1. Help Me Help You: Notes from
a Backup Librarian
Research Help Now
Fall Meeting
Nicolette Warisse Sosulski
Business Librarian, Portage
District Library
Staff Reference Librarian,
OCLC Questionpoint

2. Who are we and where do we
come from?
Me:
 Cornell-University of Washington queue in library
school
 email reference in classes through work on the
Internet Public Library
 Washington State Virtual Reference project
 training as an evaluator on the Librarians Index
to the Internet
 public library chat reference internship with 24/7
March 2004-June 2004, hired as staff librarian
June 2004
 Day job business librarian in a public library,
where I field academic reference questions each
day as well as those by members of the general
public

3. Where do we come from
My other experience:

Secretary: Genetics
department/yeast
lab

Training in medical
field as a health
insurance counselor

Degrees in English
literature and
government

Marriage to a
German studies
/film studies grad
student /professor

And for 5 years I
was a dorm mother
at the University of
Chicago…

4. My Colleagues include




University subject bibliographers
in religion, Chicana studies,
Romance Languages and
business
Librarians who have “hit for the
cycle”: public, school, academic &
special libraries
Librarians married to faculty
Public librarians trained in the
academic reference milieu in a
program developed with input by
librarians such as Stephen
Francoeur and Nancy Huling
All of us have our transcripts evaluated by
1.
The patrons, when they fill out a
transcript
2.
The quality control staff on QP
3.
The home library of the patron

5. My Colleagues, or How is a non-academic
librarian prepared to assist my patrons
Public librarians receive training in how to handle
academic questions



More “source” questions than “answer” questions
more BI—What is the process of getting to the
answer? What is the reason that we chose that
source? What search terms did you use? Which
would we have used?
We also have a probationary period during which
we are paid less and during which our transcripts
have a higher degree of scrutiny

6. How do we know what sources to use? After all,
few public librarians have subscriptions to America
History and Life, Psych Info Abstracts, or Biosis





Prior experience
Patrons on our day jobs—we often encounter
patrons intimidated by or oblivious to academic
libraries
Colleagues (backroom chat)
Some of us are pathological browsers at nearby
research libraries
Cobrowsing (though sometimes that may be
problematic, depending on the patron’s security
settings, browser choices, or a multiplicity of
patrons)

7. How do we know what sources to use? After all,
few public librarians have subscriptions to America
History and Life, Psych Info Abstracts, or Biosis

When coaching a patron through database access
does not work (imagine coaching somebody
through the thesaurus of psych info extract sight
unseen—sometimes it works), and when
cobrowse does not work a one-two approach of
Google scholar combined with your e-journal
finder will help us locate articles for your patrons

8. How do we know what sources to use? After all,
few public librarians have subscriptions to America
History and Life, Psych Info Abstracts, or Biosis

And most importantly:
Your Research Guides--If you say that A, B, and
C databases are the top three for Women’s
studies, chances are that we will be
recommending one, or two, or three of them as
jumping off points, as well as your most
recommended general info databases

9. And if all those fail, we have
backup—We collaborate/
communicate during all shifts

Ipswitch, a freestanding
IM program--we log in
during each shift

IM imbedded in the
Questionpoint
program

10. So what is it like when a backup
librarian logs in?
There are the queues (I
man 68 including the UK
during their middle of the
night)
Chat monitoring tool
The institution’s policy
page—we open this
immediately
And of course the library web
page, google, etc.
The institution’s databases

11. Policy Pages and Library Websites
are Critical
We look at everything…

12. Can the backup librarian get into at
least the catalog and list of
databases? Or are they hidden
behind a login?
Have you given her an ID or library
card number? We promise we will
not give it out

If not, it can be…challenging

13. Of course there are some things
that only you know or can access







Is there good parking today?
Why doesn’t my library card
work?
Can you override it so I can
renew all the books I have
checked out?
What do I have checked out?
Why do I show 58.00 in fines?
Why don’t you have all the
required texts for for my class?
Why is there no paper in the
copier on 4 North?
We will refer to the local institution
by phone or email, especially to
a subject bibliographer when
appropriate. We check library
hours to see when the soonest
the patron can reach somebody
will be.

14. But sometimes we can fake it…
Is there a map of the library on your site?
Do you have a site map or search box for the
library page?

15. Sometimes there are technical
difficulties


16. If your catalog or web page is down the
same time every day for updates, please
put that on your policy page.
If you are having longterm problems with
a database login—put the workaround on
the policy page or on your site.

17. And about Cobrowsing…
Cobrowsing can be problemmatic due to
 the patron’s security settings, especially if the
patron has no clue what they are
Different browsers
Firewalls at an institution
multiple patrons being handled by the same
librarian at the same time—if one or more patrons
is in cobrowse, whenever they respond that window
goes to the forefront, possibly causing the librarian
to respond to the wrong patron.

18. And speaking of Multiples
Multiples are not a horrible thing




If we are “in the zone”, patrons may not
even realize that we are dealing with
someone other than they.
If we are going to have delays we will
advise that there will be delays and the
interchanges will be slower. They then
have the option to wait, call back later,
or sometimes wait for an e-mail
response, if this is not an assignment
due tomorrow.
Often the ones who cannot wait and
have something due that day may be
logging in at a time when there would
have been no bricks and mortar
reference possibility whatsoever—one
third of a librarian is way better than one
hundred percent of zero.
Multiples will occur more and more as
traffic grows faster than HR budgets.

19. Multiples: Continued
Techniques:
 Intermittent post source reference interviewing—sending
the patron and querying him on how it meets his needs.





Statements like “I am going to send you several sources—
let me know which is closest to what you were looking for,
since I am working with several of you.
Avoiding one patron’s dominating the entire librarian pool
on staff (“if I open 4 sessions I can get 4 librarians to each
do one of my assignments, thus leaving me more time…”)
Apologizing for delays before they occur if possible.
Send a message like “I am still searching” or “this is
challenging—still trying to locate something” even if an
information source has not yet been found.
Let the patrons’ responses give input into the pace of your
transactions.

20. Types of Queries
Lots of bibliographic instruction
Tech support

21. Things for you to think about as
your utilization increases…
International Patrons

22. We are all trying to develop rapport every day, just as all of
us are with patrons through every format
Sometimes, of course, we
just can’t tell where the
patron is coming from…
Sometimes they give us
great feedback..

23. Please feel free to let us know how
to help your patrons better
Susan D. Barb
QuestionPoint 24/7 Cooperative Staff Manager
barbs@oclc.org