Teach the Patron or Lead the Patron?
Posted by: Sara Rofofsky Marcus
Sitting at the reference desk of an academic library, glimpsing guiltily the growing group gaining guidance, the question arises, should we teach the patrons to find the information themselves, using a reference question as a teaching opportunity, or should we simply point them to the right resource quickly to be able to get to the next patron quickly.
I can’t say I honestly have the right answer, but I do wonder how others feel about this. I know when I was in library school we were taught to use each interaction as a teaching opportunity, but how does this service the patron who leaves the line? And what about the ringing telephone, how do you add that patron to the lengthening line?
Sometimes I’ll look down the line and ask if anyone has a quick question, or I might try to grab 30 seconds to find a colleague’s extension and ring for help. If there’s a lengthy question in front of me I might try to move the line along by giving quick tips or guidance and then hope I’ll remember to do the follow-up. Of course some patrons are coming to the reference desk for a call number simply because there are no computers free for them to seek the number themselves, which in itself is a problem – a lack of computers. But that’s another post.
February 25th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
If time permits and the patron is willing, I think we should educate the patron rather than simply giving them the answer. Since I have a special education background, this is a major goal of mine. However, the reality is that some patrons don’t want this information or skill. You can lead a horse to water…..
February 25th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
An academic library is a classroom. If a student asks me where a book is, I always turn the screen so we can both see it and begin: “When you want to find a book in the library, you go to any of the computers and open up the homepage. Click where it says ‘Find Books’”…. If a student asks “Can you find a book for me,” I lead them over to one of the computers and instruct them how to do it. I get nothing out of doing a student’s research for them, and neither do they.
March 4th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
I can generally tell when a patron is open to teaching or when they simply want the answer. Teaching them is certainly noble, but sometimes they don’t want what they consider a lecture.
March 17th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
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