eBook Help at the Reference Desk

I’m not sure about you, but I know at my public library we have seen an increase in the frequency with which patrons approach the reference desk for help using our eBook collection. Just in the last year, it has gone from a sporadic occurrence to a regular, daily need. There is a growing demand, and if you are experiencing anything similar at your library, I am sure you are concerned with how best to provide instruction and support for eBooks.

Programming can be one solution to meet this need. We offer an Introduction to eBooks class regularly, and have also started a monthly drop-in clinic for one-on-one help. However, this does not “get us off the hook” at the reference desk – we try to help our patrons at the point that they choose to seek help, whether that is at the reference desk, via phone, e-mail or chat, or by attending one of our eBook programs. 

While eBook questions can often be quite challenging due to the number of variables involved, I also appreciate getting these questions because the reference interview occurs so naturally, and with such necessity, in these interactions.  

A colleague recently sent me a link to this insightful, and humorous, blog post on Library Renewal about eBooks and the reference interview.

Not only do patrons need to have all those technical skills, but so do we! I think his point that a successful interaction at the reference desk relies on the availability of support resources for staff is paramount. We maintain a LibGuide with a great deal of information on eBooks, and this is just as much a resource for staff as it is for the public. This information is updated regularly as the processes evolve and details change, and provides a quick way to answer some of the most frequent questions. One also has to know when the question is beyond answering in the moment, and refer the patron to the appropriate channel for getting more involved tech support.

Though it can be daunting, practicing the reference interview on eBook questions helps me hone my skills in sifting through the variables and drilling down to the specific situation and need of the patron. Simply asking the questions, and having the confidence to do so, helps me in other situations where the questions are not as obvious and natural.

The first thing I always ask is what device and/or operating system the patron is using. The next thing I find out is whether the patron has already tried the checkout process – to determine whether they are here to learn the process or to solve a particular problem implementing the process. Then I ask about the problem they are having, where in the process the problem is happening, and any error messages they have received. All the while, I am assessing the patron’s knowledge of and skill with their device, based on how they work with their device or even how they talk about it, to determine the level of help they will need – whether an explanation and pointing to our help resources is sufficient, or if more thorough instruction is necessary.

The part of this reference interview that I find easy (because the eBook process itself is certainly not easy), and reassuring, is in asking the questions. Often I can feel hesitant to ask questions of patrons when they approach the reference desk, fearing intrusion on their privacy, or simply out of uncertainty about what questions to ask – if the topic is completely foreign to me, it is hard to know what questions will help define it. For eBook and other tech support questions, I know what to ask and feel comfortable asking it. Though there are as many questions as there are variables, they are dictated more naturally by the situation than may be the case in other reference interactions. One question seems to follow from the next, and there is no getting around asking them if the patron is to be helped – we must understand the problem they are having, and the lack of a potentially personal or private subject matter with the strictly technical questions makes it easier to probe into the problem. I actually appreciate the ease with which the reference interview happens for these types of questions, and consider it good practice for others. I may not always know how to answer these technical questions, but I know how to get at what the patron’s question really is.

It is interesting to think about the similarities and differences between eBook reference questions and more traditional, non-technical, reference questions. Both types of questions stem from a problem a patron is having, but in the case of eBook questions, this problem may be, like all reference questions, a gap in the patron’s knowledge (how to use their device to implement the process), or it may be an error or problem with the technology itself. In the case of eBook questions, we often hold the knowledge needed to resolve the patron’s problem, and in this way we are more direct providers of information in these situations, rather than acting as intermediaries between patrons and the information in our collections. In the case of traditional reference questions, our patrons are expected to acquire the information themselves and apply it to solve their problem – we just help them find and access it. Certainly there are eBook questions that even the most expert of us cannot answer from our own body of knowledge, and we have to consult the resources we’ve compiled, our colleagues, and the tech support of our vendors. But we are responsible for finding the information and for applying it to solve the patron’s problem – since the problem is not a gap in knowledge that can be solved with the content of our collections but a problem with the system necessary to access the content – and it is our system after all (even if we don’t always have a lot of control over it).

This seems to add another dimension to what we do on the reference desk – though I am not sure if this is any different from the instruction and support we provide for other methods of accessing our resources, like the catalog or databases. But it certainly seems to me that I spend more time helping patrons with the eBook process than I do in helping patrons use our catalog and databases. I do think we have a greater responsibility for applying the information (often our own knowledge) needed to solve our patrons’ problems in instances where patrons need help accessing our materials. And for as long as our systems for accessing eBooks remain unintuitive and complicated, we will have a lot of instruction and troubleshooting to do!

Some questions I have for my Oregon reference colleagues:

*How do you handle eBook questions at the reference desk?

*For those of you in academic libraries, is this an issue for you at all?

*Do you have the training and resources to feel comfortable helping patrons with eBook questions at the reference desk?

*How do you draw the line between the patrons that can be helped on the spot and those that need to use other avenues for more in-depth help or troubleshooting?

*Do you think we are responsible for applying the information to solve our patron’s eBook problems in a way that is different than what we do in other reference questions?

I’d love to hear your experiences and insights!

Erin Golub

Adult Services Librarian

Eugene Public Library