Teaching & Learning @ NGL

All questions fielded at the various service points throughout the library can be defined as purposeful conversation between librarians and patrons in which librarians ask questions in order to get a clearer, more complete picture of what users want to know.  Tracking questions' level of complexity is valuable in decision-making in the library and in telling the library's story.

The READ Scale is a 6-point scale tool for recording qualitative statistics gathered when library staff and faculty assist users with their inquiries or research-related activities by placing an emphasis on recording the effort, skills, knowledge, teaching moment, techniques and tools used by the librarian during the reference transaction.

"While the value of . . . librarians providing reference service to patrons is obvious to those who utilize such services, there are often occasions when libraries must justify their use of personnel and resources. In those cases, not having data that provides evidence of the reference work being done, or not having relevant data, or not having a cohesive statistical procedure, can be detrimental to the library's continuing efforts at improvement." - Bowron & Weber, 2017

A successful reference interaction revolves around a problem-solving paradigm built on open-ended questions and negotiations to fine-tune the patron's query from their initial question to the real question (what it is they really want or need to know).

General Notes:

• 1's and 2's are questions every library staff member should be able to answer. Anything that requires specific, in-depth training is a 3 or higher
• If you feel a question is between categories, score the interaction in the higher category
• There should be no 6's and very few, if any, 5's done at the desk
• If extra effort or instruction is required, bump a question up a category (i.e., a 3 might be a 4 if a patron has never used the library before or has trouble understanding the instructions)