72 REFERENCE SERVICES
- The librarian can work on an e-mail request at a more deliberate
pace than what is possible with a queue of callers on the phone or
in front of the reference desk - The patron will have a written record of the answer (if he or she
chooses to print it out!) and won’t have to decipher a hastily
scribbled note made while calling or search for the call-slip or
printout handed out at the reference desk. - The librarian doesn’t have to decipher an unfamiliar accent, listen
to background noise, or keep an eye out for the next person
in line.
Some of the challenges of providing e-mail reference service are- The patron sending the question may not be able to formulate a
question clearly in writing. - The librarian may receive e-mail requests that constitute research
rather than reference questions. - The patron’s own e-mail service provider may block out the
library’s e-mail response, or, if the response is received, the patron
might accidentally delete it. - The librarian may have to send an additional e-mail (or even two)
to clarify what the patron (see no. 1) really needs.
Practitioners will tell you that e-mail reference does indeed, as Karen G.
Schneider puts it, require “a relatively small commitment of time and labor.”
In my experience in a public library, the majority of e-mail requests received
concern library policies and resources, local information and death notices
and obituaries, all of which can be easily and quickly located. The frequent
thank-you messages sent by “e-patrons” bears out the impression that our
answers, no matter how “easily and quickly located,” are appreciated.http://www.ebook3000.com