This document summarizes a presentation given by three students - Maureen Redfield, Ana Carreon, and Margaret Wright - about reference services for community college students. Redfield discusses the diverse student population at community colleges. Carreon discusses her experience working at Rogue Community College's joint use library and some of the challenges involved. Wright discusses universal reference issues at community colleges, including working with patrons with a wide range of abilities and the impact of technology.

1. User Community Analysis
Group Presentation
Maureen Redfield
Ana Carreon
Margaret Wright
Emporia State University
LI813XO
Bob Schroeder
March 12, 2011

2. Reference
for
Community College Students
Maureen Redfield

3. Users
The community college has an “open admissions
policy, [it is] designed to serve as many in the
community as physically possible.”
Maureen Redfield

4. Students
• Traditional college age students
• Non-traditional students
• Students with learning disabilities
• International/Immigrant/ESL students
• Technical/Vocational students
• Working students (often full time)
• Parents and caregivers
Maureen Redfield

5. Students
These groups will overlap. FREQUENTLY.
Maureen Redfield

6. “I need to make
a bibliography in
MLA format.” Redfield
Maureen

7. “I’m looking for information on welding
safety and supplies.”
Maureen Redfield

8. “I need help
finding academic
sources for a
paper on climate
change.”
Maureen Redfield

9. “What’s Blackboard?”
Maureen Redfield

10. Rogue Community College
Ana Carreon

11. Joint use Libraries
Joint use libraries have been forming across the nation, for many good
Ana Carreon

12. Sharing space is fun (sort of)
Ana Carreon

13. Challenges
Ana Carreon

14. Community college students may be juggling family, work and
school. Drugs and other abuse issues could be effecting their
cognitive abilities. In such cases simple questions should be
answered with great care and repetition. Students who are
stressed may need help first and instruction second.
(Paraphrased from an interview with Anna Grzeskiewicz)
Ana Carreon

15. Patience, good listening skills, and the ability to encourage
students are helpful attributes to have at the reference desk at
the community college. These qualities go a long way in
assuaging the fears and boosting the morale of students who
are struggling in the new demanding territory of college
learning.
- Carolyn Oates
Ana Carreon

16. Librarians like Anna have set
hours so if she is teaching a class
that means the reference desk is
not being staffed at that time. It
also means that she has very little
time to prepare for classes or
answer emailed questions if the
desk is busy.
Ana Carreon

17. Opportunities
Ana Carreon

18. • Electronic resources are wasted when students and faculty do not have a
reference librarian to teach information literacy.
• Before the relatively recent joint-use library was built in Medford, RCC
had neither a librarian nor an adequate print reference collection.
Ana Carreon

19. Databases are shared between three
campuses
Ana Carreon

20. RCC had virtually no print reference books until the library moved
into its new location...though few new ones are being purchased
now, existing ones are still relatively current.
Ana Carreon

21. The future...
Ana Carreon

22. Some contemporary students here at RCC do
not want books, because they are afraid that
they will have to read a whole book. I tell
them to use the index to find relevant
information (...) Sometimes it’s a hard sell in
the Google Age. ~ Carolyn Oates
Moving reference to circulation
• Believe it or not, reference books may soon be
obsolete
Ana Carreon

23. We do not offer chat or text message reference service.
Surprisingly, we get very few reference phone calls. Almost
all reference is personal contact at the desk. ~ Carolyn Oates
Ana Carreon

24. Community colleges like RCC do not have the
staff to constantly maintain their web presence.
"LibGuides" give librarians direct access to
students online.
Ana Carreon

25. Universal Reference Issues
at Community College Libraries
Margaret Wright

26. Major issues with reference services for CC
students: What’s Unique?
Patrons:
• Very wide range of abilities, literacy and commitment levels
• Incorrect sense of own abilities (over-confident or under-confident)
• Demographics can change quickly
Margaret Wright

27. Tactics to use in addressing
patron issues
• Ref librarians can help overcome patrons’ tech anxiety and stress
with:
– Warmth
– Humor
– Pacing
– Repetition
– Positive
– Jargon free speech
• Reference encounters must be characterized by flexibility and a
variety of methods.
• “Every reference encounter is an instructional one.”
• Varied hours and methods of obtaining reference help (telephone,
e-mail, on-line)
Margaret Wright

28. Technology
Margaret Wright

29. An open ended
survey asked,
“Which part of your
job causes you the
most frustration?”
62% of respondents
included
technology-related
frustration in their
answer.
Margaret Wright

30. Doing reference work with out-of-date
technology can be like “running a marathon
today, clomping along in wooden clogs.”
– Osif and Harwood
Margaret Wright

31. Community colleges can also
find themselves dealing with
cutting edge technology.
This has its own problems.
Margaret Wright

32. Longevity?
Margaret Wright

33. Bureaucracy
Margaret Wright

34. January 20, 2011: US Department of Labor announces the Trade Adjustment
Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant Program,
providing $2 Billion over the next four years to community colleges to develop
open education learning resources to be shared with other community
colleges across the country.
Margaret Wright

35. Margaret Wright

36. Community college resources are required to
meet SCORM (Sharable Content Object
Reference Model) requirements for their
content to be eligible for TAACCCT.
Margaret Wright

37. Who will help manage $2 Billion worth of educational resources
in unfamiliar formats?
Community college reference librarians!
Margaret Wright

38. References
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39. References
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and learning resources personnel. College & Research Libraries, 62(6), 503-515.
Powers, A. (2010). “Librarian’s anxiety”? how community college librarians feel about their reference desk service.
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