tackles the fundamentals of the reference interview, from why it’s important in the first place to methods for setting the stage for a successful interview and techniques for finding out what the library user really wants to know;
covers the ins and outs of the readers’ advisory interview;
examines a wide range of contexts, such as children, young adults, parents, seniors, adults from diverse communities, and those with disabilities;
presents case studies of innovative reference and user encounters at a variety of libraries;
offers updated coverage of virtual reference, including new research, virtual reality transcripts, and a look at crowd-sourcing reference via social media;
features new content on common microaggressions, with guidance on how to use awareness of emotion as a factor in reference interactions to ensure better outcomes;
discusses topics such as respecting/protecting privacy, overcoming assumptions, implicit judgment, the importance of context, determining the real information need, and many other lessons learned from challenging reference encounters; and
thoroughly addresses policy and training procedures, as well as the unique challenges faced by paraprofessionals and non-degreed staff.
Find your bearings in the continually evolving hybrid reference environment through proven strategies, advice, exercises, and research from three experts in the field.
Catherine Sheldrick Ross
Catherine Sheldrick Ross is Professor Emerita at the University of Western Ontario. She has taught graduate courses in reference services, readers' advisory work, and research methods in the MLIS and PhD programs at Western. She has presented more than fifty workshops on reference and readers’ advisory to library professionals in the United States and Canada. Together with Patricia Dewdney and Kirsti Nilsen, she has co-written Communicating Professionally (ALA 2013), now in its third edition. She is a four-time winner of the Reference Services Press Award. In 2013, she received NoveList’s Margaret E. Munroe Award given by the American Library Association for “significant contributions to library adult services.” She has published extensively in the areas of reference services, readers’ advisory, and pleasure reading, including: The Pleasures of Reading (2014), Reading Matters (2006), and Reading Still Matters (2018), the latter two co-authored with Lynne (E. F.) McKechnie and Paulette M. Rothbauer.
Kirsti Nilsen
Kirsti Nilsen taught introductory and advanced courses in reference, as well as government information, collection development, special libraries, and information policy while a professor in the MLIS program at the University of Western Ontario and, earlier, as an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto, where she completed her PhD. Her library experience includes employment at MIT and the University of Rhode Island, and as special librarian in a corporate libraries. She was a coauthor on the first and second editions of Conducting the Reference Interview with Catherine Ross, with whom she is also co-author of the third edition of Communicating Professionally. In addition, she is the author of The Impact of Information Policy and coauthor of Constraining Public Libraries: The World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade in Services, and author of many articles.
Marie L. Radford
Marie L. Radford is Chair of the Department of Library and Information Science at Rutgers University, New Jersey. She is an award-winning author whose books include Library Conversations: Reclaiming Interpersonal Communication Theory for Understanding Professional Encounters (with Gary Radford) and Research Methods in Library and Information Science, Sixth Edition (with Lynn S. Connaway). Radford gives frequent keynote speeches and presentations at national and international library conferences, and she has published extensively in prestigious LIS journals. She has presented numerous workshops and webinars on such topics as interpersonal communication in library contexts, service excellence, time management, managing change, conflict management, and positive approaches to problematic people. She is coprincipal investigator of the “Seeking Synchronicity” (with Lynn Silipigni Connaway) and “Cyber Synergy” (with Lynn Silipigni Connaway and Chirag Shah) grant projects funded by the IMLS, Rutgers University, and OCLC. She received the 2010 ALA/RUSA Mudge Award for distinguished contributions to reference service.