The Overlooked Foundation To An Effective Reference Interview

The secret ingredient of a successful reference interview is to pretend we, as reference librarians or technicians, know NOTHING.

The purpose of a reference interview is to help fulfil a patron’s needs, with our research skills in a professional manner.

Think about the last time you sit on the reference desk, what was it like?

Were there any patrons asking questions? How did they approach to you? Were they scared or reluctant before they asked you?

OR, there were no questions during your shift. You were just completing your assigned task on desk. It is totally OK, because it is normal to not ask questions these days.

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Why Some Ask Questions and Some Don’t?

The frequency to answer reference questions is depending on the type of library one is working on.

Let’s take academic library as an example.

If you are being asked lots of reference questions, good for you. It is a good practice to sharpen your research skills. Either your institution has a no-stupid-question environment, or the student are willing to ask questions rather than figuring it out by themselves.

Rigid DIY Culture

However, not all students are willing to ask, because the society tells them to figure things out on their own instead of depending on external effort.

Those who ask questions are seen as vulnerable and slow, lacking independent thinking capabilities and self-learning new stuff. Even worse, they may be regarded as a failure.

Reference librarians/technicians must think differently to best serve the nervous patrons.

But how to make them NOT feeling failed?

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The Psychological Disadvantage Syndrome (PDS)🧠

The term, psychological disadvantage was first coined by Dave Tyckoson, the associate dean of the Nery Madden Library, California State University. Dave argued that:

Reference technicians or librarians, during the process of reference interviews, should let patrons pass that feeling of failure, make the process without any judgements, by asking neutral questions.

From a patron’s perspective:

1. How will library staff judge me?
2. How will my peers judge me?
3. This must be a stupid question!
4. Why is it just me asking this question, since everyone can Google it?

Understanding the patron’s inner side, we can break down communication barriers and ease their mental burden by trying the following strategies.

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Best Practices

Here are five strategies on overcoming the PDS for self-doubt patrons.

Strategy 1:

Pretend we know nothing, and be Curious about any questions they ask.

Strategy 2:

Softly reply without being too much questioning.

Instead of saying, “Why do you need that source”

🌱But say: “how would you use that source for?”

Instead of saying, “Can you tell me more about it?”

🌱But say: “Would you tell me about it?”.

Strategy 3:

Ask open-ended questions and avoid Yes or No questions.

The purpose is to let students talk more about that topic and the reference technician can gather more information.

Strategy 4:

Behave like “I want to know more about it”, by saying, “I am Curious, tell me more about it.”, even though we may already know about the topic.

Strategy 5:

Reassure and Repeat what the patron says to ensure you receive the right information.