Reference
- First, being a good liaison means providing excellent customer service, what better way to practice those skills then to serve your shift at the reference desk? You never know, that confused student or faculty member might be one of yours!
- You should also participate in both forms of virtual reference, email and chat, because the questions may be from or about your department. This provides good practice in customer service and communication skills.
- The easiest and most effective way to provide reference assistance to your department is to customize your Lib Guide to meet the needs of your department. Select a new resource to highlight, annotate your weblinks so they know why you are including them, think about including an rss feed from a subject specific news source, and provide your contact information so that reference questions can be directed to you.
- When contacted for instruction, please consider that your students might come to the reference desk for follow up and let us know if there is a large assignment or something that people in your class will be asking about!
Consider Offering Onsite Reference Service
Onsite Reference Service is a dynamic, high-touch, flexible, and convenient way to meet your liaison area's needs. Delivering face-to-face reference service where users are physically located may be the first (or only!) time a non-library user comes in contact with a professional librarian. Creating a 'librarian' presence outside the library building can give your role added relevance, convenience, immediacy, approachability, and integration into the physical classroom and/or departmental office setting. Your physical presence shows commitment to "being there" for your users, provides increased opportunities for interaction, and can help immerse you into the department's culture and educational activities. Here are a few things to think about when planning regularly scheduled or event-specific Reference Service.
WHAT? Be available in your liaison area’s classroom building, office area, or appropriate special event to offer reference service, provide in-depth consultation, meet your users, and observe how they work.
WHO? Think about who you want to serve. The department may have an empty office up in the graduate student suite, but undergraduates won’t see you there. If you think about being highly visible to the largest number of students, chances are good that most faculty and staff will see you there, too.
WHERE? Anywhere wireless networking is available. Most Wayne State buildings are wired - C & IT information:
http://computing.wayne.edu/wireless/index.php
If you want to know where you can post permanent signage, or where the building's wireless ”hotspots” (and deadspots!) are, you may want to consult the appropriate Building Coordinator. They’re listed alphabetically by building (third column) right after the Accessibility Contact List here:
http://wayne.edu/accessibility/contact.php
Find an area that’s highly visible, not isolated (safety first!), and has a high traffic pattern. Lounges, lobbies, glassed-in vestibules, and near staircases and entrances are good places to consider.
WHEN? High traffic times are best. Think about when classes change, when study groups meet, when the departmental awards ceremony is held, or the monthly faculty brownbag meets. It's not necessary to be there at the same time every day; a few hours once or twice a week is a good start. Try to identify a window that would provide service within 15 minutes of when the largest numbers of classes begin or end. Alot of people move around buildings over the lunch hour. It can also be a good strategy to negotiate with an instructor for 2 or 3 after-class sessions to support a specific assignment.
HOW? If you can find a chair - great! A table – better yet! Advertise the service to instructors and students. Signage is great, but a very brightly colored table sign may be enough. Looking highly mobile and being able to move around is a definite plus. Now, chase down that professor! Ask that lost-looking freshman if they need directions, etc.
WHY? Because users don’t come to you, or the Library, anymore. Because where students and faculty work, learn, study, teach, eat, etc. is where they need and use information.