is an associate member of ALIA and presently, convenor of ALIA Top End. Robin began her career at the National Library but since the early 1960's has pioneered the development of library services throughout the Northern Territory. With her mission to provide library services of excellence and equity to rural and remote regions, including Aboriginal communities, Robin has managed public libraries in Alice Springs and Katherine and community libraries at Barunga, Wave Hill and the Tiwi Islands. She has also worked as a teacher and teacher librarian, most notably in Darwin at Casuarina Senior College.

From 1995 to 2002 Robin managed the joint use library services at Taminmin Community Library and in 2000 won the award of Litchfield Citizen of the Year for her dedication to community and library services for the residents of the Litchfield Shire. Robin is currently manager of reference services at the Northern Territory Library, where her goal is to lead her reference team in delivering quality reference services to the Northern Territory Community.

References

Lankes, David et al Digital reference service in the new millennium: planning, management, and evaluation. New York, Neal-Schuman Publishers Inc, 2000

Wiegand, Wayne A and Donald G. Davis (eds) Encyclopedia of library history. New York, Garland Publishing, 1994

De La Rue, Kathy, Charles Evolution of Darwin 1869-1911. Darwin, Darwin University, 2004

Borgman, Chrsitine L From Gutenberg to the global information infrastructure: access to information in the networked world. USA, MIT Press, 2003

Christ, Karl Handbook of Medieval history. New Jersey, Scarecrow Press, 1984

Leichhardt, Dr Ludwig Journal of an overland expedition in Australia, from Morton Bay to Port Essington. 1847

Huwe, Terence 'Being organic gives reference librarians the edge over computers', Computers in libraries, p39, v24 N5, 2004

Abram, Stephen Luther, Judy 'Born with the chip', Library journal, p34, v129 N8, 2004

Leslie, Fiona 'Bringing collections to life: digitising local studies and special collections: the COLLAGE project', The electronic library: the international journal for the application of technology in information environments, p261-263, v24 N3, 2004

Bryne, Alex 'End of history: censorship and libraries', The Australian library journal, p133-151, v53 N2, 2004

Fink, Kenneth D 'The future of the past: history sources on the internet', Searcher, p46, v8 N10, 2000

Drake, Miriam A 'Institutional repositories: hidden treasures', Searcher, p41, v12 N5, 2004

Humphries, Peter and Milne, Rod 'Top End trilogy articles', Railway digest, p14-19, v42 N7, 2004

Web resources chieved by google search using the keyword search; 'Narrative of an expedition into Central Australia'

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=4976

NT Library website address: http://www.ntl.nt.gov.au