The Internet myth: emerging trends in reference enquiries.

The impact of greater access to fee based electronic information on free reference enquiries is examined. The research methodology included an extensive literature review and interviews with reference services librarians in Australia and overseas. Any assumption that greater internet access and use equals a decline in public and state library reference enquiries is not proven. The paper concludes with a summary of trends, predictions and scenarios of usage of state and public library reference services in an increasingly electronic age, paying special attention to the Australian environment. Edited revision of paper presented at the Vala conference Melbourne February 2004

Between November 2002 and February 2003 the authors were commissioned by the State Library (SLV) of Victoria to review the VISioN reference service provided by the SLV to Victorian public libraries. VI-SioN (Victorian Information Services Network) was established in March 1994 to provide an extended reference service for Victorian public libraries, utilising the resources of the SLV. Public libraries refer enquiries from their users to VISioN for more information and research. These enquiries are those that public libraries cannot easily answer, due to lack of reference resources or due to lack of personnel to respond to the enquiry. At the time of the review, the VISioN service was administered by a specialised team within the Information Services Division of the SLV.

Use of the VISioN service had been steadily decreasing. It was assumed that increased availability of the internet in public libraries and increased use of the internet by the general public whether in libraries, at home, or at work had caused a decrease in reference enquiries. The definition of a reference enquiry used for this review was that of the Victorian Reference Librarians' Cooperative, a subgroup of VicLink. An enquiry is

A transaction where a staff member undertakes to

* find, or recommend relevant resources within the library or online

* and/or assist in the use of these resources

* and/or answer the question either through the use of library tools or by references to other sources of information such as databases or websites

Some of the research carried out as part of this review relating to the changing nature of reference enquiries received by public and state libraries, was considered to be of general interest to the information community. With the permission of the SLV, it forms the basis of this paper.

Background

Public and state library reference services are affected by many factors. These include

* the number and type of reference enquiries being received

* the use of electronic resources directly by library users without a librarian's interface

* internet access in 50 per cent of Australian homes

* the perception that everything can be found on the web

These issues led the authors to consider key questions

* has the nature of reference enquiries in public libraries changed over the last five years?

* has the nature of reference enquiries received by state libraries changed over the last five years?

* what are the trends in reference services in Australia and globally ie is there increasing use of electronic information in responding to reference enquiries? What effect does this have on the delivery of a service?

* will the government's push to provide all people with access to the internet affect the use of traditional reference services?

Methodology

The methodology included an extensive literature review, interviews with reference services librarians in Australia and overseas, and a survey of public library service managers and reference librarians in public libraries in Victoria.

Literature review

Relevant literature published in the last five years was identified. This included journal articles, conference papers and newspaper articles. Many sources emphasised the use of electronic resources alongside traditional formats as normal practice in providing reference services in public libraries. This is illustrated by a comment made four years ago but which is still relevant

   Far from becoming musty museums for those quaint
   things known as books, the role of the library as
   society's repository of knowledge is taking a quantum
   leap: nearly three fourths have plugged into the
   information age, providing public access to the
   internet and the chance to explore myriad databanks
   and archives. (1)

Electronic reference services are a rapidly growing extension of the face to face or telephone reference service offered by virtually all libraries. (2,3,4) Access to these services is increasingly being blamed for the decline in the use of face to face reference services but this has not been substantiated. The internet and/or online databases will not replace books or traditional information but will be used in conjunction with more traditional sources. John Dolan, acting director of Birmingham Libraries, says

   What's exciting about information technology is that it
   won't displace books, it will simply provide more and
   more ways of getting to ideas. Libraries are about
   providing people with a supportive environment.
   There are a billion websites out there, so where do you
   start if you're searching for information? (5)

Pantry and Griffiths (6) make the point that the availability of electronic information opens up the services of a particular library to a worldwide audience. Having reviewed research on the use of electronic information services, they reach the conclusion that these services are offered on the basis of librarians' subjective perceptions of who the users are, rather than on research based evidence. Of the user surveys that have been carried out and reported, Pantry and Griffiths observe ' ... many continue to use other sources and ... persist in the belief that the internet contains the whole of human knowledge in a convenient box'. (7) They conclude that very little is known by the library profession about the actual users of electronic information services.

Some sources indicate that reference librarians themselves are still hesitant about using internet resources. Hopkins and Sapiie (8) describe a survey of librarians conducted by the Queens Borough Public Library in the US to determine their confidence levels in using electronic resources to answer reference questions. Results demonstrated high confidence levels in using the library's online catalogue but lower confidence in using the internet. Later studies indicate that this is changing. Janes (9) reports the results of a survey of reference librarians in public and academic libraries in the US, which investigated experiences with, and attitudes towards, the use of digital and networked technologies and resources in reference work. Most respondents were positive and optimistic in their outlook but it was clear that those who used internet resources regularly had more confidence in their abilities to find valid information.

Some private enterprises are now offering services that compete with the electronic information services offered by libraries. Most of these enterprises offer services to libraries, but they have a service for individual users also. One of these is e-brary (www.ebrary.com). This maintains a range of information resources in electronic format, which can be accessed for a fee. Helfer (10) discusses the decline in reference statistics in academic libraries and considers the role of access to information via the internet. She relates this to user expectations and demands; the use of commercial web reference services; and virtual reference desk software enabling academic and public libraries to offer round the clock service.

There is a growing trend for public and private libraries to form global consortia to utilise expertise around the world on a 24/7 basis. (11,12,13) One example of this is QuestionPoint. This service aims to provide a professional reference service anywhere, anytime, through a collaborative web based network of libraries, led by the Library of Congress. It uses flexible software developed by the Library of Congress and OCLC and has member libraries from almost all library sectors. Questions received via an online enquiry form are routed around the world according to best fit matching based on subject, geographical area, educational level of material required, availability of library service at the time of day, format expertise and also according to a balanced loading system to distribute enquiries across participating libraries. Diane Kresh, director of Public Service Collections at the Library of Congress, has commented

   QuestionPoint is about redefining the role of the
   library and the librarian in the digital age. The
   technology enhances the services we are able to
   provide to our traditional users. It will also enable
   librarians throughout the world to collaborate with
   their colleagues and work with new audiences in
   creative and exciting ways. (14)

In Victoria a collection of databases including full text journals, books, newspapers and pictures, are provided to public libraries on subscription through the Gulliver consortium and Bruce (Bibliographic Resources Under a Consortial Environment). This collection is available at almost every Victorian public library and in Tauranga District Libraries in New Zealand. Public library members can also remotely access the databases via the internet. The Gulliver consortium provides a core group of databases for all its members, whereas Bruce allows any number of libraries to join forces and access a range of other databases in addition to the Gulliver's.

Williamson (15) looked closely at the way the Gulliver databases were used in four public library services in Victoria during 2000. The databases were trialled with individual users, and focus groups with staff explored their views of the databases. Librarians felt that the availability of full text was a great advantage of these databases, but that many library users, whose first reason for using a library computer was for internet access, simply saw the Gulliver icon as something that was in their way when they were navigating to a familiar website. The study found few library users accessing the Gulliver databases and librarians commented that most users wanted the searching of that type of information resource to be done for them--in other words, by a librarian. It was considered that some users were hesitant to experiment with searching the databases and when they did, library staff often provided support. The study found that many library staff were not fully aware of what the Gulliver databases contained and needed more training in their use.

Another Victorian study also examines the emerging issues for reference librarians given the increasing range of resources, especially electronic, now available. Armstrong observed that

   Reference services in public libraries--all libraries--have
   had to respond quickly as the multilane
   information freeway has expanded, together with the
   enthusiasm and expectations of users. The traditional
   pathways to finding answers to questions have altered
   course, to the point where the information flow is so
   vast that the first job of reference librarians is to select,
   untangle and draw out relevant information into an
   understandable format. (16)

Armstrong interviewed an unspecified number of reference librarians in Victorian public libraries, whom she perceived to be ' ... working at the forefront of these changes'. One issue identified was that libraries had difficulty in effectively measuring the number of reference enquiries that library users attempted to answer for themselves using the electronic resources available in the library. As these enquiries are not counted, the statistics are lacking that might show that the provision of electronic resources means in fact that libraries are being used to answer an increasing number of enquiries, rather than a decreasing number, even though some of these enquiries might not initially be handled directly by a librarian.

Librarians interviewed by Armstrong also commented that the nature of the reference interview had changed--many library users have already searched the internet for an answer and the librarian needs to check the search strategy they used. There is not the same volume of referral to other types of libraries because public libraries have better access to a range of electronic resources. As a consequence librarians need to learn new skills and be ready to accept the changes that the electronic environment has brought to reference services.

A similar conclusion was reached by Ross and Nilsen (17) after examining accounts by users of their experiences in asking reference questions in Canadian public and academic libraries. It was found that the availability of electronic resources, including the internet, had changed users' experiences of reference services and provided more options for finding the answers to their enquiries. However there were longstanding problems in reference services that still contributed to a user not finding for themselves, or not being given by a librarian a satisfactory answer to their reference enquiry. These included the failure to conduct a reference interview, unmonitored referral to other sources or libraries, and failure to ask follow-up questions.

Survey

In the administration of the VISioN review survey, two separate self administered questionnaires were designed, one for library service managers and one for reference/ information service librarians. An objective of the survey, relevant to the context of this paper, was to help identify and verify trends about the use of the internet and other online services such as Gulliver and Bruce in answering reference enquiries, and patterns of deferred reference enquiries. Questions were asked about

* decline or increase in reference enquiries, and the reasons

* the type of enquiries received ie business, technical, genealogical, educational

* the percentage of questions that could be answered from the library's own resources

The questionnaire was not intended to disclose statistically rigorous data and subjective ie anecdotal responses were encouraged. It was piloted with several reference/information service librarians in Victoria, and one library manager. The pilot revealed some ambiguities in the questionnaire, which were rectified and the questionnaire was then distributed electronically to all Victorian public library services. Telephone calls were made to nonrespondents in an effort to achieve a high response rate.

Thirty four library managers responded to the questionnaire. As the response from Hume-Moonee Valley Regional Library Corporation also covered the Melton Library Service, this represented a 79% response rate. Twenty two (65%) of respondents were from metropolitan library services, and 12 (35%) from country library services.

Thirty one reference/information services responded to the questionnaire. There were multiple responses from some library services, so that in total 27 (62%) of library services responded. Twenty (65%) of respondents were from metropolitan library services, and eleven (35%) from country library services.

Interviews

Interviews were conducted by telephone and email with a range of library managers and reference librarians in Australia and overseas (see appendix). Some interviews were also conducted with reference/information service librarians in Victoria to collect data to complement the survey data. These interviews focused on the use of the Gulliver and Bruce databases now available in most Victorian public libraries, in order to ascertain whether these additional reference resources had enabled more reference enquiries to be answered inhouse rather than being referred on.

Findings

The literature review revealed that there are global trends emerging in reference services in public libraries. There is a general decline in the number of reference enquiries asked of libraries and particularly of public libraries. Interestingly, many of the reference librarians interviewed in Australia and overseas, did not report that reference enquiries were decreasing.

According to the statistics maintained by Local Government Victoria, Department for Victorian Communities, * there has actually been an annual increase of more than 1.6 per cent in the total number of reference enquiries received in Victorian public libraries since 1996. However it must be noted that these statistics are based on one of two counts--figures kept only for four sampling weeks spread across each year, or on figures collected on a continuous basis throughout the year.

Interviews conducted with reference/ information services librarians have suggested that the increase is due to anomalies in the collection of the statistics within libraries rather than a real increase.

Access to the internet is given as a reason for the decline in some of the literature reviewed and in interviews conducted with librarians overseas, but it appears that no research directly related to this perception has been conducted. Until proven, this hypothesis provides only a plausible reason for the decline. Where a library service's reference enquiries increase, the increase is also attributed to greater access to the internet so the equation greater internet access = less reference enquiries is debatable.

Reference librarian respondents to the survey conducted as part of the VISioN review, indicated increased confidence in their searching the internet as an information source. The survey results also showed that there is great variance across library services in policies on dealing with reference enquires, the staff resources available for reference services and the amount of reference training available to staff. Responses about increases or decreases in the number of reference enquiries were interesting. In 82% of library services, reference enquiries had decreased by an average of 15.5% per annum, whilst in the remaining 18% of library services, reference enquiries had increased by an average of 17% per annum.

Where there had been an increase in reference enquiries, respondents commented that this could be due to either a population increase in the area the library served, or a growing awareness by the public of the electronic and other information sources libraries had available. Decreases in the number of reference enquiries were perceived to be due to more families having internet access at home; more effective use of opacs, the internet and cdrom resources by library users; and more use of the internet in general. Ninety two per cent of Victorian public libraries were using the Gulliver databases, and of these 82% reported an increase in their use. The survey results also indicated that the use of the internet for answering reference enquiries had increased by 55% over the past three years. More users, especially students, were observed to be able to access the internet and other online resources without staff assistance, and this also led to more efficient searching of online library catalogues.

In interviews conducted with librarians, many commented that greater online access did not appear to decrease face to face reference enquiries but actually increased the number of clients and reference enquiries and lifts the profile of the library service as a source for all types of information from books through to online databases. For example, the Division of Library and Information Services in the Florida, which provides library, records management, and archival services at the state and local level, has seen an increase in the total number of reference queries received in the past five years, from 17,508 in 1997/1998 to 30,314 in 2001/2002. The increase was attributed to questions to the email reference feature on the library's website and to MyFlorida.com, the Florida governor's web portal.

Some uses of the internet include live reference chat, intranets where clients access information from their desktops and the use of email for reference enquiries. Notable libraries using the internet effectively in these ways include, in Australia, Brisbane City Libraries and the Victorian Parliamentary Library, and the National Library Board of Singapore. These libraries are using the skills of librarians, the people most able to direct clients to credible verifiable information, whether that be in hardcopy, from fee based database, chatrooms/ lists or free to all on the internet.

Another factor that may contribute to the decline of reference enquiries is the growing number of competitors who supply answers to esoteric questions for endusers. Public libraries are no longer the only ones with a key to finding the answers for people. There is a small number of companies which provide information for a fee. They include information brokers, database vendors, stockbrokers, internet search companies and search engine Ask facilities. Some examples are Ask Jeeves http://www.ask.com, Information Please http://www.infoplease.com, FIND SVP http://www.findsvp.com, Australian Financial Review http://www.afr.com.

There is now a number of library consortia in Australia that utilise different technologies to answer reference enquiries offsite either by chat or email. Examples are the AskNow!, Answers Now and Global Librarian initiatives. AskNow! is being run collaboratively with all the state and territory libraries, and Answers Now and Global Librarian are services offered by public libraries in collaboration with other overseas public libraries.

Changing nature of reference enquiries

This issue has an added complication in terms of what is defined as a reference enquiry. The review and the data collection carried out by the Department for Victorian Communities uses the definition provided earlier in this paper, but there are many other definitions to be found in the literature and in various library service policies. Whilst there are state, national and international definitions they are not applied consistently in libraries, thus rendering comparisons of data across states and countries unreliable.

The general perception of librarians interviewed is that reference enquiries are changing. There are more short sharp questions, and the more complicated ones where people have already undertaken preliminary research themselves and turn to a librarian for help. Thus many reference enquiries are either basic or complex, and the middle of the range is disappearing.

An additional issue in this increasingly electronic age is that people may reject technology and seek more face to face contact. These people require a far greater amount of assistance when answering their enquiries, and the time taken with them is growing. However the time taken in this instance is not necessarily in proportion to the complexity of the question, but related to the need of the user to interact with another person.

Impact of enduser access to electronic information

So what impact will increased enduser access have on reference services? At the moment very little. There is a 50 per cent internet penetration in Australia but usage is heavily biased towards those under 25 who are studying part time or full time, and the main usage is email and sourcing information for study and browsing. (18) This may have some effect on the educational questions being asked of public libraries but should not impact on other types of enquiries.

Services such as AskNow! may change this trend. The biggest users of AskNow! are people in the 35 to 49 year old age bracket. It is too early in the life of AskNow! to measure what impact this will have on the demographic profile of endusers of online reference services.

Interviews were conducted with Victorian reference/information services librarians to ascertain amongst other issues, the use of Gulliver and other online sources by endusers. Most interviewees believed that library users rarely accessed these resources remotely from home or office, and that they are used in libraries far more by the library staff in answering enquiries, than by users attempting to find information for themselves.

In fact many had observed a reluctance by library users to use these resources themselves. The statistics collected by Gulliver (see table 2) are based on a per view metric and at this point they cannot be broken down by type of person ie library staff or library user, or whether the databases are used inhouse or remotely.

Gulliver statistics show that there has been a dramatic increase of the number of views over the last two quarters, but this can be attributed to a marked increase in use by a few public libraries services, not an across the board increase.

Conclusion

The number of reference enquiries asked in public libraries may be decreasing, but there is increased complexity in some of those. More can be answered inhouse by use of the internet and other resources, such as the local example of the Gulliver and Bruce databases. Librarians may also lack confidence in using the internet or other electronic information resources, or not be fully aware of their coverage, which indicates that the situation observed by the Williamson study (19) had not changed significantly in the following two years. Certainly the availability of internet access in public and state libraries has enabled more users to initially attempt to find information independently, but often they will eventually turn to librarians for assistance. There is a need for more research to discover which users access remotely electronic resources held by libraries.

What we should also be asking is whether the basics of reference service are still being upheld. Does every reference transaction commence with a properly conducted reference interview, and are reference services staff receiving sufficient professional development opportunities?

Appendix--Interviews conducted in December 2002

Jill Best                Tauranga Public Library, NZ
John Binnion             CEO, Eastern Regional Libraries Corporation
Shane Carmody            Acting CEO, and Director, Collections &
                         Services, State Library of Victoria
David Clark              Australian Capital Territory Library Service
Joyce M. Cox             Head of Reference Services
                         Nevada State Library and Archives, USA
Karen Crane              State Library of Alaska
Bruce Davidson           Parliamentary Librarian, Government of
                         Victoria, Australia.
Fiona Emberton           Director, Public Library Services State
                         Library of Queensland
Susan Feeney             State Library of Western Australia
Anja Friese              Bertelsmann International Network of Public
                         Libraries
Gary Hardy               Centre for Community Networking Research,
                         Monash University
Linda Harrowfield        Tauranga Public Library, NZ
Cay Hohmeister           Head of Information Services, State Library of
                         Florida, USA
Neville Humphris         Coordinator, Library Services, Moreland City
                         Libraries
Therese Lake             State Library of New South Wales
Jens Ingemann Larsen     Library Director Heming Centralbibliotek
                         Denmark
Stephanie McGlinchey     Online Resources Coordinator, Vicnet
Lynne Makin              Manager Libraries & CEO, Upper Murray Regional
                         Library, Chairperson, Viclink
Christine Mackenzie      Manager Brisbane City Libraries, Australia
Prue Mercer              Manager, Information Services Division, State
                         Library of Victoria, Australia
Karen Muller             Librarian & Knowledge Management Specialist,
                         ALA
Craig Neilson            Program Manager, Information Resources
                         Program, Utah State Library, USA
Liz O'Loughlin           State Library of South Australia
Maggie Paton             State Library of New South Wales
Dr. Jan Penney           Regional Librarian, North Central Goldfields
                         Regional Library Corporation
Jenny Rayner             State Library of Tasmania
Larraine Shepherd        Northern Territory Library Service
Trish Smyth              Library Manager, Kingston Information &
                         Library Service
Greta Southard           American Library Association
Anne Styren              Profile Nu, Scandinavia
Ms Janice van de Velde   CASL

Table 1 Reference enquiries across Victoria

          Reference Enquiries
Year        across Victoria     Percentage Increase

1996-97        2,590,957
1997-98        2,667,748               2.9%
1998-99        2,744,437               2.9%
1999-00        2,788,337               1.6%
2000-01        2,858,951               2.5%

Source Annual survey of Victorian public libraries 2000-2001
Local Government Division, Department of Infrastructure p18

References

(1) McLellan, D Local 'cybraries' power up: bytes increasingly augment books as more facilities go online Los Angeles times Monday 11 September 1998 pl

(2) Arnoldy, B Paying for answers online Christian Science monitor 22 July 2002

(3) Jordan, J Library knowledge just a click away on the web: joint effort boosts detailed research from comfort of home Dallas morning news 20 October 2002

(4) Hane, P J OCLC completes netLibrary acquisition, raises eBook fees Information today 1 March 2002

(5) Dolan, J qv Dodd, R Perspective: a whole world of information Birmingham post 13 August 2001 p11

(6) Pantry, S and Griffiths, P Creating a successful E-information service London, Facet Publishing 2002

(7) ibid

(8) Hopkins, A and Sapiie, J Survey of the confidence levels of public service librarians in using electronic reference sources Reference librarian 65 1999 pp111-23

(9) Janes, J Digital reference: reference librarians' experiences and attitudes Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 53(7) July 2002 pp549-66

(10) Heifer, D Leading libraries: virtual reference in libraries: remote patrons heading your way? Searcher 9 (2) Feb 2001 pp67-70

(11) Jacso, P PLCMC--a very public library. Information today 1 July 2002

(12) Dumas, A State of the library local branches link Coloradoans to vast, free reference network Rocky Mountain news 7 August 1998

(13) Maxwell, E New online service may change the way America surfs; professional librarians to be available online US Newswire 21 August 2001

(14) Quint, B QuestionPoint marks new era in virtual reference Information today 1 July 2002 p50

(15) Williamson, K et al Electronic databases in public libraries: issues of organisational adoption Australasian public libraries and information services 15(3) Sept 2001 pp110-116

(16) Armstrong, A The quiet revolution: reference services in public libraries Australasian public libraries and information services 15 (3) Sept 2002 p104

(17) Ross, C and Nilsen, K Has the internet changed anything in reference? The library visit study, phase 2 Reference & user services quarterly 40(2) 2000 pp147-55

(18) Australia Scan Quantum market research 2002

(19) Williamson op cit 

Other references

Balas, J Will there be libraries to visit in our future? Computers in libraries 1 October 2002

Bennett, D Library's lost lustre. Twenty years of decay and obsolescence has siphoned Central's cultural swagger. A $3 million face lift may not be enough. Atlanta journal and constitution 11 March 2001

Boxall, B Libraries' identity crisis Los Angeles times Friday 9 April 1998

Dempsey, J Just the facts ... and finding them fast Minneapolis star tribune 28 May 2002

Libraries unlock Net resources Sunday mail (Adelaide) 12 August 2001

NISO establishes networked Reference Services Committee Information today 1 March 2002

Following extensive experience in library management and library education, Dr Jan Murray now works as a trainer, career planning adviser and management consultant across a range of areas including the education, library and disability sectors. Address: PO Box 329 Ocean Grove Vic 3226 [e-mail]

Cindy Tschernitz has been a trainer, researcher, librarian and information specialist within the academic and corporate sectors. She is the director of Tell Me Now, which provides research and business information services to clients in Australia and overseas. Address: 177 Cecil Street Williamstown Vic 3016 [e-mail]

Janet Murray Director Murray Consulting and Training Pry Ltd Victoria and Cindy Tschernitz Director Tell Me Now Victoria