Using Student Assistants in Academic Reference.

Abstract

ring figure in the literature of our profession. His self-diagnosed complaints are numerous, but the problem of routine, repetitive work is a common lament. The competent professional feels he has something meaningful to offer the process of education. Time spent handling routine factual or directional inquiries is time which cannot be used to serve patrons who have complex or exacting interests, or who require concentrated instruction in the use of specific resources. The problem can be approached from many directions. For example, intensified orientation efforts might result in a decline in the number of elementary questions asked at the reference desk. This paper deals solely with my efforts to document the pattern of questions at the reference of the library of California State University, Fresno, and with the manner in which we have modulated our staffing in response to the pattern which was demonstrated. What actually goes on at the reference desk? In order to document our question pattern, I devised a form which allowed me to classify questions, questioners, and the resolutions of questions. When I began my recording, our staffing involved two professional librarians. One occupied the information desk at the main card catalog. This position is adjacent to the reference department, but visually separate from it. The other librarian sat at the refer-

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 20 citations exist upstream.