Reflecting on Reference

I feel like I did a variety of tasks again last week. I finished interfiling the additional accessions into the Bureau of Public Discussion Collection and rearranged the folders into new subseries in the Program Records.  I also remembered to go back and edit the scope and content note to reflect the new order.  I took some time to look through some of the folders in Briscoe for sensitive materials again.  I have discovered that it is the folders with correspondence with names or letters on them that need to be looked at more thoroughly.  Additionally I did some reference, which is always fun.

I helped Dina look through folders for a reference question and I pulled audio tapes from a collection for another reference question.  I recently read a chapter about outreach (reading response to come) which discussed reference as a form of outreach.  While I was performing those tasks for those reference requests I thought about how that is really true.  The patron who gets a full and quick response is going to be satisfied with their experience.  I find that a lot of times people are even surprised by the amount of information that they can obtain from the archives.  A satisfied user is not only more likely to use the archives again but also more likely to tell others about their positive experience.  Good reference services can therefore play an important role in increasing usage and aiding more people in research.

There was another instance this week when a student wandered into the archives.  The archives are located on the 4th floor of the library, off of the stacks.  This girl was trying to find a book but couldn't and wondered if we could help her.  I was watching the desk and couldn't leave, but my fellow intern Mike was in the reading room, so I sent him to help her.  It turned out that she was reading the call number wrong, so it became an educational opportunity.  Hopefully she will now have a positive view of at least the library and its services.  It also underscores the fact that archivists still serve an instructional role in the archives.  It may be talking about the services, educating students on how to use primary documents for research, of just helping people find their way around the library.