What is Telephone Reference?
Partin (1986) defines telephone reference as “all telephone calls that a library receives from its patrons,” (p. 27) but with many libraries employing automated systems or other technology to better direct calls regarding hours and directions and other information that can be pre-recorded, not all telephone calls involve interaction with a librarian or paraprofessional. For the purpose of this discussion, telephone reference is defined as all calls that involve a reference transaction with a librarian or reference-trained paraprofessional.
How does Telephone Reference Work?
Basically, a caller dials into a hotline or direct number that is answered by a librarian or paraprofessional who is trained and prepared for ready reference. Most calls can be addressed within five minutes, while some require information not readily available in the ready reference collection or via Internet sources. The goal of telephone reference is to provide quick, reliable information and foster positive relationships with callers. This positive relationship will most likely lead to callers eventually entering the institution and experiencing the usefulness of the library’s collection and services in-person and for themselves.
Procedure:
Utilizing a friendly, non-discriminatory and clear voice, answerers should receive calls by first identifying the institution and then offering a welcoming a question. For example: “Young Research Library. How may I help you?” This begins the reference transaction or interview, which usually involves the employment of open-ended questions to establish basic ideas and then close-ended questions to hone in on exactly what the caller wants. Answerers should always be ready to write or type the caller’s questions so that they can easily be repeated for clarification and for mnemonic purposes.
Once the question is clarified, the answerer consults their ready reference collection, which includes the use of Internet sources available to the particular institution. If it is necessary to leave the phone, it is good practice to put the caller on hold to preserve the privacy of the people around the phone as well as the caller. With the answer in hand, it is important for the answerer to address the caller in a clear and friendly manner that does not involve any jargon. Do not forget to include the source of the information along with the answer.
Once the information it is shared, it is necessary to make sure that the caller understands it and that their question has been properly addressed. This is done with follow up questions such as “Does that answer your question?” If it is not possible to answer the question, it is best practice to explain why the question cannot be addressed as well as give as much relevant information as possible. Relevant information can include outside sources and of course actual holdings within the institution or other institutions.
Further Reading:
• “Telephone Reference Training: Some Suggestions and Observations” by Daniel R. Smith in The Southeastern Librarian, Spring/Summer 1993, pp. 7-9
• Yates, pp. 12-17 (see references)
• “Telephone and Email Reference: Model Behaviors and Approachability On the Telephone or by Email. http://www.olc.org/Ore/3phone.htm
• “Guidelines: Telephone Reference Calls (Kellogg Library).” http://www.library.dal.ca/kellogg/reference/phoneref.htm
•
History of the Telephone
March 10, 1876 was a day that changed the world. On this date, the telephone was born. It did not take long for this burgeoning technology to become widely available.
"By the end of 1880, there were 47,900 telephones in the United States. The following year telephone service between Boston and Providence had been established. Service between New York and Chicago started in 1892, and between New York and Boston in 1894. Transcontinental service by overhead wire was not inaugurated until 1915. The first switchboard was set up in Boston in 1877" (Bellis, 2006, paragraph 1).
The telephone "is now in most places taken for granted, as though it were a part of the natural phenomena of this planet. It has so marvellously extended the facilities of conversation...that it is now an indispensable help to whoever would live the convenient life" (Casson, 1910, p. v).
Telephones in Libraries
Weingard (1994) writes:
The generally recognized starting point for the history of reference librarianship is the paper delivered by Samuel Swett Green of the Worcester (Mass,) Public Library in 1876…Public libraries, in seeking to serve the community as a whole, had to deal with large numbers of inexperienced readers, unskilled in the use of libraries and hence needing and wanting assistance…. Green championed “the desireableness of personal intercourse between librarians and readers,” and he found many professional colleagues quick to share his views and practices. The telephone…extended this service beyond the library walls…As a result, in many major cities, such as New York, the public libraries set up separate telephone reference installations, where staff members provided “while-you-wait” answers from a revolving bookcase of ready-reference books (pp. 542-3).
With the newfound need for interpersonal communication to widen the use of libraries beyond scholars, Green’s indirect advocacy for the employment of a reference desk and the success of telephone reference, many libraries set aside space for telephone reference services and their necessary ready reference collections.
Telephone Ready Reference Collections
"The collection must be comprehensive in order to satisfy everyone's information needs--from a Shakespearean quotation to the name and number of the agency to call to get a pothole filled" (Reichel, 1987, p. 6).
Ready-reference collections should have an up-to-date, general reference and community information to start. Then of course, there should be books that can provide quick answers to more specific questions regarding everything from geography to religion to history and philosophy.
For Lists of and Guides to telephone ready-reference collections see:
• Reichel pp. 35-60(see references)
• “What Was On That Telephone Reference Carousel at PLCM?” in North Carolina Libraries, Winter 1989, pp. 243-245
• “Reference Materials In a Telephone Reference Service: A Model For Telereference” by Neumann and Weeks in Reference Quarterly number 20 (Summer 1981), pp. 394-402
• Yates pp. 26-47 (see references)
• “What Goes Around: Telephone Reference Rotary Wheels” by McQueen and Zweizig in Public Libraries September/October 2003
Internet Reference:
The Internet has most certainly proven itself to be a good source for reference. A librarian or paraprofessional who is receiving telephone reference calls can easily find much of the information sought using all that the World Wide Web has to offer at the touch of a fingertip. The Internet’s holdings include a plethora of online databases that the library can access for free or with a subscription and also institutional and personal websites that can provide accurate information on specific subjects.
With a well-equipped ready reference collection, telephone reference services can more efficiently address questions put forward and be able to address a number of callers in a timely manner.
Some Policies of Telephone Reference
Questions Posed:
According to Reichel (1987), libraries used to publicize their services as an aid to businesses and businessmen. Women and children were discouraged from using the service because they were supposed to have more time-on-hand to actually enter the institution, rather than calling it.
The 1936 study by Garnett determined that other than the sex and age of the author, rules were in regards to reasonable questions, which "was up to individual libraries, and most refused to answer questions that required legal or medical advice or were homework and contest queries. Other types of information not to be given over the telephone included that related to genealogy, insect identification, and definitions of 'unsuitable' words" (Riechel, 1987, p. 2).
Reichel (1987) later goes onto discuss the current policies regarding some of these types of questions:
a. Homework questions are more likely to be treated as any other question to encourage students to call the library, but many are contested concisely and with information on how the student can find the answer on their own.
b. Puzzle and quiz questions are also answered concisely with reference to sources.
c. Legal and medical questions should involve “simple, short definitions or descriptions, without interpretation” (p. 22) and then information on how to contact outside sources such as The Center for Disease Control or legal aid.
Time Spent:
Some libraries do not have limits on time spent addressing telephone reference calls and some do. For example, in a study on the Enoch Pratt Free Library (Baltimore, MD) and the Milwaukee Public Library, McQueen and Zweizig (2003) found that these libraries both had a standard of five minutes per call with some discretion allowed.
Reichel (1987) mentions time in her discussion on telephone reference policy:
“Quick, factual questions, with emphasis on current information, should usually be answered within five minutes, but the clock should not be ticking or the sources used counted...Call-backs should be allowed if the information cannot be found within five minutes or if the search involves more time to retrieve the necessary data” (pp. 19-20). Yates (1986) furthers this thought saying “time limits should be based on the volume of calls compared to the available reference staff” (p. 22).
Yates (1986) also discusses the criticalness of speed with regards to telephone reference calls especially to make sure that callers, the majority of which normally only want to spend around two to three minutes waiting for an answer, have a good positive experience and also to assure that very little calls receive busy signals or are subject to being held in queue. (p. 4). It is also difficult and time-consuming to read off long passages or poems over the telephone. Callers may be directed to a source that would better suit the purposes of both the caller and the telephone reference service.
Further Reading:
• “Guidelines: Telephone Reference Calls (Kellogg Library).” http://www.library.dal.ca/kellogg/reference/phoneref.htm
Actual Questions
From Reichel (1987):
- What is the word for the study of words?
…In this case, the best source is Bernstein’s Reverse Dictionary. Scanning the entries under “word,’” the word for “word origins and development, as a study” was found: Etymology.
The patron then said he believed that there is another word for the study of words and how they change. On the same page the word Semantics was spied: “words and word groups, their development and changes of meaning, as subject of study’” (pp. 87-88).
From Kister (1991):
The questioner is seeking the words to the national anthem of Scotland, which he believes is called “Scotland the Brave.” To the librarian’s surprise, the Scottish anthem is not included in the latest edition of National Anthems of the World, nor does this standard reference source mention “Scotland the Brave” or offer any hint why Scotland does not appear in the alphabetical sequence or the index…A rapid check of the article on Scotland in several general encyclopedias also draws a blank on the anthem question…
A call to British Information Services in New York immediately reveals that the official Scottish anthem is “God Save the Queen,” as Scotland is part of Great Britain…. Scots consider “Scotland the Brave” to be their true anthem and that this song may rightly be thought of as the country’s unofficial anthem (p. 107).
Unusual Questions:
“Hmmm…” from San Antonio Public Library’s e-Newsletter
The Future of Telephone Reference
"The future of telephone reference service rests on its ability to establish itself as a major provider of information for a society that depends on quick retrieval of and immediate access to information" (Reichel, p. 6).
Reichel’s thoughts can very easily represent the future of all library services. In an article on the usefulness of libraries, Nunberg (1999) notes that libraries and librarians will always be of importance because although there is plenty of information on the Internet it is often difficult for the average searcher to find very specific and exact information. In other words, there still needs to be a navigator through the choppy waters of Google’s about 6,850,000 results to your search.
Further Reading:
• Library Phone Answerers Survive the Internet by Anthony Ramirez in The New York Times, June 19, 2006.
• “24 Hour Live Voice Telephone Reference Service “ http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/1993-June/063118.html
Telephone Reference Services (Just a few):
• Los Angeles Public Library: http://www.lapl.org/central/infonow.html
• UCLA Library: http://www2.library.ucla.edu/questions/1689.cfm
• New York Public Library http://www.nypl.org/questions/
• City of Tualatin, Oregon Public Library http://www.ci.tualatin.or.us/library/Telephone%20Reference/telephone_reference_index.htm
• Johnson County Library (Kansas) http://www.jocolibrary.org/index.asp?DisplayPageID=593
• Sayreville Public Library (New Jersey) http://www.lmxac.org/sayreville/teleref.html
• San Antonio Public Library (Texas) http://www.sat.lib.tx.us/central/telreference.htm
• Montgomery County Maryland Public Libraries http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/laltmpl.asp?url=/content/libraries/askalibrarian/askalibrariantelref.asp
• Wright State University Libraries http://www.libraries.wright.edu/services/ask/phone.html
• Princeton Public Library (New Jersey) http://www.princeton.lib.nj.us/reference/telephone.html
• Austin Public Library (Texas) http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/lbtic.htm
• Hennepin County Library (Minnesota) http://www.hclib.org/pub/search/WebRefAboutCentral.cfm
Links:
Live Virtual Reference Service
Further Reading:
• “Accuracy of Telephone Reference Service in Health Sciences Libraries “ by B. M. Paskoff in Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, April 1991 pp. 182-188
• “County’s Telephone Reference Celebrates 20 Years of Service.” http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/mc/news/press/02-401.html
• “Multnoham To Charge For Phone Reference” by Susan DiMattia and Even St. Lifer in Library Journal, April 1993 pp.20-23.
• “When the White House Calls for Reference Help” by Robert I. Davidsson in Public Libraries, March/April 2000 pp. 68-69.
• "Telephone Information Service in Public Libraries" in Information Service In Public Libraries; Two Studies by Terence Crowley and Thomas Childers, Scarecrow Press, 1971
References:
Partin, Gail. (1986). Telephone Reference Service in Rural Pennsylvania Libraries: A Survey. Rural Libraries, 6(2), 27-75
Bellis, M. (2006). The History of the Telephone: Telephone Technology. 3 paragraphs. About.com website. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltelephone7.htm.
Casson, H. N. (1910). The History of the Telephone. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co, Publishers.
Weigand, W. A. (Ed.), & Davis Jr., D. G, (Ed.). (1994). Encyclopedia of Library History. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.
0824057872
Riechel, R. (1987). Improving Telephone Information and Reference Service in Public Libraries. Hamden, CT: Library Professional Publications.
Yates, R. (1986). A Librarian’s Guide to Telephone Reference Service. Hamden, CT: Library Professional Publications.
McQueen, S., & Zweizig, D. L. (2003). What Goes Around: Telephone Reference Rotary Wheels. Public Libraries, 42(5), 309-314.
Nunberg, G. (1999). Will Libraries Survive? The American Prospect, 9(41), 16-23.
Kister, K. (1991). Making the Connection: The Telephone as a Creative and Potent- but Underutilized- Instrument for Reference Service. The Reference Librarian, 33, 103-109.
Brown D. M. (1985). Telephone Reference Questions: A Characterization by Subject, Answer Format, and Level of Complexity. Reference Quarterly, 24, 290-303
Allen, F. R. & Smith, R. H. (1993). A Survey of Telephone Inquiries: Case Study and Operational Impact In an Academic Library Reference Department. Reference Quarterly 32(3), 382-392.
Myers M. J. & Jirjees, J. M. (1983). The Accuracy of Telephone Reference/Information Services In Academic Libraries: Two Studies. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Camille Ray