Bailey Library Observation 1 

Running Head: REFERENCE INTERVIEWS AT THE BAILEY LIBRARY

An Observation of Reference Interviews at the

Denver Museum of Nature and Science Bailey Library

Jennifer Dibbern

Emporia State University

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Abstract

This paper is an account of observations and conclusions drawn from my

time spent at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science Bailey Library. I spent

two and a half hours on a Friday morning observing reference interactions

between library visitors and the librarian. Being a special library within a

museum, the library is relatively slow and the patrons are familiar. There are two

examples where the librarian provides excellent reference interviews. In one

instance she provides sources based on natural questioning to a volunteer

searching for information in the library. In the second instance the librarian

provides information in response to a curators email in reference to correct

bibliographic information. It was concluded that Kathy Gully gives proper

examples of how reference interviews should be conducted.

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Introduction

On the morning of September 25th, 2009, I had the opportunity to visit and

observe reference interviews at the Bailey Library and Archives at the Denver

Museum and Nature and Science. Unknown to many people, it is a lending

library that is open to the public. The library sits on the third floor of the museum,

adjacent to the South American and African exhibits. It was started in 1920 and

now houses over 40,000 periodicals, books and other published sources (Alton,

2000, p. 116). The collections range from anthropology and zoology to space

science and museum studies. The library even has a children’s corner.

The library recently moved locations in 2006. However, they did not move

very far. The move from the neighboring classroom to the site where the library

now sits has proven to be a beneficial one. Instead of the visitor having to enter

a hallway that feels unwelcoming and inaccessible, the visitor can enter the

library through an open door situated right in the gallery space. Librarian Kathie

Gully explains that on a daily basis, passing visitors enter the library with a

surprised look on their faces and exclaim, “I never knew the museum had a

library!” As well as visiting the library in person, the visitor can access the

libraries online catalogue. Kathie Gully says that most online enquires come

from curators and researchers double-checking questionable resources. In the

short time I spent at the library, I gleaned important information on how to

correctly conduct a reference interview depending entirely on the questions

presented by patrons.
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Setting the Scene

As the visitor enters the library they immediately encounter a desk. This

desk is the renaissance man of desks. It is the reference desk, the checkout

desk and the librarian’s desk. Because the majority of the general public doesn’t

know that this library is here, it is a pretty low traffic library. As explained in the

article by Kenneth Lavendar, Scott Nicholson, and Jeffrey Pomerantz (2005),

“the typical user is not concerned with a specific collection within a specific

library, but rather with getting an answer to his or her question from any

collection.” The complete opposite is true for a special collections library like the

Bailey Library. The majority of the patrons are curators, museum researchers

and museum volunteers. Therefore, the librarian and library volunteers can

usually predict the needs of the users before they step foot in the library. This

advantage makes this libraries reference interactions unique and very different

from a specifically public library.

Library within a Museum

On the other hand, Lavendar, Nicholson and Pomerantz describe a

special collection department within a public library as a “museum within the

library” (2005, p. 107). As I sat in the Bailey library I wondered, “But, what about

a library within a museum?” Even though the Bailey Library and Archives is

primarily focused on specific collections, those collections are still pretty broad.

Because the museum is a nature and science museum, the library collections

cover many of the topics that general public libraries house. So, the bailey library
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has a very unique position when it comes to the users they receive through their

doors.

Patrons and Users

As mentioned above, the majority of the patrons that visit the Bailey

Library are from within the museum. Therefore, the librarian and library

volunteers have the ability to predict what the patrons are expecting in their visits.

In doing so, the library mainly operates on the “ready reference” form of expected

answers (Lavender, Nicholson, & Pomerantz, 2005, p. 109). For example, a

preponderance of the volunteers who visit the library, do so to research

information on upcoming exhibits in which they will be volunteering. There is an

upcoming exhibit on Genghis Khan, so the librarian, Kathie Gully, has organized

a study corner specifically on Genghis Khan for the volunteers to use. Although

she has gathered a number of books for them, there are still specific things that

they look for.

The library was very slow on a Friday morning so I was given a tour of

their collections and storage spaces. When I returned to the library with the

librarian, there still were no visitors, so I watched a collection handling video and

waited for someone to visit. I was so into the cheesiness of the video, that I

almost missed a patron/librarian reference interaction. I took off my headphones

just in time to hear, “But, do you have any magazine articles on this same topic?”

Both the librarian and library volunteer were helping the man. Wearing a badge,

the man was clearly a museum volunteer and was looking to study up on the
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upcoming exhibit. He appeared to be happy with the collection of books offered

in the study corner, but was looking for other material on the same subject.

Ms. Kathie Gully

The librarian calmly responded with, “Yes, we do actually.” She walked

him over to a magazine rack and showed him some National Geographic’s and

others that contained stories about the Mongols. She asked if he knew what else

he was looking for specifically and pointed him in the direction of some other

books not yet pulled for the study corner. The dialogue went roughly as follows:

Patron: I’m looking for a bit more information on the Mongols.

Kathie: What information are you missing and looking for on the Mongols?

Patron: Maybe some other sources about life in 13th Century Mongolia.

Kathie: Anything specific that I help you find on life in 13th Century Mongolia

or just general information sources?

Because she knows the majority of her patrons and the information they seek,

Kathie Gully and her volunteers appear to use a lot of neutral questioning to

figure out what specifically it is that they are searching for. Brenda Dervin and

Patricia Dewdney (1986, p. 509) define neutral questioning in their article as

“questions [that] are open in form and structured in content terms that invite the

user to talk about specific elements.” She is sympathetic and agreeable in her

approach and seeks to understand the patron from their perspective. She

actively pays attention and seeks to leave the patron fulfilled and informed.

Likewise, it seems that the library volunteers are just as helpful and follow in the

neutral questioning footsteps.

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Another way Kathie receives inquiries is online. She primarily receives

emails from curators and museum researchers. One example she gave was an

inquiry from one of the curators wanting to follow up on a bibliographic reference

that he couldn’t find anywhere. She checked it out and promptly found the

solution. The bibliographic source was in fact incorrect and the paper the curator

was looking for was out of a university in Thailand. Kathie Gully, being the

amazing librarian and reference specialist that she is, tracked down the university

in Thailand. She sent an email requesting a copy of the paper for the curator and

is awaiting a response from their reference librarian. Of course, in that instance

the patron knew exactly what they were looking for and no neutral questioning

was needed. Instead, the situation was strictly “Bibliographic Instruction” and

falls in the Taxonomy of Forms of Expected Answers (Lavender, Nicholson, &

Pomerantz, 2005, p. 109). The curator was just looking for help on an

information source he found on his own.

Conclusion: Just Plain Ol’ Excellent Customer Service

Working in customer service my whole life and especially now at Whole

Foods Market, I know good customer service when I see it. If a reference

interview is boiled down to it’s core, it is just simply a different form of customer

service. In most situations one would think that customer service is common

sense. However, most would be surprised to find out that it takes a lot to give

exceptional customer service. In the General Information Guide for Whole Foods

Market, a guide that is read like a bible, it gives some applicable words of advice

when it comes to dealing with customers/patrons. The GIG (WFMRMR, 2007)

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states, “The single most important aspect of your job is customer service. WFM

wouldn’t exist without our customers.” The same can be true of libraries and

their patrons. The librarian at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science Bailey

Library, Ms. Kathie Gully, has done an excellent job providing reference services

and has taught her volunteer staff to do the same. It may just be that the library

is small or there is an ample amount of time and many helpful volunteers on staff

to assist patrons, but I believe this level of service should be able to be achieved

in any library. The WFM General Information Guide (2007) will leave us with

some parting customer service thoughts, “Always treat every customer with

courtesy and respect. Walk with customers. When you get there, stay until you

know they are satisfied. Be helpful and don’t preach. Take care of all

customers.” And finally, the most important lesson of all, if we take care of our

patrons they will probably leave happy and tell their friends about the amazing

experience they had. This is especially important for smaller libraries that may

be looking for funding to build a new site, like the Bailey library. Donors may be

more willing to contribute if they know the service at the library is outstanding.

Much like Kathie Gully and her Bailey Library, we should all strive to “satisfy and

delight our patrons” (WFMRMR, 2007).

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References

Alton, James T. (2000). The Official Guide. Denver, CO: Denver Museum

of Nature and Science Press.

Dervin, B. & Dewdney, P. (1986). Neutral Questioning: A New Approach

to the Reference Interview. RQ 25(4), 506-513

Lavendar, K., Nicholson, S., & Pomerantz, J. (2005). Building Bridges for

Collaborative Digital Reference between Libraries and Museums

through an Examination of Reference in Special Collections. The

Journal of Academic Librarianship, 31(2), 106-118.

Whole Foods Market Rocky Mountain Region. (2007). General Information

Guide (Rev. Ed.). Boulder, CO: Whole Foods Market