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Cyberspace or Face-to-Face: The Teachable Moment and Changing Reference Mediums

Desai, Christina M. and Graves, Stephanie J. (2007) Cyberspace or Face-to-Face: The Teachable Moment and Changing Reference Mediums.

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Abstract

This article considers the teaching role of reference librarians by studying the teachable moment in reference transactions, and users’ response to that instruction. An empirical study of instruction was conducted in both virtual and traditional reference milieus, examining three services: IM (Instant Messaging), chat, and face-to-face reference. The authors used the same criteria in separate studies of all three to determine if librarians provided analogous levels of instruction and what factors influenced the likelihood of instruction. Methodology employed transcript analysis, observation, and patron surveys. Findings indicated that patrons wanted instruction in their reference transactions, regardless of medium, and librarians provided it. However, instructional techniques used by librarians in virtual reference differ somewhat from those used at the reference desk. The authors conclude that reference transactions, in any medium, represent the patrons’ point-of-need, thereby presenting the ideal teachable moment.

EPrint Type:Preprint
Keywords:Library instruction information literacy virtual reference reference instant messaging IM teaching
Subjects:Library Science
Library Instruction
Reference Services
Academic Libraries
Information Literacy
Information Science
Information Retrieval
Information Seeking Behaviors
Libraries
ID Code:1840
Deposited On:30 March 2007
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3. Christina M. Desai and Stephanie J. Graves, “Instruction via Instant Messaging: What’s Happening?” The Electronic Library 24, no. 2 (2006), 174-189.

4. Stephanie J. Graves and Christina M. Desai, “Instruction via Chat: Does Co-browse Help?” Reference Services Review 34, no. 3 (2006): 340-357.

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10. For examples, see Keith Ewing and Robert Hauptman, “Is Traditional Reference Service Obsolete?” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 21 (Jan. 1995): 3-6 and David W. Lewis, “Traditional Reference is Dead, Now Let’s Move on to Important Questions,” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 21 (Jan. 1995): 10-12.

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13. Carol Tenopir, “Impacts of Electronic Reference on Instruction and Reference,” in The Impact of Technology on Library Instruction: Papers and Session Materials Presented at the Twenty-first National LOEX Library Instruction Conference held in Racine, Wisconsin, 14 to 15 May 1993, ed. Linda Shirato (Ann Arbor, MI: Pierian Press, 1995): 5-6.

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16. RUSA: Reference and User Services Association, “Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers,” http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaprotools/referenceguide/guidelinesbehavioral.htm (accessed July 25, 2006).

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18. Ladonna Guillot and Beth Stahr, “One Step Further: Virtual Instruction Strategies, Connection,” Louisiana Libraries 67 (Spring 2005): 8-11.

19. Desai and Graves, “Instruction via Instant Messaging”; Graves and Desai, “Instruction via Chat.”

20. Susan E. Beck and Nancy B. Turner, “On the Fly BI: Reaching and Teaching from the Reference Desk,” The Reference Librarian 72 (2001): 83-89; Denise D. Green and Janis K. Peach, “Assessment of Reference Instruction as a Teaching and Learning Activity,” College and Research Libraries News 64 (April 2003): 256-58; Lisa A. Ellis, “Approaches to Teaching Through Digital Reference,” Reference Services Review 32, no. 2 (2004): 103-19; David Ward, “Why Users Choose Chat: A Survey of Behavior and Motivations,” Internet Reference Services Quarterly 10, no. 1 (2005): 29-46; Beth S. Woodward, “One-on-one Instruction: From the Reference Desk to Online Chat,” Reference and User Services Quarterly 44 (Spring 2005): 203-9.

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30. F. J. Roethlisberger and William J. Dickson, Management and the Worker (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1939).

31. H. M. Parsons, “What Happened at Hawthorne?” Science 183 (Mar. 8 1974): 928.

32. Ibid., 927.

33. For examples, see John G. Adair, “The Hawthorne Effect: A Reconsideration of the Methodological Artifact,” Journal of Applied Psychology 69 (May 1984): 334-345; Gordon Diaper, “The Hawthorne Effect: A Fresh Examination,” Educational Studies 16, no. 3 (1990): 261-267; Stephen R. G. Jones, “Was There a Hawthorne Effect?” The American Journal of Sociology 98 (Nov. 1992): 451-468.

34. Adair, “The Hawthorne Effect: A Reconsideration,” 342-43.

35. Jo Bell Whitlatch, “Unobtrusive Studies and the Quality of Academic Library Reference Services,” College and Research Libraries 50 (Mar. 1989): 183-84.

36. Bruce Jensen, “The Case for Non-Intrusive Research: A Virtual Reference Librarian’s Perspective,” The Reference Librarian 85 (2004): 142.

37. Jo Bell Whitlatch, “Evaluating Reference Services in the Electronic Age,” Library Trends 50 (Fall 2001): 212.

38. Ibid., 208.

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