RUSA Guidelines
5 Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Ref. + Info. Service Providers:
Visibility/Approachability: making the assistance opportunity clearly known to patrons, be it in person or remotely; being friendly - make the patron comfortable while maintaining professionalism (includes body language)
Interest: being committed and invested in the patron’s needs; this also includes body language/eye contact and other non-verbals that indicate attentiveness and concentration; being nonjudgmental and helpful
Listening/Inquiring: good communication with patron; maintaining a friendly, supportive presence without personal judgement; use of appropriate, clear language; use of open and closed questions to determine patron’s needs; confidentiality
Searching: based on the patron’s ideas/what the patron has already tried, the librarian will construct a search strategy and suggest key terms and sources to the patron; librarian explains how these resources are used; librarian accompanies patron in search, if desired, and/or refers to other sources of assistance
Follow-up: ensure questions have been answered; determine if patron’s needs are satisfied; encouraging patron to come back or go to other referred resources if more help is needed in the future
I can’t recall an interaction with a librarian in the recent past, in which I personally was looking for research assistance. However, reflecting on my recent observation with Kim’s TSEM class, I can see how these guidelines are used during classroom instruction.
She was teaching the class how to evaluate different types of sources (ex. scholarly journal, trade journal, edited book) and how those types of sources could be used. She also explained search strategies to the class, including how to broadly search a topic of interest and then refine the search by picking out key terms that are frequently used in the topic’s literature. This aspect of instruction is an important part of the “searching” guideline.