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Reference and Instructional Services
Introduction | Desk Service
| Research Consultations | Instruction
Classes | Research Guides | Remote
Reference | Access to Other Collections
Introduction
Reference and Instructional services in the Boston College Libraries
are designed to meet the needs of an extremely varied audience.
This audience can range from sophisticated researchers and nervous
new undergraduates to visitors from the community and libraries
in the Boston Library Consortium. Reference service is a highly
valued activity within the Boston College Libraries. For example,
in O'Neill Library, the system' s central and largest library,
the reference desk is the first service desk visitors see upon entering
the library -- tangible design evidence of the priority placed on
this service. At the same time, significant reference interactions
with the public also take place in O'Neill's Media Center and Government
Documents and Microforms Department.
Desk
Service
The reference desk in O'Neill Library is staffed 7 days
a week offering 95 hours of desk service. Most of these hours the
desk is double-staffed. The type of service provided at the reference
desk runs the gamut of current reference use: guidance in the selection
of the appropriate resources, instruction in the use of electronic
resources, untangling garbled bibliographic citations, alerting
researchers to the appropriate and relevant print resources, and
teaching researchers the skills they will need to work independently.
Similar one-on-one reference assistance is also integrated into
the specialized reference service available in other Boston College
libraries.
Research
Consultations
One feature of reference service at Boston College is the
reference/bibliographer nature of the position. This hybrid approach
allows the librarian to provide departmental reference assistance
in myriad ways. Research consultations are but one of these important
and valuable activities. Research consultations provide an opportunity
for students and faculty to meet one-on-one with the reference librarian
to get advice on their research needs. It provides a level of personalized
service that is not always possible at a busy reference desk.
Instruction
Classes
The Boston College Libraries have a vibrant and diverse
instruction program. The program commences with spring and summer
orientation sessions and proceeds immediately to structured instruction
classes for First Year Writing Seminars (a required class for all
undergraduates). Instruction
in the First Year Writing Seminars provides a foundation upon
which other instruction classes can build. The reference/bibliographer
responsibility positions the librarian to recruit library instruction
classes in the department. These classes can range from a review
of research strategy in marketing to an introduction for nursing
students on a specific database such as Medline. The classes are given consistently
high ratings from the undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty
who participate. With today's seemingly easy and instant access
to information, especially full-text resources, library instruction
programs must address and stress the critical evaluation of resources.
Research
Guides
The libraries at Boston College have long recognized the
fact the not all users who need reference assistance ask for it.
The challenge to meet this un-presented need is one of the reason
libraries make printed documentation (bibliographies, point-of-use
guides) available to the public. The challenge is now compounded
by the reality that a significant amount of library research can
be done without ever visiting the library. Research Guides, point
of use guides, and web tutorials are increasingly important for
the library user.
Remote
Reference
The Boston College libraries respond to phone reference
and online reference requests. Requests received via e-mail are answered within 24
hours. The Social Work Library offers electronic reference and periodic
in-person instruction sessions to four regional campuses affiliated
with the Graduate School of Social Work. Currently, the libraries
are experimenting with courseware software, which will allow us
to make links from a course web site to bibliographers and resources.
Another facet of the reference librarian/bibliographer approach
to public services is that faculty and students often contact
the bibliographer directly via e-mail or phone with a research request.
The library's
web site also serves an important function in this area.
Access
to Other Collections
No library can collect everything. Reference services in the Boston
College libraries includes making researchers aware of resources
that can lead them to titles and collections not locally available.
Memberships, such as the Boston Library Consortium, fulfill this
goal, but access to resources such as WorldCat, ArchivesUSA, and many other online databases and web-based ready reference resources extends
this service geographically and by format.
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Faculty Research Support
Services
Access
and Circulation [ Reference and Instructional ]
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