News Library News Online
Vol. 21, No.3/Spring 1999

Table of Contents

Minneapolis: Welcomes the News Division on its 75th Anniversary
Aside Bar
Notes from the Chair
News Research at the Post
People
Rewarding a Job Well Done
Winter SLA Recap
Poynter: News Research in the  Newsroom
News Research with an Ethnic Touch
Technology Tips: ABC's Intranet
Public Reference

Web Extras:

Training Copy Editors
Election Winners

News Library News
SLA News Division Home

 

Reorganizing Public Reference Services

By Alan Thibeault

"There is never enough time."

In the news library's daily routines of researching, filing, archiving, retrieving, collaborating and agonizing, we all try to find ways to save time and energy. Sometimes we find it by reorganizing staff procedures.

Over the past year, we at the Boston Herald Library found ourselves spread pretty thin. We had just implemented a new electronic photo archiving system; a move that had added work rather than reducing it. Additionally, a newspaper redesign in August added more stories and photographs to the daily paper. As a result, staff overtime hours had increased alarmingly. Something had to give.

After studying the situation, we were faced with two possible courses of action: hire additional staff or relinquish some duties. Additional staffing was discussed with the editors and promptly shot down.

Relinquishing duties was not an easy proposition. Obviously, we would have to eliminate or scale back some activity without undermining our fundamental mission: serving the reference/research needs of the newspaper and archiving/preserving our daily product. The area we decided to focus on was public reference service provided by the library.

Most news libraries offer some form of public reference (that is, reference/research provided to parties or individuals outside the newspaper). The amount, level and prices of services offered vary from one library to another. Offering public reference makes sense. It can provide good public relations and an additional revenue stream for the newspaper. On the other hand, an overly aggressive public reference service program can overwhelm the staff and distract it from its basic mission. We initially considered total elimination of public reference. Other news librarians, however, advised against this option, arguing that such a course would alienate the public.

Who exactly is "the public?" It is not only our readers but also other institutions, businesses and even other libraries. There are obvious public relations concerns with each of these groups. Additionally, the newspaper has a special place in public life. It is the rough draft of history and an important part of the fabric that makes up the community. For these reasons, we decided not to totally eliminate public reference services. Instead, we opted to reorganize the way we did it.

We took a close look at how we handled public reference. As a matter of policy, we only answered inquiries relating to material published in the newspaper; all other callers were referred to their local public library or other sources as appropriate. Simple questions ("what day did the story on the manufacturing layoffs run?") were answered for free. More involved inquiries ("could you send me all the stories written by John Smith on the thefts from the museum?") entailed a research fee and a per document cost. Projects which were too large for the staff to perform on company time were offered to individual staff members. The staff members could then handle the inquiry using library assets on his/her own time and financial terms. This was done with the blessing of the editors.

Written requests (letters, fax, e-mails) were handled during evening shifts. The library accepted public calls only from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays. In most cases, we answered telephonic requests as they came and provided the needed information as quickly as possible, often immediately. We found we spent a good deal of time refusing requests that did not relate to published material. The phone calls and search work were taking up a lot of valuable staff time. There were days when it seemed the outside lines never stopped ringing. It was quite a distraction.

Ultimately, we decided that we needed to reduce telephone time with the public and try to deflect what we term "nuisance callers." These are those types of callers who are trying a settle a bar bet or wondering who the blond women is in the movie they are watching on television.

We established a dedicated public phone line which doesn't ring, instead going directly into voice mail. Before activating this system, we coordinated it with all departments in the newspaper to ensure that outside reference calls would be routed directly that number. The voice mail message pleasantly yet firmly informs the caller that the library can't directly answer public requests. It then provides options on how to reach us (email, mail, fax or voice mail message), briefly outlines the scope of our reference service and provides back copy and microfilm information. Calls are screened at least once daily and we try to respond to inquiries within one or two workdays.

The new system went into effect this past October. There have been a few complaints from the public to the editors or publisher, and even a couple of threats to cancel subscriptions. Often, the messages in the voice mail box are merely hang ups. However, the serious inquiries are getting through and "nuisance calls" have been minimized. So far, we are pleased with the results.

We recognize that we have traded some level of public goodwill for efficiency here. However, we are now able to better handle our responsibilities to the newspaper with less stress and overtime hours. It's all a matter of priorities.

Alan Thibeault is Assistant Chief Librarian at the Boston Herald. His e-mail address is athibeault@bostonherald.com.


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