[Asis-l] Mark your Calendar! Correction

[Sarah J. Hammill]

Please note this forum will be held at the ALA Annual Conference in
Toronto on June 22nd from 1:30 to 3:30pm in the Hilton Governor's
General Room.

Hope to see you there!


**This message has been cross posted; please excuse duplication**

 The RUSA MOUSS RESEARCH & STATISTICS COMMITTEE PRESENTS at the American
Library Association (ALA) in Toronto

 THE 9th ANNUAL REFERENCE RESEARCH FORUM
Sunday June 22nd, 2003 1:30-3:30pm Hilton Governor's General Room


 Three research projects in the field of reference services will be
presented by their authors, with a discussion following.   Be sure to
join us!!

This year's presenters are:

What are they asking?  An investigation of question types in chat, email
and in person reference interactions by Kathleen Kern, Assistant
Reference Librarian
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Is there a difference between what is asked at the in person reference
desk and what is asked via a chat reference service? What about via
email and telephone? Appropriate staffing and training depends on an
understanding of our patrons' information needs at these various points
of contact. This study examined 1500 questions received at the Central
Reference Services desk during fall and spring semesters 2001-2002. Some
of the results were surprising. Other results gave concrete confirmation
to librarians' impressions of patron patterns of inquiry behavior.


Trends in staffing:  Librarians and Paraprofessionals Talk About Working
the Desk by Jennifer K. Sweeney, PhD student, Department of Information
Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

Reports on a qualitative research project investigating basic aspects of
work environments and personal perceptions of reference work in academic
libraries.  Little research was identified on the role of the
paraprofessional in public service positions such as reference. For this
project, interviews were conducted with professionals and
paraprofessionals who work at reference desks.  Preliminary results seem
to indicate that librarians and paraprofessional interview subjects hold
different perceptions on certain aspects of reference work including
perceptions of user needs, the impact of electronic resources, the need
for training, and how worker roles have shifted over time.  Although
further analysis is needed, this research may indicate a trend toward
more highly developed searching and teaching skills among
paraprofessionals, and a greater focus on collection development over
routine reference work among librarians.


An Analysis of Sources Used to Answer Reference Questions by Jane
Bradford, Associate Professor and Reference Librarian, Barbara Costello,
Assistant Professor and Government Documents Librarian, and Rob Lenholt,
Assistant Professor and Electronic Services Librarian; duPont-Ball
Library, Stetson University

In order to test the hypothesis that print reference sources are used
much less frequently than electronic sources by reference librarians to
answer patron queries, all reference librarians at the duPont-Ball
Library, Stetson University, recorded every reference question asked at
the reference desk (except directional and computer/printer problems)
and what source or sources were used by the librarians to answer it for
a two month period in the fall term 2002 and a two month period in the
spring term of 2003.  The sources used to answer questions were then
placed in categories such as web page (internal), web page (external),
database, reference book, and library's catalog.  We determined the
following from the numbers in each category: the extent to which the
print reference collection is being used by reference librarians (what
percentage of reference questions were answered wholly or in part by
print reference sources); which items in the print reference collection
are being used and to what extent; and what electronic sources are being
used (databases, catalog, web pages) and to what extent. These figures
have implications for reference collection development, librarian
training, and reference desk staffing needs.