I_evidence_1

Melissa Townsend-Crow

Article review

I_Evidence_1

November 05, 2014

Richardson Jr., R. V. (2002).  Reference is better than we thought.  Library Journal, 127(7), 41-42.

Introduction

According to Richardson in his article entitled, "Reference is Better Than We Thought," reference researchers seek to answer the following questions:

• What is good reference service?
• What are the desirable outcomes?

Is the quality of reference service most dependent on:

• the library?
• the librarian?
• the user?

Quality reference service is most often defined by these researchers in three ways:

• accuracy
• utility
• user satisfaction

Inconsistent Reference Studies

Richardson introduces the "55 percent rule," that is, the notion that studies measuring reference accuracy are at 55%. The studies included surveys of students ranging in answers of their questions being "completely answered" to "not answered at all." Even when students expressed high satisfaction with the service, the rating remained at "half-accurate." Some of the reasons Richardson lists for this poor rate of reference accuracy are:

• lack of agreement on definitions of reference service
• inconsistent operational definitions of variables
• bias due to lack of randomness in samples
• too small samples
• little repetition of previous testing procedures (leading to a lack of consistency?)
• no attention to theory behind testing

The reader of this study can see that accuracy, utility, and user satisfaction seem unrelated; high customer satisfaction seems inconsistent with half-accuracy.  Re-testing in 12 California libraries however, show that the accuracy is closer to 90%; what was not included in the factors was the difficulty of the users' query which was found to be the most important factor in predicting accuracy of the study (hence the importance of the reference interview). New studies using newer statistical methods and larger samples show the inaccuracy of the 55% rule. According to Richardson, 

library users are more satisfied by those librarians who actively practice the reference skills outlined in the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) :

• inviting queries
• expressing interest
• listening critically
• verifying user satisfaction.

the probability of an individual finding valuable and complete information is not only dependent on the librarian's reference skills but is also predicted by the user's familiarity with the library and his/her level of education (Richardson, 42).

This article raises some questions for future thought:

• Do these results still stand true with people's ability to use search engines from home, such as Google? ("Disintermediation")
• Is it that the library's search engines faster, more efficient, library has access to more databases or is it that the librarian's expertise and assistance that makes the difference in user satisfaction?
• What is the value of these studies?

These are the questions that I hope to answer with future research, however, I can see that the answers will be dependent upon the quality of service provided by information specialists.

Conclusion

The most important point raised by Richardson in this article, I believe, is that the more specific the query, the more accurate the reference experience is. This goes toward answering the questions above, particularly the second one, is it that the library's search engines faster, more efficient, library has access to more databases or is it that the librarian's expertise and assistance that makes the difference in user satisfaction?  I think it is a little of all of that, but perhaps more importantly, the librarian’s expertise, not only in being familiar with the databases and search engines, but also in forming queries that will produce the accurate and relevant responses. As long as librarians are able to navigate between users’ information needs and information retrieval systems, in whatever form those take, then user satisfaction and accuracy should remain high. That value of these studies goes to the heart of librarianship:  service. The more we examine our own reference performance, the better we can serve our customers’ needs.