Here’s a pic of the reference desk at Anywhere Public Library in Fakeola, USA. As a service to their customers, they decided to create a sign letting their patrons know that their questions might not be answered right away.
After all, some questions simply aren’t answered instantaneously – staff might need to wander out in the stacks to find an appropriate resource, or the question might lend itself to a lengthy reference interview. And once in a great while, questions really DO take up to 2 days or so to get answered, so it seemed like the right thing to do to post this sign.
When asked about their sign, here’s what library staff said:
- “in my experience, most questions do NOT take 2 days to answer, but isn’t it better to give a max time in the event that a question needs more thorough research? Librarians actually DO have other things to do with their time after all.”
- “While it’s nice to say “We’ll get back to you as soon as possible, some patrons want a definitive time frame.”
- “We posted the actual limits and the 48 hour turnaround to buy ourselves wiggle room and to avoid the open-ended questions”
- “Why does every question have to be answered right NOW? Honestly, if you need an answer right away, there’s this lovely invention called a telephone.”
OK – obviously, I’m fudging a bit. My reference desk pic is fake (my Photoshop skills astound no one). But the answers from “library staff?” These are all quotes from real librarians, commenting on my two previous posts about electronic reference service needing a reboot.
Some readers who thought my post was a bit over the top said one of three things:
- you have to give patrons a time frame [even though we mostly answer these questions pretty fast].
- you simply can’t answer lengthy reference questions via email or IM.
- We’re not discriminating and how dare you suggest we are! [OK, you’re right. I used that word on purpose – made ya look! 🙂 ]
So – what do you think? Do you have to give patrons a time frame online? Are most of your email/electronic reference questions answered pretty fast? Do you think that long or detailed reference queries can be handled online?