Roving Reference: Service "In Context"

The WCMC-Q Distributed eLibrary reference service is following the migration path of information resources – out of the library and onto the scholar’s desktop, no matter where that desktop is.

We’re changing the way students and faculty think about "the library". Unlike traditional libraries, there is no central Reference Desk, no burgeoning collection of books. Ideas and research are accessed online through e-journals and e-books, online indexes and search engines, clusters and blogs. Owing to Dean Alonso’s vision of a Roving Reference Team, our librarians are following the flow of information downstream to the desktop and the bench, offering assistance to students where they work: the pods, the classrooms, and the labs.

The idea has taken a little getting used to. Students have been uncertain about the purpose of librarians’ presence in the pods; librarians have hesitated to interrupt the students. Now that librarians attend the students’ classes, however, familiarity is breeding "attempt". Students speak to the librarians they recognize from class and librarians are better equipped to ask students how their assignments are going.

With reference assistance at their elbow, students can ask for just-in-time instruction to help them search for, and evaluate, the wonderfully rich, sometimes erroneous, and frequently frustrating world of the Web. However, "physical" roving is just the start.

Recently, the Reference Team initiated virtual roving using iChat, an instant messaging system that enables students to interact with librarians at a distance. Students can use the service to call a librarian to where they are working or just to consult online. Soon, librarians will also be able to "push" (send) Web pages to a student’s computer screen, direct a student to an instructional video, and even demonstrate the use of an information resource "live" on the student’s browser screen, no matter where the student is located.