Finding the Question Behind the Question

by Mary Ellen Bates

The art of the reference interview... sounds boring, doesn’t it? Or perhaps it sounds like a lost art, like tatting or building a table without nails. But unless we really understand what our clients want, we can’t provide them with professional information services. Perhaps it’s not such an obscure skill after all.

It is possible that the ability to conduct a good reference interview cannot be taught and can only be learned through experience, but there are some pointers that help librarians hone their skills and identify possible problem areas. Some may seem self-evident, some may seem overly time-consuming. But remember, the time you invest in the reference interview is time you don’t spend later re-doing your work when you finally figure out what your client really wanted.

Approach the encounter as a negotiation for a sale. You are providing a service that, one way or another, is being paid for. You are not an order-taker in a fast-food restaurant ("do you want fries with that bibliography, sir?") Rather, you are determining how best to allocate your scarce resources, in terms of your time, your library resources, and your research budget to most appropriately meet the needs of your client. That may mean pulling out all the stops, and it may mean negotiating down the complexity or depth of your client’s request.

While every library has some VIP clients for whom no question is too outrageous, approach the reference interview process with the assumption that everything’s negotiable, including:

The question. You can negotiate with the client to limit the initial research or to expand the question to one that you think will better meet the client’s needs.

The time frame. It is your prerogative to explain to the client that there are three aspects to delivery of research—good, fast, and cheap—and you only get two of those three.

The resources used. A client may feel that a particular research project is most appropriately done on the Net, for example, but it is your job to establish that an information professional is the best judge of the best information source.

Who you speak with. One of the most awkward negotiations is dealing with an intermediary and explaining that, no, you really do need to talk to the person who actually needs the information.

One approach in handling the issue of getting past the intermediary to the ultimate client is to provide the go-between, often a secretary or administrative assistant, with a written list of questions you need answered before you can proceed with the research. Explain that it will take only a couple of minutes for you to discuss this directly with his or her boss; otherwise, you will need to have the assistant get the answers to each of these questions before you can begin. The trick here is to enlist the assistant to your side so that you are working as a team to get the background information you need in order to begin your research. Sometimes it helps to practice this negotiation with other library staff members in order to learn how to turn a possibly adversarial conversation into a productive one.

Determine the level and depth of information needed at the beginning of the interview. Often, this can be done by library policy—some groups of clients automatically get more in-depth research while other requests may normally be limited to fifteen minutes, for example. Does the client want "a few good articles" or a comprehensive study of the subject? Does the client expect an executive summary or just the data you found? Are you sure about this, or are you just assuming you know based on past experience? Be careful; providing too much information is just as annoying to many clients as not receiving enough. On the other hand, you want to make sure your client understands the depth of the research services available. You build better, stronger relationships with clients, and turn them into loyal advocates for your library, by making sure they understand the extent of the information services you can provide.

Avoid premature diagnosis. The initial question your client asks may not be what the client really wants to know. A request for information about "statistical software" may mean statistical packages such as SPSS, and it may mean relevance-ranking search software that uses statistical analysis of retrieved documents. Be sure that you have confirmed with the client what you understand the research project to include, expressing the request in words other than those used by the client.

Ask the client what this information will be used for. This is a question that needs to be asked delicately, and the ability to ask the question at all depends on your relationship with the client. But understanding why the information is needed is often useful in determining what information to look for. Would technical journal articles be too abstract? Would statistical information be just what’s needed?

Be aware of possible blockages to communication between you and the client. Some typical causes of miscommunication or lack of communication include:

• Your client’s perception of your skills and abilities

• Your perception of the client’s skills, ability and "rank"

• Your client’s perceptions of resources and tools available to you

• Your client’s uncertainty about the project

• Your inability to speak with client directly and in close to real-time

All of these factors can influence how well the client describes the information she needs and how well you interpret the request and negotiate the final scope of the research.

Be sure you agree on the delivery mechanism. Does the client want hard copy or an electronic file? Is e-mail better? Can the client accept and download attached files? What word processing package does the client have? Is the client expecting photocopies of articles, annual reports, and so on or is the client expecting downloaded material? Does the client want a bibliography or only full text sources? Does the client want or need a summary of the retrieved material? While writing a summary takes time, it can both indicate the added value the library brings to the organization and can remind the client that you are indeed more than an order-taker.

By concentrating on all the various aspects of the reference interview, you can help clients to better articulate their information needs and can provide information services that best meet those needs.