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Loyola University Chicago Libraries

Graduate Reference Assistant - Reference Training/Guide

This online training guide will help graduate reference assistants become more familiar with what to do when working at reference service desks.

Referral Basics

As a graduate reference assistant you are often the first representative of the library that a researcher consults with a question, but you are not responsible for fielding difficult research inquiries on your own. The Research and Learning Services librarians are here to help, and we want you to feel comfortable referring questions to us.

 

Why is it important to refer questions to a librarian, even if you are able to provide assistance to the researcher?

 

  • It's important for librarians to understand the needs and expectations of library users in order to contribute to library management and planning, as well as for providing input on collection development. 
  • Librarians can determine whether additional services can be provided, such as the offer to purchase a title and notify the patron of its arrival or the option to give a patron permission to borrow a non-circulating item. 
  • Librarians are kept informed about new resources and work to maintain a broad knowledge of reference tools and sources. 
  • Many library users don't differentiate between a graduate student assistant and a professional librarian. If a graduate student assistant attempts and fails to answer a difficult question, the user may not recognize that additional help is available.  
  • Referrals help to maintain a smooth flow of traffic for basic and directional questions. 

 

What Types of Questions Should I Attempt to Answer?

  1. Initial reference interview
  2. Known item searches
    1. An information source that a library user already knows something about and is trying to locate. 
  3. Accessing full text for e-resources (journal articles, e-books, streaming video, etc.)
  4. Assistance with ILL and document delivery
  5. Locating books and print journal issues in Cudahy Library and/or Lewis Library
  6. Identifying appropriate research guides, library tutorials, and help materials
    1. Examples - Psychology libguide, Refworks tutorial, Purdue OWL
  7. Identifying an appropriate library database and demonstrating a basic search
  8. Questions about library services
  9. Referrals to other university services and departments

What Types of Questions Should I Refer?

You will need to conduct a reference interview with each library user to determine whether or not you need to make a referral. Generally speaking, you should refer the follow types of questions:

  1. Refer any question that is clearly not a level 1 Question.
  2. Questions about a research topic, as opposed to known items. 
    1. For questions like these, you should direct the user to an appropriate research guide and/or library database, and demonstrate how to perform a basic search, and then suggest that the user may want additional help from a librarian. 
  3. Questions that stretch on past 10 minutes. 
    1. If it's taking a long time to answer a question, it's often a good idea to ask for help. 

It's not always easy to draw a line, but questions that are more open ended than a known item search should be referred. 

Known Item Search: "I'm looking for a copy of Hamlet by William Shakespeare."

Research Topic Question: "I'm looking for articles about Hamlet by Williams Shakespeare."

Grey Area: "I'm looking for a scholarly edition of Hamlet by William Shakespeare." 

  • In this example, the question is close to a known item search, because the user knows the name of the book and the author. But it also has elements of a research topic question, because there may be several different scholarly editions of Hamlet to choose from, and the user may need help from a librarian to understand which is the appropriate source. 
  • In this case, you could help the patron use the library catalog and try different search terms to identify a scholarly edition, but eventually refer the patron to a librarian for follow up.                                     

How to make a referral

If a chat question becomes lengthy or complex it should be referred to a librarian.

There are two primary options when making a referral:

  1. Refer the patron to a subject specialist librarian 
  2. Refer the patron to cud-ref@luc.edu to get help in the next 24 business hours. 

When you determine that it's appropriate to make a referral, offer the user the option:

"The subject specialist librarian will be able to provide specialized research help for your question. Would you like to receive a follow up email from that librarian in the next 24 hours?"

If you need to converse with the patron further about referral to a librarian, please remember:

  1. Your librarian colleagues also make referrals - providing the researcher with the most effective resource to answer their question is good reference service, even if the resource in question is a person.
  2. Directing the patron to a subject specialist empowers the researcher to reach out directly to the subject specialist in the future when they have an in-depth or subject-specific question.

You may wish to use language such as the following when corresponding with a researcher about a referral:

"A subject specialist would be able to help you with more specific suggestions and more in-depth help."

"It sounds like you would benefit from talking about your research with someone who has more expertise in this area. Our subject specialist would be able to meet with you to discuss your topic and provide additional research help."

"Our subject specialist is an expert in using this database and would be able to provide you with more advice on search strategies."

If/when the researcher requests a referral to a subject specialist librarian, you'll need to follow several steps:

  1. Identify the appropriate subject specialist from the list on the library website: http://libraries.luc.edu/specialists 
    1. If you're trying to decide between two different librarians, you can contact both of them. 
    2. If you're just not sure which librarian to contact, send the referral email to cud-ref@luc.edu
    3. If the student is working on a UCWR paper, send the referral email to cud-ref@luc.edu
  2. In the email, include a brief description of the researcher's question and any steps you took working with the researcher. 
  3. Copy the researcher on the email, so they have a record of the interaction and the subject specialist librarian's contact information.

If the patron's issue is related to something that is not research related, then the cud-ref@luc.edu email referral might be more appropriate. Examples of non-research patron issues include:

  1. Library account access issues
  2. Link resolver issues
  3. Article/database access issues
  4. Questions regarding ILL, Document Delivery, or other Access Services issues
  5. Issues regarding Cudahy/IC/Lewis building access or space usage