Staffing the reference desk in the largely-digital library

Reference Librarian

Volumn 31, Issue 66, 1999, Pages 141-163

  Coffman, Steve ^a   Saxton, Matthew L ^b,c,d  

^a Los Angeles Public Library   (United States)

^b Anaheim Public Library   (United States)

^c Santa Ana College   (United States)

^d UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 85023583111     PISSN: 02763877     EISSN: 15411117     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1300/J120v31n66_13     Document Type: Article

References (15)

1. Ferguson, Chris D. and Bunge, Charles A. 1997. “The Shape of Services to Come: Values-Based Reference Service for the Largely-Digital Library,”. College and Research Libraries, 58 May: 252 – 65.
2. Jestes, Edward and Laird, David. 1968. “A Timed Study of General Reference Work in a University Library,”. Research in Librarianship, 2 January: 9 – 16.
3. Guerrier, Edith. 1935. “The Measurement of Reference Service in a Branch Library,”. Bulletin of the American Library Association, 29: 632.
4. Baldwin, Emma and Marcus, William E. 1941. Library Costs and Budgets: A Study of Cost Accounting in Public Libraries, New York: Bowker.
5. Bunge, Charles A. “Gathering and Using Patron and Librarian Perceptions of Question-Answering Success,”. Evaluation of Public Services and Public Services Personnel: Papers Presented at the Allerton Park Institute. 1990. pp. 65 Champaign: University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science.
6. Jestes and Laird. 15.
7. St. Clair, Jeffrey W. and Aluri, Rao. 1977. “Staffing the Reference Desk: Professionals or Nonprofessionals?”. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 3 3 July: 153.
8. From a pilot study of reference service at the Anaheim Public Library for a dissertation research study conducted in May 1998. The complete data from the larger study of reference questions in many public libraries will be published with Matthew L. Saxton's dissertation in May 1999.
9. Data from an internal study of telephone reference logs compiled by the reference staff at the Norwalk Public Library of the County of Los Angeles Public Library during July 1992. For a detailed analysis of the data, please see Appendix.
10. Bunge. “Gathering,” 69.
11. Halldorsson, Egill A. and Murfin, Marjorie E. 1977. “The Performance of Professionals and Nonprofessionals in the Reference Interview,”. College and Research Libraries, 38 3 September: 385.
12. The Internet Public Library s, for example, one of the best known of these services, limits itself to 35 questions per day, according to Joe Janes, founder and director of the IPL, in a presentation at the Southern California Online Users Group annual workshop, “Rethinking Reference and Research,” Industry, CA, 29 April 1998.
13. This technical discussion on call centers has been drawn chiefly from three sources: Robert A. Gable, Inbound Call Centers: Design, Implementation, and Management Boston: Artech House, 1993; Brad Cleveland and Julia Mayhen, Call Center Management on Fast Forward: Succeeding in Today's Dynamic Inbound Environment Annapolis, MD: Call Center Press, 1997; and Keith Dawson, The Call Center Handbook: The Complete Guide to Starting, Running and Improving Your Call Center, 2nd ed. New York: Telecom Books, 1998.
14. From an unpublished internal market research study prepared for Lucent Technologies.
15. June 1998. June, A very good example is the Call Center Directory site.