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University of Central FloridaLibrarians on LocationDonna Goda a , Elizabeth K. Killingsworth a &Buenaventura B. Basco aa University of Central Florida , USAPublished online: 20 Oct 2008.

To cite this article: Donna Goda , Elizabeth K. Killingsworth & Buenaventura B. Basco(2002) University of Central Florida Librarians on Location, Public Services Quarterly,1:3, 13-19, DOI: 10.1300/J295v01n03_03

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ARTICLES

University of Central Florida Librarianson Location

Donna GodaElizabeth K. Killingsworth

Buenaventura B. Basco

ABSTRACT. Librarians on Location is an innovative project imple-mented at the University of Central Florida and is designed to move refer-ence service out of the library to meet the needs of students. At twocampus locations outside of the library, librarians use a wireless laptop toprovide reference service and demonstrate library resources. The intent isto proactively meet the information needs of those students and facultywho might otherwise remain unaware of the extensive resources providedby the library. The nature of the project also addresses differing informa-tion-seeking styles in an informal setting. Because of the location in differ-ent buildings on campus, the project enhances the library’s visibility tofaculty, administrators, and students. Librarians on Location is one part ofan ongoing and innovative outreach program at the University of CentralFlorida Library. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth DocumentDelivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2002 by The Haworth Press, Inc.All rights reserved.]

Donna Goda, Elizabeth K. Killingsworth and Buenaventura B. Basco are ReferenceLibrarians at the University of Central Florida.

Public Services Quarterly, Vol. 1(3) 2002http://www.haworthpress.com/store/product.asp?sku=J119

2002 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.10.1300/J119v01n03_03 13

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KEYWORDS. Academic libraries, outreach programs, library exten-sion, wireless technology, reference services, faculty liaisons

When Debbi Fields stood in front of her new store and advertised herproduct by giving away “samples,” word spread of the delicious cook-ies being given away for free. The rest, as they say, is history, as peopleflocked into her store to buy more of what they had just tasted. What be-gan as a small enterprise has grown into Mrs. Field’s Cookies. Simi-larly, the practice of attracting “customers” to the “product” is theessence of Librarians on Location (LOL), a pilot project recently startedat the University of Central Florida Library. This initiative uses wirelesstechnology to take the library to the student. However, it is more thanthe mere application of technology. By having librarians go out into thecampus and meet students on their own turf, we are seeking toproactively meet the information needs of the campus, increase our visi-bility to faculty, address the different information-seeking styles of thedigital generation as well as decrease student anxiety about the library.This paper outlines the location of the project, a brief account of otheroutreach projects, a description of LOL, and the goals of LOL. This pa-per also addresses the disadvantages of doing a project similar to LOL.

The University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando began in 1968 asFlorida Technological University with 1,948 students. Since then, UCFhas grown to be the third largest university in Florida with approxi-mately 36,000 students enrolled in Fall 2001. The library has grownalong with the university. The library began with 41,000 volumes andnow houses approximately 1.3 million volumes. The UCF library is acentral focus of research and scholarship at UCF.

A HISTORY OF OUTREACH AND INNOVATION

Throughout the years, the Reference Department has initiated varioustraditional as well as innovative programs and services to reach studentsand faculty. For example, students and faculty may schedule individual,one-hour appointments for research assistance with a librarian. Theseone-on-one sessions enhance an active reference desk service. Addi-tionally, the Library has a successful bibliographic instruction program.The number of library instruction classes has increased steadily the last fewyears, going from 234 classes taught in 1998-1999, 287 classes taught in1999-2000, to 343 classes in 2000-2001. There were 463 classes taught inthe 2001-2002 academic year. In addition to classroom instruction, the li-

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brary offers a web-based tutorial for Freshmen English Composition stu-dents, which teaches students to search both the online catalog and afull-text journal article database. This tutorial is widely used because of theability to score students on their knowledge at the end of the tutorial. Tocomplement our traditional reference desk and phone reference service, thelibrary began answering queries submitted via email in 1998. Most re-cently, the Reference Department has initiated a live reference “chat” ser-vice to answer questions online in real time. Students sign on at thelibrary’s home page and submit questions that are answered in real time.The new service has been very successful probably due to several factors,including the ease of using the chat software and the anonymous nature ofthis form of assistance.

WHAT IS LIBRARIANS ON LOCATION?

Librarians on Location (LOL) continues the outreach projects notedabove. The project, initiated in Fall 2000, was designed to take advan-tage of wireless technology to reach students who might not otherwisecome into the library for assistance. For this project, we chose twobuildings on campus with wireless capabilities, and set up reference sta-tions with wireless laptops in the lobby of each building two times perweek during the fall and spring semesters. One librarian in each build-ing answers questions and assists students with research during eachhour and a half session. The LOL table was made to be as inviting aspossible, with a tablecloth and candy to entice students and faculty.LOL flyers were posted in the buildings and throughout campus to pro-mote the service. Library instruction sessions were also used as a vehi-cle to advertise the project. The faculty and university administrationhave responded positively and the students have taken advantage of theservice. The LOL librarian has answered questions from both facultyand students on topics as far ranging as those at a traditional referencedesk. Armed with the wireless laptop and a variety of handouts, ques-tions were usually answered with ease.

LOL AS A PART OF THE RESEARCH PROCESS

One of the goals of Librarians on Location is to put the librarian in themiddle of the research process, particularly for students. For many stu-dents, the Internet is the first choice for research when writing a paper.Unaware of the library’s full text databases of scholarly articles, stu-

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dents begin their search with an Internet search engine. One study foundthat 84% of students surveyed preferred an Internet search engine whendoing a subject search. Only 16% preferred an online database (Kibirigeand DePalo 2000, 14). One reason for this preference may be that stu-dents are looking for convenient full text articles. Unbeknownst to thestudents, their tuition and fees are paying for their access to many fulltext databases with scholarly articles suitable for research papers. Onlywhen students are shown the full text resources provided to them bytheir campus library will use of these resources increase. Because for-mal library instruction currently reaches only 32% of UCF students,LOL acts to proactively find and educate students who may not even beaware of their own research needs. In addition to students, LOL seeks toeducate faculty members about new resources available for their re-search needs. As a result of this innovative project, reference librariansare expecting that scholarship will improve on every level.

VISIBILITY WITH FACULTY

LOL also puts librarians into areas more visible to faculty on a morefrequent basis. Increasing the visibility of librarians and their knowl-edge and skills is a goal of this endeavor. When faculty see the effortand willingness of librarians to help students, they are more likely topromote the service in their classrooms and to see librarians as a part ofthe team to educate students. Faculty also have an opportunity to be-come aware of the library’s resources and the knowledge the librariancan contribute to their own research efforts. Contact with a librarianoutside of the library also seems to enhance collection development.Many faculty members contact the librarian each week to suggest newlibrary purchases, others inquire about possible library instruction ses-sions when the LOL librarian is on duty. The convenience for facultymakes the flow of information much easier and the extra exposure of thelibrarian being in their building and helping students serves to keep thelibrary in the thoughts of the faculty who otherwise may not make thiskind of personal contact with the library. For example, the library wasinvited to team teach a Criminal Justice class by a faculty member whostopped to discuss the proposal with the LOL librarian on duty. Build-ing these new relationships with faculty can only have a positive effecton library instruction, collection development, as well as any other proj-ects the library may undertake in the future. These contacts with facultywill continue to keep the library central to the research effort at UCF.

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RESEARCH ANXIETY

The LOL project also hopes to relieve some of the anxiety associatedwith library research. Anxiety is characterized not only by feelings ofuncertainty and helplessness, but also the mental disorganization cre-ated by these emotions. The ability to conduct effective library researchis hindered tremendously when students feel anxious. Feelings of anxi-ety about using the library are pervasive on any given campus. Sev-enty-five percent to 85 percent of undergraduate students experienceanxiety on their initial visit to the library (Mellon 1986, 162). In addi-tion, freshmen males with a high grade point average typified the groupthat had a low comfort level with the library (Jiao and Onwuegbuzie1997, 381). This study also found that students who use computer in-dexes and on-line facilities tended to have the highest levels of libraryanxiety, and that most undergraduates, as well as high achievers, andthose using on-line resources make up the majority of anxiety-riddledstudents on campus. The natural tendency of these students is to avoidthe anxiety by avoiding the use of the library. Many of these studentsfeel their research skills are inadequate relative to the skills of othersand therefore an embarrassment to be hidden. Most are unlikely to askfor research help. They will try to work around what causes them thisanxiety, namely the library.

To decrease this anxiety and facilitate the use of electronic resources,LOL moves reference service away from the library building. The onlytechnology employed is a wireless laptop and the help is provided on aone-to-one basis in a non-threatening setting where students should feelmore comfortable revealing their research needs. LOL is purposefullyset up with an inviting table draped with a cloth and topped with a bas-ket of candy to remove the anxiety of approaching a librarian. Studentswho have had some library instruction felt less anxiety about the library(Jiao and Onwuegbuzie 1991, 382). We tend to think of library instruc-tion as a formal session, but LOL makes library instruction possiblewithout the classroom and can be tailored to the students’ needs on thespot. We concur with Jiao and Onwuegbuzie’s (373) finding that stu-dents tend to believe librarians are too busy to help when in the library,and believe that LOL demonstrates to students that the librarian is pres-ent and available in their building with only one mission in mind: toguide them through the research process. It is hoped that the more posi-tive experiences students have with librarians, the more likely they areto use the library and its resources, and the more likely they are to feelcomfortable asking for assistance, even in the library.

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BARRIERS TO SUCCESS

The benefits of this project are obviously numerous, but there arecosts associated with LOL. To successfully carry out this project, one li-brarian was needed at each of the two separate locations. Each of thetwo librarians spent approximately four hours on LOL per week for atotal of eight hours. This includes two hour and a half sessions, plus anhour to set up and break down the table. Understaffed reference depart-ments may have difficulty trying a similar project. Time is also neededto coordinate the advertisement for the service, to schedule the staffingof the locations, to coordinate the equipment needed and to keep trackof any statistics. The reference desk inside the library is extremely busyduring the fall and spring semesters. Devoting two librarians to sitesthat may not have business can be a less than effective use of staff re-sources and time.

As with any new project, success can be defined in various ways.Some of the days devoted to LOL yielded no questions from students orfaculty. Other days were much busier. During the 2000-2001 academicyear, LOL answered 165 questions mainly from students. During the2001-2002 academic year 71 questions have been answered, but staff-ing realities led us to cut back to only one LOL location, and some dayswe were unable to send a person. One could argue that the effort maynot be worth the small number of students helped at such a large urbanuniversity.

BENEFITS OF LOL

While there are drawbacks to such a labor-intensive project, there arebenefits as well. The library is making itself more visible to everyone oncampus with LOL, including university administration. LOL has beenmentioned in campus e-newsletters, annual reports, and in presentationsto the university board of trustees. LOL is yet one more way that librari-ans demonstrate their willingness to try new avenues to reach students.In the 2002-2003 academic year LOL will try a new location and will beassisting students in a remote location where tutoring is offered tomainly the undergraduate population. In addition to the public relationsbenefits, LOL also links the library with the two populations we serve,faculty members and students, in a continuing cycle of interaction. Therelationships that have developed from this interaction with facultymembers have led to an increased number of library instruction ses-

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sions, opportunities to team-teach, improved collection development,sharing of information on new courses, and improved communicationwith deans, chairs and professors about their information needs. The in-creased activity with faculty has led to more interaction with studentsvia library instructions sessions or simply faculty promoting LOL intheir classes. The link is made by both the faculty member and studentsthat the librarian is a valuable resource, and one easily utilized.

CONCLUSION

Innovative projects such as LOL stretch our ideas of what effectivereference service can be. Perhaps taking librarians out of the library andlibrary instruction out of the classroom can raise the expectations mosthave for the library. We tend to underestimate the value of the smallthings in convenient places. Like Lucy in the Peanuts cartoons, we areopen for business offering help for less than a nickel to students in direneed of help. We are establishing relationships and building bridges forthe future and we are anxious to see where they lead.

REFERENCES

Jiao, Qun G. and Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. 1997. Antecedents of library anxiety. Li-brary Quarterly 67 no. 4: 372-389.

Kibirige, Harry M. and Lisa DePalo. 2000. The Internet as a source of academic re-search information: Findings of two pilot studies. Information Technology and Li-braries 19: 11-16.

Mellon, Constance A. 1986. Library anxiety: A grounded theory and its development.College & Research Libraries 47: 160-65.

Received: 08/12/2002Accepted: 09/12/2002

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