This article is more than 5 years old.

On Wednesday, July 29th, Mary Scanlon and I participated in the ACRL OnPoint Chat series, “Are Reference Desks Passé?” While no definitive conclusion was reached, many salient points were discussed. The format of this series was a Meebo Chatroom with 80 participants. Two parallel threads emerged during the 45 minute conversation: the medium and the provider of reference service.

The title challenged people to discuss different service points and varying technologies available for users. Service points included the traditional stand-alone reference desk, a single service point (reference and circulation) or virtual service points which included Twitter, IM, VOIP, video, text, email, walkie talkies, Vocera devices and software such as LibraryH3lp, Google Voice, and others. By and large the librarians in the discussion found that faculty were not users of chat clients, while undergraduates used both chat and text. No consensus was reached regarding the necessity of a reference desk, but many excellent questions were raised.

Who should staff the desk was the other dominant theme in the conversation. Current solutions ran the full spectrum, but a recurring theme was the de-professionalization of the desk staff. Numerous libraries are using a triage model to refer difficult questions to subject specialists. Another aspect of this discussion was that embedded widgets throughout a library’s website were viewed to be a powerful way to drive traffic to subject specialists.

As first-time participants in a chat session like this, both Mary and I were struck by the chaotic nature of the format. Participants were answering multiple questions simultaneously, creating a challenging discussion environment. However, in spite of these challenges, it was possible to see the overarching themes emerge and glean the experiences of other academic libraries. If you would like to see the transcript it can be found at: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/events/onpoint/index.cfm