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May 2, 2008
Reference Interview Questions
Fellow SLA member, Michele McGinnis at the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, assembled a neat list of reference interview questions through the SLA Solo Librarians Division discussion list. I liked them so I got her permission to post them here. Hope you find them useful too. (If you have other favourites put it into the comments).
What would the ideal report contain?
How do you plan to use the information?
What do you expect to discover?
What would surprise you?
How do you want me to share my findings? (Written report, Sharepoint site, PowerPoint, links to or printed articles, etc.)
How would you like the information organized?
What do you already know that you can share with me? (Emails, letters, notes, articles, websites, etc.)
What keywords would you use in searching? Share as many variations of a concept as possible.
I always ask what is the deadline--one hour, one day, one week? If they respond one of the first two, then I let them know the possibility of that given my current work load.
How current should the information be? (x days, x months, x years)
Urgency and/or impact on the organization?
Would you like to review abstracts/ tables of contents before I purchase or borrow any items (if they are available)?
Who do you want the information delivered to?
Is the information for someone else too?
Is there some way to delvier it that will make it easier for you to use the information?
Neat, eh? It's always useful to remember those old reference interview classes and skills.
Stephen
Posted by stephen at May 2, 2008 4:34 PM
Comments
Thanks for this list of reference interview question ideas. It came in really handy to start a discussion with other librarians that I work with through AskColorado. We are currently trying to stress reference interviewing techniques with librarians who staff our service.
A couple of other question ideas that came out of our discussion are:
"There is a lot of information on your topic. Is there something more
specific that you want me to research?"
and
"I really like to rephrase patrons' statements...i.e., "so, you are looking for information on economics in China?"
I find that rephrasing helps them understand what I am hearing, and gives them the opportunity to clarify...this can be really helpful if I have already tried to pump them for more information..."
Posted by: Susie Whiteford at September 11, 2008 1:43 PM
Your list of questions were great in helping me train new staff at our library. Thanks
Posted by: Caro Russell at February 3, 2009 10:34 PM