Created: 2025-09-23 12:02:42 - Touched: 2025-12-24 15:08:03 - Status: Seed

Wong, M. A., & Saunders, L. (2024). Reference and Information Services: An Introduction. Bloomsbury Libraries Unlimited.

Chapter 1 Introduction

In contrast to circulation, reference is about answering questions meeting the user where they are. Universal education taught people to read, and public libraries gave them material to read. The public, not knowing how to use a library, asked librarians for help. Changes in university education promoted reference service within academic libraries.

Do the research, or teach how to research? The conservative/minimum role is to teach users how to find their own materials, not getting involved in the search itself. Moderate/middling is a blend of teaching and answering, don't do homework assignments but find difficult factual answers. Liberal/maximum, the librarian does the research and presents the results to the user (most common in special libraries). Mechanism of providing reference could be reference desk, online, scheduled research consultation, etc.

Information behavior theory, "the many ways in which human beings interact with information, in particular, the ways in which people seek and utilize information" (Bates 2017, 2074). When, where, how, why, do patrons search or not search for information. "Berrypicking" picking up pieces of information that partially address an information need during an iterative process that can expand or contract search scope. Kuhlthau's six-stage Information Search Process (actions taken at each step, emotional state of the searcher at each step). Information poverty, Chatman. Library anxiety, Mellon.

Communication theory, conversation between seeker and reference librarian. The reference interview.

Critical librarianship examines the role of dominant culture (cishet white male christian affluent). "critical librarianship acknowledges and then interrogates the structures that produce us as librarians, our spaces as libraries, our patrons as students, faculty, and the public, whose interface with the sum of human knowledge is produced, in large part, by us." (Drabinski 2019, 49), counterbalance to vocational awe (Ettarh 2018).

Implicit (unexamined) bias. Accessibility is bias "in space." Cultural competence and humility, "the ability of individuals and systems to respond respectfully and effectively to people of all cultures, classes, races, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations, and faiths or religions in a manner that recognizes, affirms, and values the worth of individuals, families, tribes, and communities, and protects and preserves the dignity of each." (National Technical Assistance and Evaluation Center for Systems of Care 2009). Epistemic injustice "killing, silencing, annihilation, or devaluing of a knowledge system" (Patin et al. 2021).

Reflective practice. Don't just do the reference interview; understand the theory underpinning it, and critically examine those theories. This is ongoing work.

Chapter 5 Models of Reference Services

How/where do we provide reference services? Go where the users are (which is also a form of marketing sometimes). Everything is customer service.

In person

Reference desk isn't used as often anymore, and people with short questions queueing with people with long questions can lead to frustration, and most of the questions don't require librarian-level assistance. If we can teach patrons what reference librarians are capable of, maybe they'd use it more. Research consultations are scheduled, less convenient/immediate but guarantee a block of time to be assisted. Can more easily handle groups making a query, integrate information literacy instruction. Roving reference brings the reference desk to you, sending librarians wandering around asking people if they need help. You can even rove outside of the library itself.

Remotely

Email/web form service (low time pressure, able to give in depth initial response, difficult to have a reference interview). Real-time chat (moderate time pressure, interactive, chat log). Reference by text (it's real-time chat with a bunch of downsides).

Vocational Awe

Ettarh, F. (2018, January 10). Vocational awe and librarianship: The lies we tell ourselves. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/

Vocational awe can convince us to pour more of ourselves into a job than it deserves. Also, job responsibility scope creep; we're not (all) paramedics and we can't meet every possible need in our communities. Our history isn't perfect; there's a lot we need to unlearn (bad cataloging biases etc). But we do have high ethical ideals we should strive to live up to. Not limited to librarians, I saw this as a paramedic.

Lecture 1

Information life cycle. Information services is the public-facing side of this lifecycle. (see chapter 10, information lifecycle) Information Lifecycle

Compare/contrast Ranganathan's laws of library science:

Reordered: Connaway, L. S., & Faniel, I. M. (2014, June 30). Reordering Ranganathan: Shifting User Behaviors, Shifting Priorities. OCLC. https://www.oclc.org/research/publications/2014/oclcresearch-reordering-ranganathan-2014-overview.html

Additional responsibilities of info services workers:

Library consortia as the organizational equivalent of worker unions. Collective bargaining with publishers (among other responsibilities).

Human-information interaction. Reference desk architecture. If you say "hi" when they walk in, they'll ask you a question; otherwise they'll stare at the stacks and then leave. Referrals to other models.

"Use your best reference people as rovers" why punish them for being successful? How about we match people to their strengths and interests instead of making uni-axial decisions.

Elise, ???, Morgan. Ettarh is very US-centric public library-centric perspective and some of the points were about how being in Canada was similar and different. No social work classes in this program. Vocational awe in other religions? I mentioned the Connecticut Four. Competing priorities, not just boss asking you to work extra hours or expanding job scope, but if you don't do the extra work you're failing the community because it's not as accessible as it could be.

Chapter 6: The Reference Interview

A back and forth conversation that helps the information worker get a clear and correct understanding of the patron's information need.

Opening

Patrons are scared, may have sensitive questions, or have other reasons to be hesitant. We need to do our best to make sure people feel comfortable asking for help. Customer service mentality, emotional labor. Ethical responsibility to answer all questions independent of our own personal beliefs? But we don't have to put up with abuse.

Question negotiation

Open and closed questions, active listening. Initial question isn't actual question about 40% of the time. What do you already know, what more would you like to know? Have you already done some research on this? What type of materials are you looking for, eg peer reviewed journals?

Search and location of information

Be better than google. Based on interview responses, identify the right kind of information sources. Take the opportunity to teach good search techniques and be interactive in the search process (see chapter 7). Iterative process, finding initial answers to information need may produce clarified needs and prompt additional questions. Balance the need to teach the patron with the need to answer the questions.

Delivery of answer

Figure out when the patron has enough information to satisfy the need. Don't go crazy. If you're answering rather than teaching, and it's asynchronous like you're doing a research project in a corporate library, you may need to write up a detailed report of findings. The answer may also be or include a referral to a different information source or community resource, such as a county health clinic or a law library. Adapt the response to the patron's needs but also to their communication abilities and existing knowledge. CDC intro to vax is a good resource for new parents, but likely not detailed enough for a virology student. Also ability (braille, large print, audio resources, etc). Be a cheerleader.

Follow up

"Anything else I can help you with?"

Remote reference interviews

Synchronous is usually easier, async you may need to be exhaustive (but not exhausting) or refer to a synchronous option. Most of these are non-visual, so gotta work extra hard on social skills to keep people happy. Set expectations, "I'm researching that and will be back in a few minutes." The less synchronous, the more you should combine interview questioning with potential answers based on what's known so far.

Imposed queries

The person asking you isn't the one who originated the question. Could be a boss or professor. Not internally motivated (or not as much). May not be able to provide context or answer clarifying questions. May still be invested in the outcome (keeping their job, making a good grade). Ask to see the school assignment or email from boss to see if it contains additional clues.

Reference interview via proxy

Similar to imposed queries. Examples: bilingual child interpreting for parent, or someone who is ill sending a relative to the library for them. If the originator of the question is present, it's important for them to feel included, so address responses to that person rather than an interpreter etc.

Special considerations

"Problem patrons" may exist but don't assume an angry person is one. Stay calm. Be empathetic. Provide good customer service. Patrons are people, not just information needs. Things to avoid: not listening, not acknowledging the user, using too many closed questions, interrupting, making assumptions, not following up. Soft skills impact your performance rating and whether a patron will seek service again, often more than getting the right answer to a query. We're not social workers. Over-empathizing can lead to burnout, solutions mentioned mostly put the responsibility on the librarian to engage in self-care.

Equitable services and cultural context

Finally, someone pointing out how ableist it is to assume I want eye contact! Discussion of cultural humility, RUSA being US-centric. Being an "expert" answering a question from a "patron" can imply a power imbalance from the start.

Developing a model of the library search process

Kuhlthau, C. C. (1988). Developing a Model of the Library Search Process: Cognitive and Affective Aspects. RQ, 28(2), 232-242.

Task initiation, topic selection, prefocus exploration, focus formulation, information collection, and search closure. Notes student's emotional state at each state along with actions taken. Confusion, uncertainty, anxiety -> confidence, satisfaction.

Implications: explain the stages at the start of research so people know what to expect. Validate their emotional experiences as they move through each stage. Provide support and information guidance appropriate to where they are in the process.

Question-negotiation and information seeking in libraries

Taylor, R. S. (1968). Question-Negotiation and Information Seeking in Libraries. College & Research Libraries, 29(3), 178-194. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl_29_03_178

Ask librarian for help, or conduct search yourself? But before that, look at your own files, ask a colleague?

  1. Need for information not recallable by the inquirer (visceral)
  2. Ambiguous rambly "question" (may discuss with others to try to focus/clarify) (conscious)
  3. Clear statement of information need (formalized)
  4. Rephrased to be compatible with expectations of information retrieval system (compromised)

Librarians need to start from 4 and work their way back to 3 or even 2, in order to understand the need more clearly and devise a better search strategy. Factors that go into librarian's approach to the interview and search process:

  1. Determination of subject
  2. Objective and motivation
  3. Personal characteristics of the inquirer
  4. Relationship of inquiry description to information organization
  5. Anticipated or acceptable answers

Then a discussion of self-directed searching experiment.

Lecture 2

Information professional+patron describe an information need to which we respond with information.

"The act of seeking and providing information are potentially face-threatening acts" Jessica Luo Carlo & Youngjin Yoo, 2007

Transitioning from one type of library to another could cause disorientation and anxiety. Library workers are intimidating. Sometimes people will be frustrated because of their previous searching. May be intimidated to show work of search so far that hasn't gone well. But can also be anxious because they have no idea where to start. Asking a question where (they worries) the information doesn't exist. The X Y problem, cf Eric S. Raymond.

RUSA preface: Build relationships. Collaborative learning experiences. Identify information need including context. Teach info literacy. There's a power dynamic.

Open v closed questions. If there's a lot of people waiting or you're chatting with multiple people at once, you can maybe give them a homework question to ponder while you help someone else for a minute. Jones 1989 willing to return if they had a good experience. The feminist reference desk (book chapter, maria acardi editor) re emotional labor. Also needs to be examined and addressed at the societal level. Masking your own emotional state and expending energy to manage the emotions of someone else. Does emotional labor include masking my neurotype?

Anxiety of BIPOC undergrad students using the library started lower than white when entering university but was higher than white by the end of university, was lower because of good public libraries and higher because of bad academic libraries.

Dervin: neutral questions, sensemaking.

Sadie Warren, Maddie Christoff

Assignment 1 notes. 10 to choose from, pick 2. Go back and improve the first question; the assignment description has additional detail for each section. See formatting requirements, double spaced word document+pdf. Title page optional, do include page numbers. 6 pages per question double spaced. Example is 4 pages, A but not A+ range.

Find two lib guides on the same topic, probably from different institutions. Comment about impressions and which ones you found in the discussion board.

Chapter 11: Selection and evaluation of reference materials

What is a reference source?

A book that contains facts (or references thereto), rather than arguments, and is arranged such that information can be found throughout the book without having to read it all the way through. Dictionary and encyclopedia are examples. This textbook is mostly a counterexample.

General selection criteria

Relevance to served community, including potential community and historically underrepresented community. Scope, intent, accuracy, completeness, currency. Fit within the rest of the collection (one book on cooking+baking vs one on cooking and one on baking). Intended age/sophistication of reader, illustration quality. Beware the habit of always ordering from the same author/publisher as this can amplify bias. "In order to disrupt this stream and incorporate non-majority voices, we must deliberately acquire materials through non-traditional publication channels." (MIT Libraries, 2017). Choose a binding suitable for expected duration of stay within the collection (things that get outdated quickly can have less durable bindings). Organizational structure (alphabetical, chronological, topical etc). Read reviews.

Electronic resources

Print goes like this:

  1. Identify new item
  2. Consider new item
  3. Place order for new item
  4. Receive and physically process item
  5. Put item on shelf
  6. Review item to either retain or discard.

Electronic is more complicated:

  1. Identify
  2. Consider
  3. Select or reject->end
  4. Acquire and maintain (license, format, troubleshooting and support, stale links, etc)
  5. Evaluate (MUSTIE/CREW/WORST, cost per use)
  6. Renew->4 or cancel->end

Honestly that seems pretty similar. You don't have to renew a license for a print book but you still have to maintain it. Licensing a book instead of buying it, platform selection, cost per use, and other considerations are "uniquely digital." Obviously the digital vendor can remove access to materials on a whim. This process also applies to databases etc, not just ebooks. Electronic resources have their own accessibility concerns.

Location and arrangement

Shelve them by call number like any other book, or have a separate reference section. Pros and cons of discoverability and accessibility. Digital resource licensing terms may not be immediately obvious to library patrons. Remind patrons of the value proposition.

Costs and budgeting

Look for deals. Packages vs individual items. Digital is its own bag of worms. Consortia deals. Multi-year commitments. Talk to your attorney before signing licensing deals.

Collection evaluation

"Would I buy this again?"

MUSTIE: Misleading (or inaccurate), Ugly (physically damaged), Superceded, Trivial (no longer useful), Irrelevant (to the served community), Exists elsewhere (in the collection or somewhere else).

CREW: Continuous Review Evaluation Withdrawal.

WORST: Worn out, Out of date, Rarely used, Supplied elsewhere, Trivial or faddish.

Why are we weeding? Are we weeding everything or just part of the collection? Who's doing it? What criteria will we use? Are we going to replace the ones we remove? What happens to the physical items we're removing? Include stakeholders in these decisions, like relevant faculty members or community review groups. Databases and digital ebook service subscriptions often can't just be cancelled immediately because of contract terms.

Collection development policies

Collection development process

A policy for resource lifecycle within the library, selection and retention policies. Typically have a separate one for reference sources since they don't circulate.

Chapter 13: Ready reference sources

The chapter has criteria specific to ready-reference collection development, but it's just applying the same rules to this specific use case.

Teaching at the Desk: Toward a Reference Pedagogy

Elmborg, J. K. (2002). Teaching at the desk: Toward a reference pedagogy. Portal: Libraries and the Academy, 2(3), 455–464.

The reference desk can be a "more powerful" learning environment than the classroom. Constructivism learning theory: build knowledge by experience and interaction, build on prior knowledge. Overlap with teaching writing, writing centers, tutors. Embrace the chaos rather than drafting an outline to work from. "keeping up the momentum of exploration" but we don't want to explore forever, eventually we want an answer.

Constructivism says we need to let the student do the searching, not just provide answers. We don't write the paper for the student at the writing center. We often think of the reference desk as a place of answers, but constructivist teaching can be a bit socratic, we need to learn to ask questions. Opening questions, following questions (what do they already know), basic structure questions (focus the topic, broaden the topic), process questions (what's done so far, what's next).

Assertion: students are not always in a state ready to receive new information/instruction. A "teachable moment" is a real thing, a point in time where the student has arrived at a point where instruction is useful.

Zone of Proximal Development reference. "In other words, one student may be on the verge of a breakthrough to a much more sophisticated level of understanding, while the other has no such growth spurt on the horizon." I don't know if it actually does say this? In order to effectively create opportunities for students to "build", we need to understand what their current level is. We can't respond from our current level of understanding.

Lecture 3 2025-10-08

Recap of last week's group discussions about how to address reference questions. Hoping the "what sources would you suggest to each of these patrons" will lead us into the next section.

What is a reference source, types of reference sources and how to use them

OED was originally crowdsourced. WP as comparable in accuracy to non-open encyclopedias for some subject domains, different editorial processes have implications. Lots of weeding to decrease print ready reference sources. Big commercial database Credo as an alternative to WP because it's broadly comprehensive. Very expensive. LIS encyclopedia print was 3500 and electronic was 5000 usd. Publisher oligarchy. Consulted, not read. Records (entry in the source), Fields (metadata of the record), Files (two or more records organized by some specific principle). References books typically considered tertiary source. Credo organizes tertiary sources, does that make it a quaterniary/quadrinary source? Credo itself isn't providing the information it's just quoting. An encyclopedia is written in its own words, Credo is literal quotations. Tertiary sources aren't opinionated?

Evaluation of reference sources:

Missing things like scope, currency, etc. Reviews are a good way to get additional evaluations of a source. Databases, internet reviews, and research databases sometimes have them too.

Activity? Worked with the other Sarah, had fun reviewing the SAGE encyclopedia of LGBTQ. Good reference to point my reference assignment question at!

Teaching and LibGuides

Formal and informal instruction, eg teaching a class (planned, one-shot) vs a reference desk encounter (constant, ongoing). Elmborg focuses on the intellectual process going on in the student, rather than the structures of the library and asking the student to fit within that context. Writing and research are both aspects of learning to be a student. Student remains in control, help them walk through it. Teaching them how to learn/self sufficiency. Educational gap between high school and university (high school expectations lowered bc covid, but not in university, classmate Tal asserts). Hands on, let the patron drive the computer to do the novanet search etc. Harder to help kids because of the power imbalance? Remind student they can break out of the prescribed way to research (topic->outline->draft->revision), research is messy and iterative and it's okay to not go through these stages. ESL items to bypass the reading competency = age problem (ORCA?).

Pathfinders and LibGuides, passive instruction. Pathfinder is earlier version of this idea, connect resources and maybe a bit of instruction/summary, subject headings, call numbers. Online they became "research guides" and "subject guides" and "library guides". SpringShare made the LibGuide trademark/platform. Explanation of purpose/scope, list of specific books/articles/etc but also resources like relevant databases, instructions for how to search (common terms). Some places choose to make the same kind of thing without using LibGuide website.

Koha library foss software (evergreen too).

Review of discussion board libguides. Alt text. Contact info. Basic vs advanced? Accessibility. What's missing?

Chapter 12: Search strategies for online sources

Just going to cover the stuff that isn't obvious to me. OPACs search the library catalog, indexes are just pointers, abstracts are annotated indexes, and then full text. Reference tools like encyclopedias.

Databases are made up of entries which contain information and metadata (broken into fields). Both can be used for searching, sorting, and sometimes formatting (like APA7, or bolding the title). Search engines are the interface to the database (or the whole web if you're google, etc). People don't like writing their own sql for some reason. Interfaces have to strike a balance between usability by non-experts and power for experts. Can limit search by fields, select from controlled vocabulary if available, apply boolean logic. Proximity operators sound cool, w5 means "within 5 words maintaining order" while n5 is without maintaining order. Truncation and wildcards (ending a term with *). Databases often have instructions or tutorials to orient new users to the powerful features they offer. Citation chaining: following the citations in one article to find additional articles (or books or whatever), useful when conducting literature reviews. Web of Science, and Scopus, are two most known examples of databases that track citations this way; google scholar isn't mentioned. Citation count can be useful for determining foundational and influential works in a field, to narrow back down after doing citation chaining blows up your list of things to read.

Saving search results. LibGuides on searching. "Discovery" search that spans multiple databases and OPACs etc.

Chapter 14: Bibliographic and indexing sources

These are like card catalogs, they're references to full texts that contain the information. This is different from an annotated/metadata'd full text entry. These can be by year, topic, author, publisher, etc. Useful to look at these instead of a full text database if the full text database doesn't contain the entry in question. They may contain additional metadata and search functionality that the full-text database does not. Using the information in the index, one can seek the desired full text by other means. These can also be useful for citation chaining and citation count filtering, as discussed in chapter 12. Altmetrics track things like views rather than just formal citations. Notes about open access publications: Journals that publish new material immediately in open access format are referred to as Gold OA. Journals that allow access to pre-publication copies or move materials to OA after an embargo are referred to as Green OA.

Lecture 4 2025-10-15

Databases! Time for a nap.

NovaNet can find a lot of these sources but if you don't use the database directly you lose some of the advanced search capabilities. NovaNet uses lowest common denominator. Databases are curated and structured, not just crawled results. What's a link resolver? It seems like the database is configured to direct a non-fulltext result to the full text via a discovery layer. In this case, Find It @ Dal requests the record via NovaNet.

The problem of neutrality and intellectual freedom

Popowich, S. (2020). The problem of neutrality and intellectual freedom: The case of libraries. In C. L. Riley (Ed.), The free speech wars. Manchester University Press. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526152558.00008

Libraries aren't neutral, shouldn't uphold "freedom of speech" as an absolute over all other values. The ideology of liberalist upholding of the status quo, objecting to de-platforming, supports the recreation/perpetuation of capitalism. Libraries willing to partner with state violence when it suits them. Tolerance as a social contract. Freeing of the intellect as an active process. Transphobes suck.

Intellectual freedom and the rise of banned books

Knox, E. (Director). (2023, February 9). Intellectual freedom and the rise of banned books [Video recording]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjc9w49lYts

Looks at who bans books, why, what they ban, who is negatively impacted.

Lecture 5 2025-10-22

Ethics. I should review assignment 2. Obligations to self, patrons, the home institution, other organizations, the profession, society. Right of access (to information) (no censorship). Social responsibility (no discrimination). Hauptman 1976 (how to build a bomb) everybody gave him good service and info (thought they shouldn't have), Dowd 1990 (how to consume cocaine) got good service and info (was happy about it).

Canadian library challenges database. Remarkably low rate of removal/relocation/etc, but the catholics sure do whatever they want.

Guest presenter is branch director for halifax north library. Discussing the public policies on the website. Public libraries are the last line of resource for people experiencing food/housing insecurity etc. MLIS/MI is valued but there are a lot of other areas of education/experience represented within the library workforce. Having library experience can make up for a lower GPA. MI background includes education on ethics that may not have been included in those other areas of education/experience, so we need to step up in those contexts. Customer confidentiality policy: appeals to authority (laws, boards, professional orgs). No political canvassing or events. Tips for deescalation: ryan dowd guide to houselesness, mental health first aid. whiter@halifaxlibrary.ca

We can't predict how someone is going to react to a text they read.

“because we do not know, with any precision, ‘what reading does to people,’ or how it affects social behavior, the profession can be magnanimous in admitting books to library shelves that present all sides of a subject” (Shera, 1976, p. 56)

Keep track of what's challenged, keep your collection development policy updated and published.

What no means

Wong, D. (2024). What no means: Indigenous feminist refusal to library extraction. Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship / Revue Canadienne de Bibliothéconomie Universitaire, 10, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.33137/cjal-rcbu.v10.43098

A refusal isn’t the end. If Indigenous peoples say no to the library asking to do something or hold something, that decision must be respected, but libraries need to ask themselves why, and engage in Indigenisation reflection and practice to address the underlying problems. Libraries aren’t always the best (or only) place to hold knowledges. Often it’s inappropriate for a library to hold something. Extraction isn’t inevitable, Indigenous materials aren’t on the brink of extinction, and even if they were it may be more appropriate to lose them than to have them turned over to inappropriate holders/viewers. Libraries aren’t necessarily a force for good, and some communities are rightfully wary of or could refuse a library. Libraries uphold hegemonic colonialism, and what’s good for the library may not be good for the community it purports to serve.

Interpreting decolonisation in academic libraries

Chong, R., & Edwards, A. (2022). Narrative expansions: Interpreting decolonisation in academic libraries. In Narrative expansions: Interpreting decolonisation in academic libraries. Facet. https://web-p-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.library.dal.ca/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/ZTAwMHhuYV9fMjkzMzE3Ml9fQU41?sid=74493293-47b3-4159-bb21-03e9b82a6512@redis&vid=0&format=EK&rid=1

Decolonization isn’t possible without giving the land back. Indigenization is what they focus on. Explained through grounding themselves in their history, examining the social/culture in which this is happening, then telling stories of each of their experiences working in the library to achieve some of the goals they’ve identified as unmet. Three levels of Indigenisation.

The remark by one author that they hadn’t seen Indigenous culture and history during K-12 or undergrad and didn’t think anything of it was particularly poignant, as was the rejection on the grounds of not being a “card-carrying indian”.

Lecture 2025-10-29

Indigenous recorded guess lecture. Advanced searching. Discussion of assignment 2. 30-minute reference question opens today, time bounding not intended to make you race. Ungraded other than did you do it. Next week: libguide group meetings, and guest lecture on HII. Working styles inventory due next week, on brightspace.

native-land.ca. Indigenous Watchdog monitors the status of the TRC's calls to action. TRC has recommendations for libraries and archives (number 69), LAC should adopt UNDEFP (UN indigenous peoples?), more resources to including Indigenous in education. Indigenous heritage action plan (2019) 28 recommendations. Colonial roots, systems of organizations, biased collection development, underrepresentation of Indigenous staff. Canadian Federation of Library Associations Truth and Reconciliation Committee, 10 recommendations including face-to-face consultation, bring in Elders when appropriate, rep on library boards, integrate in to service outreach programming, staff training, cultural rep; needs more consultation with communities, not just specialists and Elders. Indigenous students and academic libraries: felt most comfortable at Xwi7xwa library at UBC (Doyle, 2013), intimidated by the library (Lee, 2008), prefer Indigenous profs/librarians (Lee 2001), library lacks local cultural awareness (Bucy, 2022), lack of reciprocity (Lee, 2001). Relationship to research: (un)ethical research practices (Lee, 2019), "researched to death." Indigenous information literacy (Loyer, 2018) TBR. Lee (2017) asks why aren't there more Indigenous librarians? Degree requirements, barriers re community, lack of awareness, don't like libraries, poor pay. "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house" (Audre Lorde).

Looking for information

Information Seeking Behavior

Given, L. M., Case, D. O., & Willson, R. (2023). Looking for information: Examining research on how people engage with information. Emerald Publishing Limited. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/dal/detail.action?docID=30585516

Chapter 1

Information behavior is a holistic examination of the intersection of people and information, and the behaviors they engage in within those contexts. It doesn't focus on the tools, or on retrieval or use or other things in isolation.

Chapter 3

People over tools or systems or goals. Context is difficult to define but important when designing and evaluating research. Many studies focus on the process of information sharing and collaborative information behavior (must hav a common goal, not merely a common context (people who actually want a work project to succeed, not just people assigned to work on it)).

Information use: effects, consequences, impacts or outcomes. Conceptual (changes what is understood in the mind) vs tangible (put to some outside directed use eg in decision making).

And information creation is part of behavior too.

Case studies examining health and well-being, education and learning, leisure and entertainment, citizenship and political engagement, purchasing and consuming, and immigration and asylum. Looks like these are just the highlights of recent information behavior research in each area.

Lecture 2025-11-05

Working in teams

Guest co-lecturer "educational developer" someone who helps faculty with their teaching.

Learning in a group is about social constructivism. We're working together to create meaning. Zone of Proximal Development the support doesn't necessarily have to come from professors, it can come from peers. Study groups. Sociomaterialism suggests that learning and teaching isn't just a social experience but takes place in a material context (laptops, white boards, chairs and desks, snacks).

A good group assignment results in a cohesive team, not just the output. The collaboration is a skill intended to be developed.

Examining the chocolate case study (one student's reflection on a group project resulting in a presentation, where just about everything went wrong). Assignment was too piecemeal allowing students to work separately and just combine at the end; instructor didn't make it clear enough where the resources and evaluation criteria were (but students need to be proactive). Reference to Tuckman's stages of group development (forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning) from

Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384–399. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0022100

Updated:

Tuckman, B. W., & Jensen, M. A. C. (1977). Stages of small-group development revisited. Group & Organization Studies (Pre-1986), 2(4), 419–427.

Conflict doesn't just appear in the storming phase, but that's a likely spot and we should be ready with strategies to address it. Not every group makes it to performing, and the stages aren't always distinct.

Conflict typically falls into three categories in group work: relationships, tasks, and processes. Not all conflict is bad; in fact most of it is productive (in good teams). Focus on working together to solve a problem, not seeing the other person as a problem (go back to your Why). Working styles aren't as clearly categorizable as some literature might suggest, but they do exist, and being aware of them can be helpful. The style of a single individual may change based on social context. Description of analytical/driver/expressive/amiable.

A group charter document is an initial agreement, a living document, something to point at instead of pointing a finger at a groupmate. If something isn't working, focus on amending the document rather than on individual failings. Teams with a charter tend to be higher performing and less derailed by conflict. Assume good intentions.

Information behavior

Most of the questions we ask when researching information behavior are about what's going on inside someone's head. Assertion: people prefer to get information from other humans (I don't think I agree with that, personally).

Taylor studied systems, Kuhlthau studied users, and now we're in interaction-centered information behavior theories.

System-centered

Systems needed an intermediary (like a librarian) to map the query to the information system. In a user focus, we become facilitators and focus on the relevance of information to the user's need. Taylor (1986).

User-centered

Dervin's research on sense-making as an information behavior goal, relies on understanding the user, their situation, and the information need and use. Dervin's interview template is still being used (Dervin & Foreman-Wernet 2012). The diagram in Dervin 2010 p156 is pretty crazy looking. Interview questions on page 274 but aparently come from Dervin 2010?

Rice, R. E., & Atkin, C. K. (2013). Public communication campaigns (4th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781544308449

Belkin's anomalous state of knowledge (1980) says the user wants information, not a specific document or to use a specific system. Thus, systems should do their best to return relevant information to the user, including suggesting similar articles, highly cited, discoverability (browse along the shelf), forward and backward citation chaining. Still not clear on what an anomalous state of knowledge means.

Wilson's 1981/1996 general information model is complex and iterative. A person exists in context, the information need exists in context, there are a bunch of factors (psychological, demographic, interpersonal, environmental, etc), psychological impacts (stress, risk/reward, self-efficacy), and different types of resulting behavior (passive attention, passive search, active search, ongoing search). One person might find "good enough" information, while a PhD lit review might be more exhaustive. Scrolling Instagram is passive attention, an alert in google scholar is an ongoing search.

Kuhlthau examined the stages of search process and included emotional state of the searcher.

Interaction-centered

Norman (1986) notes that users and designers have very different understandings of the intuitiveness of an interface. Draws expertise from information science, psychology, computer science, human/computer interaction. Tools, people, and tasks.

Etc

https://chiir2026.github.io/

Providing information doesn't necessarily mean it will be accepted or used.

Safiya Noble - Challenging the Algorithms of Oppression

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRVZozEEWlE

Shift towards search engines instead of libraries or teachers for making sense of the world. First page of search results for "black girls" is pornography. No one wanted to write about it. In autosuggest. "Beautiful" turns up white women of a particular attractiveness. Internet search engines aren't about information retrieval, they're advertising algorithms. Racism and cloaked websites.

Lecture 2025-11-19

Apparently my laptop has decided to explode the sound in the classrooms??

Use whatever sections from the assignment description that make sense for your topic. Oh, the audio resources don't have captions/transcriptions. Do an accessibility review. Group vs individual submissions: link to libguide, group chart, who did what document (why is this diff to group charter) to brightspace assignemnt AND discussion forum. Individual: peer/own contributions eval (ms form, don't have that yet), every student is responsible for visiting every libguide, choose one that's your favorite and submit a brief review thereof to a Form. Make a backup of the libguide before the class is over for portfolio purposes, the private url stays up for 7 years. 30min reference question opens after class next week and final insights next week. No reading for the last class, instead a panel discussion and course recap.

Discussed group assignments, collaboration, communication, leadership. Take HII next year.

AI sucks, google's search is going to become a "legacy product". Database vs search engine. Algorithm bias. Some of it has been "fixed" but it's bandaid. "why are construction workers" ai summary citations don't draw from, they are post-hoc. boys turns up boys, girls turns up women and women turns up girls? Zero-click search. People are using tiktok as a general purpose search engine, maybe just for advice? Feed (book recommendation). Search engines are useful for grey literature (not intended for academic publishing), digitized primary sources, variety of perspectives, "free." Paid search engine subscription (kaji? startpage) I am exhausted by this discussion. Data colonialism (capitalism?) extraction of info compared to colonial extraction of agriculture. Searches aren't reproducible.

I want to not be here. Having my laptop be on the fritz is stressful and emotionally disregulating.

Academic service model, library patron anxiety deflects the responsibility away from the library onto the patron. Liaison vs functional teams models. Service consistency, focus on key institutional priorities, everyone gets the same level of support, can create cultural change. Sometimes because of budget cuts, differences in fields, loss of close relationships. Hybrid approach hires functional role but they still liaison sometimes. You do a function AND and a liaison? Personal librarians are supposedly involved in relationships with individual students, vs assigned to a major or department.

Melllon invented library anxiety, bostick took it further, both have shortcomings. Deficit framing, no identity confounding, too many responses. Jesse Loyer people who are most affected by a problem get to decide what questions are being asked and how to answer them. Students were paid to participate in young and brownotter. Do outreach librarians impact library anxiety? Gamestorming. Thomas: Library literacy reflects expectations based on barriers to entry. Are academic libraries moving into a partially public model?

Lecture 2025-11-26

Health services knowledge synthesis

Health service librarian guest lecture helps mostly with evidence synthesis, sometimes does comprehensive searching, lit review, info literacy instruction. Consults on research design, evidence informed, patient-focused. Sounds like fun! Knowledge synthesis is exhaustive search+evaluate quality+synthesis and analysis to look for trends etc.

Research consultation, reference interview, understand the search plan needs. Look for existing reviews, don't duplicate work. Lots of different review types, times, procedures, documentation. Document the search process. And then support citation managements. Sometimes these reviews can take over a year. Researchers often don't have time/skill to do this kind of comprehensive review.

How do you notify other researchers that you're doing the lit review so that you can see? Where is it registered? OpenScienceFramework, Posero health science specific? Or in a journal. Places that publish just search protocols. Good to publish before you start so people can't acuse you of finding a goal post that matches your data.

You don't have to have a full understanding of the topic before you do the search. The research team can help you build a good search, they're the content expert not you. Break things by concepts, controlled vocab. Researchers might provide a few "seed articles" that exemplify what they'd want in the resultset. Citation management tools/process, project management tools/process.

hailey.wills@nshealth.ca https://dal.ca.libguides.com/systematicreviews https://pressbooks.umn.edu/evidencesynthesisinstitute/

Peer review as relevant work experience.

And the rest of the lecture

Self+peer evaluation (in email), eval of favorite libguide (can't do until posted), and our submission of course. Participation self-assessment.

I hate AI. GAIL=>GenAI Library conference. These conversations are exhausting. gail is free, presentation about conflict between ALA ethics and AI.

2025-12-03 Panel discussion and wrapup

Kate Greene Stanhope McInnes Cooper (manager of info services), Ursula Morgensen provincial library (data planning and communication), Sandra Sawchuk research data and assessment academic.

How is service provided, do you have a reference desk?

Kate: Central email inbox for triage. There is no post-pandemic it's ongoing sigh. Teams, phone, in person end up they send themselves an email about it. Email box is used for statistics, no individual access to info pros.

Sandra: No more reference desk, no walk-up service, gotta make an appointment. LibCal (part of springshare/libguide) for managing those appointments, can go inperson or virtual. Multi-tiered reference service. Minimum 24 hours notice for appointments, can't book more responsively than that so that students have time to prepare. Declining usage. Don't treat the number though.

Ursula: Less reference at the reference desk, lots of weeding of ready reference, a lot of it moved to circulation. Computer replacement day felt old-timey. Most services require appointment at the provincial library (which isn't really a library per se). Provincial does all cataloging, used to handle centralized reference for HRM, now provides reference for internal stakeholders instead of patrons.

Big issues/trends?

Sandra: AI eh, it's workload. Strikes (not just money or working conditions). Assumed to be experts on AI. Permanence/tenure can push back on additional responsibilities when spread too thin. Advocacy for non-permanent roles is yet more work. Precarious labor, corporetization of universities and libraries. Not all academic libraries are unionised. Course review: do we have the resources for this new course? Collection librarian role does that, and if you don't have one then your new course doesn't get approval. Structure your work so that it doesn't contravine the power of the collective agreement.

Ursula: corporitization sucks. Austerity seems to always put libraries on the chopping block. Public outreach for funding education. Definitely a trend in Canada, unknown about whether it's prevelence outside Canada. (student) Dropping literacy rates for incoming undergrads? Kinders lacking physical skills like using scissors (blame ipads but not long covid). (student) UK sacking librarians and running them as volunteers. (student) splitting role at departure into contracted part time positions. (student) staffless library model. Libraries respond to social needs and libraries are one of the few uncosted places to be.

Kate: AI. More than half of her time working on purchasing/training/deploying new AI tech. If you're replacing the work for junior attorneys with AI then you don't produce senior attorneys anymore. Losing educational opportunities for how to do legal research and soft skills. Excuses attorneys who include hallucenated citations.

Sandra: AI broadens digital divide, not narrows, and it comes down to the resources of the organization you're attached to what opportunities you have.

Ursula: Publib "find ways to demonstrate value" in response to corporetization. Metrics vs budget. Libraries have been forced to up their game for proving "value" for funding. Yet one more thing on our workload. Covid test distribution but no additional budget. More time for writing grant requests, reports, managing.

What do libs do well/could do better/most important roles?

Ursula: good at responding to community needs, good at catching people falling through the holes in social safety nets. Not good at saying "no." "Off the sides of their desk." We're compassionate and want to say years. Not the best at collecting and using data (because we're at workload capacity). "If you want me to do X, which of the other things on my plate are you deprioritizing?"

Sandra: Voted the "no sayer" in her library. It's hard to say no, gets easier with practice. Have to shield those who report to you. Hours in a week are a zero sum game. "Librarians can't save us" librarian misinformation instruction College and Research Libraries CRL; we're not philosophers or psychologists and so our misinfo focus is very narrow. We want to "own" misinformation identification but we need to collaborate, it's too big for us. It's all group work, hope you liked what you got this semester. We're lucky to be surrounded by people in other fields, need to build coalitions. We all belong here.

Ursula: Head of LAC passionate we can save democracy!

Kate: Canadian association of law libraries. Good at supporting each other and sharing information between info pros. Told son to ask a librarian if you're stuck, but that means librarians have to support students emotionally. You're changing lives! But also the emotional labor is very gendered.

(this format is exhausting)

Ursula: having both masc and fem teen librarians is nice for role model and opening up opportunities.

Autumn: what effect has it had to stop using the word library(ian) on all of these roles and tasks and organizations.

Kate: reports to IT, remove "library" and be part of IT's purview. Service organization.

Sandra: we're not moving in that direction much.

Ursula: Everyone who works in a public library is a librarian. Not happening much at the patron level. But happening as a business unit within HRM. Dal rebranded to align with the faculty of management. Patrons are now customers.

Aideen: Info freedom is specifically antifascists. How can info pros as a field including surveillance push back against the rise of fascism?

Ursula: If you propose libraries now they wouldn't fly, peak socialism, everyone's welcome. Thinking about fascism and authoritarianism informs indiivdual practice.

Sandra: Anyone should be allowed to read mein kampf without being tracked and without censorship or bias. Collections librarians have significant power about where to spend money and what to include in the collection. NovaNet uses ProQuest, ProQuest sells patron data to ICE.

student: librarians are getting credits in lit reviews and research. Knowledge synthesis research methodology requires the unique skills of librarians.

Break.

Participation self assessment: no need to fill in Activity Sheet. A2 grades hopefully by end of week. Schedule for workshops will be reworked.

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