The first comprehensive national survey of all academic libraries in the United States which were conducting chat reference service was carried out to determine: what practices were being used to prepare personnel for chat reference service, what competencies were being taught, how and why training practices may have changed over time, and what…

Student workers have always been a traditional and valuable component to the smooth running of many academic health sciences libraries. However, in recent years many libraries have redefined student workers' roles to extend beyond their traditional scope due to a range of factors, such as loss of staff and budget cutbacks. The Bio-Medical Library…

For this kit, 119 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) academic libraries were surveyed to identify: (1) the practices in the area of information desks; (2) information desk staffing; (3) information desk functions; and (4) their relation to the other service points within the particular library. Responses were received from 87 libraries, some…

After undertaking the time and energy consuming task of reference assessment, the library might discover that it needs to tweak delivery of service, weed and update the collection, upgrade workstations, or advance marketing strategies to get patrons to use reference materials and services. Like any other product or service, reference departments…

This paper presents a description of the Old Dominion University's (Virginia) Reference Librarian Orientation Program designed to ease the transition of reference librarians new to the school and its reference department. The program introduces the reference librarian to the library, the reference department, and the university itself and consists…

Intended for those who manage, organize, and oversee the information desk of the State University of New York at Stony Brook Library, this guide contains practical information about staffing, acquiring materials, and operating procedures. The guide opens with a list of suggestions for recruiting and scheduling volunteers for the information desk.…

A training manual created by a reference librarian at Kent State University who was responsible for training and supervising graduate library science students for reference work, this handbook is offered as a guide to librarians for developing a training program for preprofessionals or nonprofessionals who work at a library reference desk. The…

To help foreign students adjust to academic environment, the University of California-Davis Library developed a personalized instructional program (small groups, "on call" service) with a dual emphasis: teaching international students how to find and use library information; educating library staff to recognize/understand the special…

This report describes a five-part study conducted at the Brigham Young University library during the winter semester of 1987 to assess the quality of the reference service provided to library patrons by student reference assistants (SRAs) after a full semester of SRA participation in the reference patron service system. The study focused on…