An evaluation of reference desk service

Abstract

Recent studies of academic and public libraries across the country are revealing serious deficiencies in the quality of reference service-only 55 percent of the factual and bibliographic questions asked are answered correctly. A five-part management study was conducted of the Brigham Young University Library reference service to determine the quality of service provided by the student and department assistants, the adequacy of the training program, and the effectiveness of the system of referring patrons to subject specialist librarians. The major problems revealed include the following: (1) the student and department assistants feel isolated from the subject specialists; (2) the referral system works poorly; (3) the training program is inconsistent and often ineffective; and most seriously (4) the studenl assistants answered only 36 percent of the unobtrusive test questions correctly.