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It's the widespread success of virtual reference initiatives, not the minor failures, that make critics like Steven Bell, the Temple librarian, question the future of the traditional reference desk.
Some schools, like the University of California at Merced, have done away with the reference desk entirely. Librarians there answer reference queries via the Web or over the phone. Other universities have made moves to combine reference with other public services like circulation or information technology. In a 2007 article, "Technology Killed the Reference Desk Librarian," in The Reference Librarian, Bell describes a wireless device used by the Orlando Public Library that allows librarians to assign "greeters" and "roamers" to welcome and direct patrons.
At those libraries that maintain a traditional structure, he writes, "reference desk librarians now frequently observe that their work is not at all what it used to be. The steady salvo of traditional ready-reference questions [has] sputtered. It's far more likely that reference librarians will find themselves fixing paper printer jams, showing patrons how to use software, and answering some in-depth and potentially complex research questions."
He and others have pointed out that it might be more efficient to hire clerical workers or student interns to load printer paper, direct patrons to the restrooms, and refer patrons with in-depth questions to librarians with advanced degrees. But Wall, who hosts monthly lunches for students to solicit feedback about library services, respectfully disagrees. "Students like one place to go for information," he says. "They don't like to be bounced around."
Despite the success of Duke's virtual reference services, he says he does not see them as a substitute for good, on-the-desk help. Rather, he argues, the two strategies complement, even boost each other: Librarians have struggled over the years to appear accessible, and "technology has created that friendly face." On IM, Duke's reference staff members communicate on students' turf, using students' terms, eschewing, for the most part, capital letters and punctuation and focusing on getting the message across. Many report that the students they talk to via IM wind up at the desk later.
A recent survey by the Institute of Museum and Library Services suggests that Wall's reasoning may be right on the mark. Because "an explosion of available information inspires the search for more information," the authors found, the Internet does not compete with libraries and, in fact, may increase library visits.
The push to maintain beefed-up reference services in the physical library also may make sense given that the library is, by at least one measure, more popular than ever, Wall says. In his seven years at Duke, the library's annual door count has more than tripled, from 568,000 in 2001-02 to more than 1.8 million this past year.
Wall attributes the rise, in part, to the design of the new Bostock Library and the staged renovation of Perkins. Both projects are part of a national trend toward creating libraries in what is known in library circles as the "information commons" model, featuring open space, comfortable seating, and the latest in technology. "We're doing a better job of meeting all of the academic and many of the social needs of the university," Wall says. "You know the old saying about the library being the heart of the university? We've become that."
He contends that improved services have also contributed to the increase in use, and says that he's constantly reevaluating the library's public services and is open to new ideas about how best to reach out to students. Five years ago, he hired reference librarian Stephanie Ford to work the 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift on weeknights, a popular study time for students, but a time when most librarians are in bed.
This move appears to have been a great success. "At night, it's like a nightclub in here," says Melissa Solomon Ph.D. '05, who often spent late nights in the library while working on her dissertation on late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century American literature, and continues to frequent the library while conducting research assistance for professors at the nearby National Humanities Center. "There is not an open seat. There are times when Stephanie is literally running between people. You hear them calling out her name."
For the past several years, subject librarians have hosted office hours in academic departments. A few years ago, the reference staff tested a series of "Librarian in the House" events in East Campus dorms. (Interest was weak, so the series was abandoned.) This past spring, Acheson, the former library assistant, designed a pilot "roving reference" program, under which librarians roamed Bostock and Perkins armed with an iPhone and a Sony UMPC handheld wireless device, bringing their services directly to students.
Though librarians loved wielding the spiffy devices, they called off the program after finding that the percentage of in-depth questions was lower than at the desk, and that "most questions didn't require a computer," Acheson says. For those questions that did, librarians found it easier to help students on their own laptops, rather than connecting via a handheld device.
The goal for librarians, especially those in the reference department, Acheson says, is to "use technology to make things easier. There's a simple litmus test we perform: Is it just a cool tool? Or is it a cool tool that actually does something for me?"
Reference head Ferguson stresses that as virtual services continue to expand, Duke must also make efforts to expand its presence online and create new ways for patrons to access the university's collections. "We need to be partnering with things like Google Scholar. We need to stop thinking of lib.duke.edu as the only interface between users and us," she says, referring to the library's homepage.
To some extent the library has done that. On the night shift, Ford takes questions over IM from students at North Carolina State University and UNC a few nights a week; her colleagues there reciprocate on other nights. Perkins, along with Duke's professional school libraries, are members of the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), a nonprofit service and research organization with more than 69,000 member libraries around the world. In recent years, OCLC has collaborated with Google Scholar and Google Books so that users can link directly from Google to see holdings at nearby libraries.
Last fall, Acheson, working with Paolo Mangiafico, a consultant in the library's digital-projects department, developed a downloadable program that works in a similar way. When a book's unique ISBN number appears anywhere on any website, the plug-in recognizes it and automatically cues a GetIt@Duke link, which leads directly to the Duke catalogue.
Acheson says that many of the most innovative ideas come from the blogs that have become required reading for many reference librarians. There are thousands of blogs that focus on technology and libraries.
Recently, she and Mangiafico began to explore the potential of including interactive, Web 2.0 applications in the online card catalogue. Librarything.com, a website popular among book lovers, allows users to rate books and put identifying "tags" or keywords on them that make them easier to find. It also allows users to see books that have been judged similar to their likes, based on user feedback.
UNC's Pomerantz acknowledges that there is some tension as libraries are pulled in two different directions, the physical
and the virtual. On the one hand, he says, public and university libraries are increasingly playing to "hyper-local" niches, often serving as community centers. "At the same time, there is a lessening of importance of geography," as libraries reach out via the Web to patrons around the world.
But they will press on. Asked to consider the future, Duke's Ferguson pauses to think. "The Holy Grail," she says, "would be to have an online presence that mirrors our physical presence."
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