As academic institutions continue to renovate and remodel existing libraries to include colocated services, it is important to understand how this new environment requires the redefining of traditional library roles and responsibilities. This case study examines how Delaware County Community College redefined reference and research service by…

In the five years following implementation of a chat reference service at James Madison University (JMU), the service proved very popular but was not closely assessed for quality of service. Using grounded theory and qualitative data analysis techniques, a comprehensive assessment effort was begun in earnest and is in progress. Preliminary results…

Students in the Library and Information Science concentration at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, are being taught the Information Horizon Interview (IHI). By learning this technique, students are able to conduct original information behavior research upon a topic or population of their choice. This article provides a succinct…

This literature review is intended to examine transformative learning within the context of academic libraries and its applications for librarians. Although the main audience is academic librarians who facilitate student learning, it may also be of interest to other practitioners and researchers who are interested in applying transformative…

Library quality is no longer evaluated solely on the value of its collections, as user perceptions of service quality play an increasingly important role in defining overall library value. This paper presents a retooling of the LibQUAL+ survey instrument, blending the gap measurement model with perceptual congruence model studies from information…

Two research questions guided this study: (1) Is there a gap in customer service quality perception between librarians (service providers) and patrons (service beneficiaries)?; and (2) How do patrons perceive the relational service qualities of librarians who staff the reference desk? Quantitative results based on a Likert scale survey showed no…

It has been almost 50 years since Robert Taylor published his classic 1968 article, "Question-Negotiation and Information Seeking in Libraries," in "College & Research Libraries"; yet much of what that article discussed is as fresh today as it was back then. It has been identified as a classic because it has enduring themes…

This study investigates how reference staff at two libraries balance teaching with resource delivery in live chat reference. Analysis of 410 transcripts from one week shows that one library tends to deliver more resources from a wider range of database suggestions, to take more time in chat interactions, and to incorporate more teaching behavior…

This article introduces psychologist Carol S. Dweck's entity and incremental theories of intelligence and explores the prevalence of these theories in academic librarians who participate in reference and instruction activities. Based on existing research, it is possible that implicit theories of intelligence could affect the ways in which…

Are services that were once intended to be exclusively available to the distance learning population now typically available for all users in a university community? This article seeks to investigate this question using two different methods. First, an unobtrusive study of 100 library Websites was conducted to determine whether these libraries…

This article describes information literacy struggles of ESL college students within the context of four information literacy components: Identify, Locate, Evaluate, Use. Experiences from an online freshman composition course are used to illustrate these struggles, along with techniques academic librarians use to help ESL students from a distance.

There persists an intense debate on whether or not the traditional reference desk should be in academic libraries. Yet, despite many anti-desk studies, the place of the reference desk still remains. This paper aims to review the current significance of the reference desk for some libraries, as well as the importance of choosing the proper…

In this article, the author proposes to present a superficial view of what is being taught in the 32 American Library Association accredited graduate library schools. She briefly discusses and answers the following three questions: (1) Who is teaching reference?; (2) What is being taught?; and (3) How is it being taught? [For the commentary on…

Cheney's paper was the first major article on the subject of teaching reference in American library schools. In the article, she addressed three questions: (1) Who is teaching reference?; (2) What is being taught?; and (3) How is it being taught? In this article, Linda Smith discusses how the teaching of reference has changed in the more than 50…

Seekers of information in libraries either go through a librarian intermediary or they help themselves. When they go through librarians they must develop their questions through four levels of need, referred to here as the visceral, conscious, formalized, and compromised needs. In his pre-search interview with an information-seeker the reference…