Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1.1 What Is a Reference Interview?
1.2 The Service Orientation of Libraries
1.3 Beyond 55 Percent
1.4 Why Didn’t You Say So in the First Place?
1.4.1 The Ill-Formed Query
1.4.2 Mental Models
1.5.1 Information as a Commodity
1.5.2 Questions in Contexts
1.6 Reference as an Art of Translation
1.7 There Are No Bad Guy Users
1.8.1 Principles of Interviewing
1.8.2 The Reference Interview
1.8.3 Evaluating the Quality
of the Reference Transaction
1.8.4 The Ill-Formed Query, Translation Problems,
and Users’ Mental Models
1.8.5 Useful Conceptual Frameworks for Thinking
about Information and Information Behavior
2.1 Being Approachable
2.2 The Library as a Physical Space
2.3 Establishing Contact
2.4.1 The Microtraining Approach
2.4.2 Nonverbal Attending Skills
2.4.3 Acknowledgment
2.4.4 Minimal Encouragers
2.4.5 Listening
2.5 Approachability in Virtual Spaces
2.6.2 Nonverbal Behavior
2.6.3 Approachability and Nonverbal Behavior
in the Reference Context
3.1 Some Common Problems
3.1.1 “Without Speaking She Began to Type”
3.1.2 Bypassing the Reference Interview
3.1.3 Taking a System-Based Perspective
3.1.4 The Unmonitored Referral
3.1.5 Negative Closure:
How to Make Users Go Away
3.2.1 Open and Closed Questions
3.2.2 Avoiding Premature Diagnosis
3.2.3 Sense-Making Questions
3.2.4 Reflecting Content: Paraphrasing
and Summarizing
3.2.5 Closure
3.3.1 The Reference Interview: General Works
3.3.2 Problems and Issues
3.3.3 Questioning Skills
3.3.4 Reflecting Content and Feeling
4.1 Skills for Working Together
4.1.1 Inclusion: Telling People What You Are Doing
4.1.2 Library Use Instruction
4.1.3 Follow-up Questions
4.2 Integrating Reference Interview Skills
4.2.1 Tips for Practicing
4.3 Annotated Readings and
Cited References
5.2 The Phone Reference Interview
5.2.1 Interview Skills for the Phone
5.2.2 Voicemail
5.3 The Secondhand Reference Interview
5.3.1 The Imposed Query
5.4.1 “Got Any Books on Fleas?”
5.4.2 Information Literacy
5.4.3 The School Assignment
5.4.4 Parents
5.4.5 Children, Teens, and the Virtual
Reference Interview
5.5 Interviewing Seniors
5.6 Interviewing Adults
from Diverse Communities
5.6.1 Cross-Cultural Communication
5.6.2 English Language Learners
5.7 Interviewing People with Disabilities
5.8 Interviewing the User Who
Is “Problematic”
5.9 Interviewing Users with Consumer
Health and Legal Questions
5.10.1 Introduction to Special Contexts
5.10.2 Phone Reference
5.10.3 The Imposed Query
5.10.4 Interviewing Children and Young Adults
5.10.5 Interviewing Seniors
5.10.6 Interviewing Adults from Diverse Communities
5.10.7 Interviewing People with Disabilities
5.10.8 Interviewing the User Who Is “Problematic”
5.10.9 Interviewing Users with Consumer Health
and Legal Questions
6.1 Introduction to Virtual Reference
Service (VRS)
6.1.1 Setting the Stage
6.2 Real-Time Reference: Live Chat,
Instant Messaging, and Texting
6.2.1 The Synchronous Reference Interview
6.2.2 Improving Accuracy
in Live Chat Reference
6.2.3 Avoiding Face-Threats and
Microaggressions in VRS
6.2.4 VRS via Texting
6.3 E-Mail Reference
6.3.1 The E-Mail Reference Interview and Forms
6.4 Trending in VRS
6.5.2 Articles, Books, and Websites,
including Cited References
7.1 Introduction to the
Readers’ Advisory Interview
7.2 Towards a Reader-Centered Service
7.3 Evaluating the Readers’
Advisory Encounter
7.4 Setting the Stage
7.5 Conducting the Interview
7.6.1 Research-Based Work on Readers’
Advisory, Reading, and the Reader
7.6.2 Readers’ Advisory Service
7.6.3 Evaluation of the Readers’ Advisory
Transaction
7.6.5 Resources for Readers’ Advisors
8.2.1 Typical Policies
8.2.2 Reference Service Policy Statements
for Library Users
8.2.3 Policy and Procedures Manuals for Staff
8.2.4 Consortial Reference Policies
8.3 Training Staff in Reference
Interview Skills
8.3.1 Independent Learning
8.3.2 Group Training
8.3.3 Training for Virtual Reference Service
8.3.4 Evaluation of Training
8.3.5 Resistance to Training—– and Some Answers
8.4.1 Library Association Policies and
Guidelines for Reference Staff
8.4.2 Reference Policy
8.4.3 Training
About the Authors
Index