Who needs a reference desk?

This was the provocative title of a Sunday morning dicussion group sponsored by the RUSA RSS (Reference Services Section). The room was filled to capacity. This question keeps being asked but no clear answer ever emerges. Libraries in many cases are adding services points in addition to keeping the traditional reference desk. It usually comes down to local needs as Dave Tyckoson, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect of RUSA, noted. Many people shared their service configurations for both walk-in and virtual reference.

Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services at Temple University and ARCLog blogger, asked a couple of thoughtful questions including "Does a reference desk model fit consultation needs?", "Who is staffing the desk, does it need to be a reference librarian?" and "Is the desk a physical barrier to service"? Someone mentioned that a service desk can be designed so that reference staff sit on the same side of the desk as library patrons. Steven also mentioned a technology called Vocera that some libraries are using for roving service staff.

Other service examples mentioned:

The use of virtual reference kiosks at Ohio University. A computer, camera, and Windows Live Messenger software are used to allow kiosk patrons at one location to interact with the librarians at the reference desk who are in a different location.

Another librarian mentioned that librarians at her institution hand out appointment cards to students following instruction sections.

Reference statistics. Penn is capturing off desk activity with a management information system. Information entered into the database is then used for decision making. [On a related note, I did stop briefly by the exhibits and talked to Altarama about their reference management software. In particular, I asked about Reference Tracker which is an online system for gathering statistics for service transactions and also their text messaging service which is available for reference as well as circulation functions such as overdue notices.] A discussion participant noted that reference statistics should include visits to subject web pages. The point was made that we need to learn how to count the "hard things" as opposed to making simple tick marks. Another library is using the Read(or Reed?) Scale, a Likert scale from 1-6, to evaluate the effort involved in answering reference questions. Someone else asked if anyone was surveying people outside of the library about their use of the library.

RUSA is working on updating the definition of a reference question.