Can Mobile Tech, Collaboration, and a Focus on User Experience Rejuvenate Reference Services?

"Reference Renaissance" is as hopeful a conference title as a librarian is likely to encounter, implying a jumpstart after a period of stagnation or decline.

With that hope in mind, and against a backdrop of shrinking budgets and generally declining reference usage statistics, some 315 public and academic librarians gathered in Denver, CO, August 8-10 for the Reference Renaissance conference to discuss how new mobile technologies and improved responsiveness to patrons might reinvigorate the field of reference and user services. Still, with such a broad purview, there was a somewhat narrow focus on library-born services, including little discussion of specific resources and almost no acknowledgment of users frequently turning to consumer and peer information networks such as WikiAnswers, Facebook Questions, and Ask Metafilter.

Challenge to innovate
Conference co-chair and Rutgers School of Communication and Information professor Marie Radford challenged librarians to innovate new services and models in response to an uncertain future. The first step toward more nimble services, she said, will be "dropping the old 'one person on the desk' idea" to free up staff to try new things.

Keynoter Andrew Walsh of the University of Huddersfield issued his own series of innovation challenges. For Walsh, mobile devices provide an unprecedented opportunity to meet users at the point of their information needs. (Radford would later echo this emphasis on mobile technology, calling it the "number one killer app for the next ten years.")

He urged librarians to embrace SMS text message reference if they have not already done so and to "be radical" in considering new technologies like augmented reality. More broadly, he concluded that librarians must make the policy shift from "no mobiles allowed" to "please switch to silent" and encourage mobile usage of library services both within and outside the building.

However, sounding a note of caution, Jean Costello—a gem of the conference who blogs as the Radical Patron and whom Radford introduced as a "user, a real live user!"—reminded the crowd of the library's role as a place of occasional refuge. She commented, "There my humanity is reaffirmed. I remember I'm a human being, and you [librarians] are human, too."

QR code optimism and skepticism
Of the mobile technologies demonstrated by Walsh and others, QR codes were among the most energetically embraced. These two-dimensional information-bearing barcode symbols offer a clean and simple way to direct patrons to library resources.

For example, the symbols could be used to address repetitive and procedural questions at the point of need, Walsh noted, such as a QR code posted near a photocopier that links users to a video explaining how the payment system works.

However, not all are convinced that QR codes will catch on, or that they provide the best solution. Ahniwa Ferrari, coordinator of statewide virtual reference services for Washington, tweeted: "I feel like QR codes are a gimmick. What's wrong with a URL instead? QR codes seem to me to be exclusionary…"

Cooperation and collaboration
During a mid-conference speech on "The Future of Reference," Radford riffed on the ubiquitous mantra of "do more with less," and proposed that the only logical conclusion is more collaboration. "We're not the Lone Ranger anymore," she said, implying that self-reliance can stymie efforts to jumpstart new services.

Indeed, collaboration would prove to be one of the major recurring themes of the conference.

Though many institutions handle virtual reference with local staff during business hours, droves of libraries have embraced cooperative reference services like QuestionPoint and Ask Academic through national or local consortia.

In one session on the variety of virtual reference options available to academic libraries, nearly all of the librarian panelists agreed: while local familiarity with collections is good and desirable, the flexibility and marketability of 24/7 coverage tips the balance in almost all cases.

Another example of innovative collaboration born of necessity comes from Eastern Michigan University (EMU), Ypsilanti. There, an unfunded and volunteer-driven interdisciplinary experiment called The Academic Projects Center (APC) supports research, writing, and technology.

Described as a "holistic drop-in center" for point-of-need help with research, APC offers individualized assistance for problems ranging from printer issues to in-depth research strategies. Nearly 4000 students used the service during the first four semesters, asking predominantly for writing help, followed by research and tech help.

But the APC is not just a place for remedial first-year help, EMU librarians said, since 24 percent of APC visitors are graduate students, and another 44 percent are juniors or seniors, according to sign-in stats.

Focus on the user
Meanwhile, the wholesale shift toward user experience consideration was also apparent.

"Our goal, with every interaction," Radford concluded during her mid-conference talk, "is to provide excellent service." Later, the final plenary session titled "Focusing on the User Experience" entertained the notion that, while treating patrons sympathetically and compassionately is a seemingly common-sense idea, it's deserves increased attention.

"People have low expectations for the library," said Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian at Temple University and LJAN columnist. As a result, he noted, anything librarians can do to exceed those expectations in providing reference can have a positive impact.

"This isn't difficult," said Wayne Bivens Tatum of Princeton University, adding, "it's library science, not rocket science." Still, he said, librarians must transcend the complacency of traditional reference services, especially as those services have proven increasingly less relevant to patrons.