Working the reference desk

Library Trends, Wntr, 1998 by Marcella D. Genz

Introduction

Terry Rodgers (1997), in her vituperative diatribe against the library profession, The Library Paraprofessional: Notes from the Underground, stridently claims that "the nature of library work is that any smart person can learn it" (p. 161). In railing against those who assert the professional nature of librarianship, Rodgers establishes the common denominator among library workers to be that of clerical work. Throughout her book on the paraprofessional, Rodgers makes no systematic distinction between the type of work a paraprofessional might do and that of the professional, except to say that increased responsibility and skill comes with time and experience. Rodgers believes, much as early twentieth-century librarians believed, that anyone who works within the confines of a library building is a librarian and a professional. She resents what she sees as the artificial boundary that permeates library work those who hold the professional degree are professionals, those who do not are nonprofessionals. Others, with a more rational approach to this topic of paraprofessional versus the professional in the library, have noted a blurring of boundary lines between these two categories of workers.(1) Within the realm of the reference desk, no one has yet completely defined what it is that a professional reference librarian does in relation to the paraprofessional and vice-versa or what expertise might be developed during the course of a master's level program in information studies or with time and experience to make the work roles sufficiently distinctive to label one professional, the other paraprofessional. This article examines the historical reasons behind the reference desk and its workers in order to establish how reference desk work has been circumscribed, to see how it evolved, and to see if there is a defining perimeter between the tasks and duties of the paraprofessional and those of the professional. The intent, then, is to clarify the boundaries that, at least in practice, have not been well-articulated.

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE EARLY UNDERPINNINGS OF THE REFERENCE DESK

By 1876, serious thought was being given to providing some form of reader assistance. A. R. Spofford (1876), then the Librarian of Congress, was a proponent of reference works as a means of reader assistance, to save time for both the librarian and the reader. A wise selection of reference books, in Spofford's opinion, was the foremost facilitator in accommodating the reader's needs. Samuel Green (1876), librarian of the Worcester Free Public Library in Massachusetts, believed that a librarian was needed to offer assistance to the reader. The impetus behind his idea was to ensure that the collection be heavily used to show the importance and necessity of the library:

The more freely a librarian mingles with readers, and the greater the

amount of assistance he renders them, the more intense does the

conviction of citizens, also, become, that the library is a useful

institution, and the more willing do they grow to grant money in larger and

larger sums to be used in buying books and employing additional

assistants. (p. 81)

Green (1876) envisioned the transaction that occurred between the librarian and the reader would be like that of shopkeeper to customer: "A librarian should be as unwilling to allow an inquirer to leave the library with his question unanswered as a shopkeeper is to have a customer go out of his store without making a purchase" (p. 79). He also believed that the reader should be received into the library with "something of the cordiality displayed by an old-time inn-keeper" (pp. 79-80). Green cautioned, however, that a reader should not become dependent on the librarian. "Give them as much assistance as they need, but try at the same time to teach them to rely upon themselves and become independent" (p. 80).

In order to increase the popularity of the library, Green realized that he needed to bring into the library those readers who had no real sense of what a library could provide. He recognized that people would need encouragement to ask appropriate questions and to express their needs. The idea of a "hearty reception" (p. 74) came to the fore in order to make people feel at ease enough to ask questions and receive assistance. The person most capable to provide this sort of assistance, in Green's (1876) opinion, was a

cultivated woman...who heartily enjoys works of the imagination, but

whose taste is educated. She must be a person with pleasant manners,

and while of proper dignity, ready to unbend, and of social disposition.

Instruct this assistant to consult with every person who asks for

help in selecting books. This should not be her whole work; for work

of this kind is best done when it has the appearance of being performed

incidentally. Let the assistant, then, have some regular work,

but such employment as she can at once lay aside when her aid is

asked for in picking out books to read. (p. 79)

In larger libraries, Green believed it would be impossible for the "superintendent" to assist readers; however, by spending a few minutes each day with readers, he could ensure that "an air of hospitality pervades" the library. An assistant would provide most of the help. In smaller libraries, Green thought it "practicable for librarians to avail themselves of gratuitous assistance by public-spirited and educated residents. I should think there are, for instance, many cultivated and philanthropic women in the country whose services can be availed of to do work of the kind recommended" (p. 81).