Types of Patrons

THE REFERENCE PROCESS

The patron—the information seeker—and the effectiveness of his or her in­teraction with the librarian and with the collection are the key elements in the reference process. If there were no patrons, all the available librarians' expertise and all the titles in the reference collection would serve no purpose. That the presence and needs of the patron are paramount in the process is accepted. That the communication of these needs and the understanding of them by the librarian is, in many cases, difficult to achieve is equally ac­cepted. Human communication is faulty; what we say is easily misunderstood, and what we hear is often only a part of the message. The importance of understanding the patron as well as the patron's needs cannot be over­emphasized.

Types of Patrons

No neat scheme of categorizing patrons exists. Some patrons know exactly what information they want and where it is; others know what they want but don't know where to search; still others aren't really sure of the "what" and certainly are less sure of the "where." The librarian has a role to play with each of these patrons, and the involvement varies inversely with the patron's knowledge and self-organization.²⁰

For the experienced user, such as the investor in the public library setting or the researcher in the academic or special library, the librarian's role is to make connections. The opportunity to do so assumes at least two precondi­tions: that the library holds the appropriate titles, and that the librarian knows where they are or how to locate them quickly. Whether the titles are held is a function of collection development; whether they can be found is a function of the librarian's experience and skill. Collection development, practical ex­perience, and skills development take time, but even if all have been dili­gently pursued, the success of the process is not ensured. Other germane and available titles unknown to the librarian may contain the information sought, or at least part of it. Determining whether the patron has found an answer in the available titles or whether the librarian should intervene and recommend other sources depends on the reference interview, which may be triggered by a formal request or by the briefest verbal or nonverbal communication.

The in-house reference guides in my library, which arc readily available and prominently announced, have been very helpful. The kinds and numbers of such guides that should be on hand will depend on the needs of the library clientele. In any case, they should be brief, annotated listings of subject-ori­ented materials in the library, probably no longer than two pages. Business librarians faced with the task of developing such guides will wish to consult those available from other libraries with similar clientele. The guides used in the libraries of the well-known business schools and in the larger business- oriented public libraries can also be very helpful.

For the user who knows what he or she wants but who doesn't know where to start, the role of the librarian goes beyond the basic directional reference encounter, and involves careful and difficult judgments. As one example, let us look at the student who indicates interest in the historical development of a public U.S. company. The librarian would probably start with a Moody's manual rather than Value Line Investment Survey. By the same measure, the "Corporate Section" of The Wall Street Journal Index rather than the compan­ion "General Section," would probably be appropriate.²¹ But perhaps the stu­dent should be referred to the legion of books written on companies, including the many devoted to conglomerates and supranational corporations. Of par­ticular note here are the monographic products of the little-known but longstanding (1923) Newcomen Society of the United States (formerly, Newcomen Society in North America). The Society has published several titles on corporate history, e.g., The Americanization of Shell and Oscar Mayer & Co.: From Corner Store to National Processor.²² Additionally, the recent five-volume set International Directory of Company Histories should be consid­ered.²³ Or perhaps the periodical literature should be consulted, using tools such as the Business Periodicals Index or the Public Affairs Information Service, or even the Social Sciences Citation Index.²⁴ Only the interview can determine the direction a librarian should take in any particular instance.

A second example of the user who doesn't know where to start may be found almost any day in the public library, in the person of the beginning investor. The growth of investment clubs and the general interest in small- scale investing have produced a multitude of such patrons. The public library business desk specialist or the reference librarian occupying that role has an obligation to instruct this type of user, first in the mysteries of the simpler tools, such as Moody's Handbook, then in the complexities of more advanced financial services, such as the Value Line, and finally in the intricacies of tech­nical considerations in investing and its associated literature.

One might assume that the user who doesn't know where to start is scarce. However, Pask notes in her study that 48 percent of the graduate business students surveyed could not list one index or abstracting service they knew how to use well. In the same source, Pask cites another survey that found 10 percent of the undergraduate and graduate business students it queried had never even heard of the Business Periodicals Index." If this is true of the col­lege student who is specializing in the field, it is probably even more true of the general user of the public library, and the librarian should realize that this patron will need considerable help, not only in identifying the applicable primary and secondary sources, but also in hands-on use of the research tools.

For the patron who is uncomfortable with both the what and the where, and who shyly approaches the reference desk (if indeed he or she is even aware that the service exists), the reference librarian's role is crucial. The librarian will be called upon not only to render substantial assistance with the bibliographic sources but also to help define and refine the patron's objective: just what it is that is being sought. A typical question from this type of patron, generally asked haltingly and apprehensively, might be "Where are the maga­zines? The sensitive librarian, in different environments, may discover very different answers are necessary to this seemingly simple question.

In my own experience, the question "Where are the magazines?" comes often from the college student who has been assigned the first term paper of his or her college career, with the requirement of an eight-citation bibliogra­phy, half of journal and half of book citations. Such a student is overwhelmed by the choices and characteristically may select a difficult but attractive topic, such as legislation controlling the multinational corporation. But he or she has no idea of where to obtain the necessary information.

For this type of student, the librarian might start with an explanation of the library organization and the different bodies of literature within it (books, serials, microforms, etc.). This might be followed, ideally, by a session on the procedures involved in retrieval of the materials likely to provide the infor­mation needed for the paper. Such a session would involve several tasks: an introduction to the catalog, an overview of the subject classification scheme, and a review of the selection process for the appropriate indexes for the sub­ject periodicals, as well as the methods of searching those indexes.

For specific questions, such as the one noted above on multinational cor­porations, I have found it effective to work with students first to see how the subject is treated in the Sears List of Subject Headings or the Library of Congress Subject Headings.²⁶ In the latter, for example, the searcher is referred to "Inter­national Business Enterprises," under which are several topical subdivisions, including "Law and Legislation." Similarly, a scan of the bibliographic struc­ture under "Multinational Corporations" in the latest cumulative volume of the Business Periodicals Index shows 25 subheadings, one of which is "Laws and Regulations."

In another example, patient and sympathetic help from the librarian can introduce a patron seeking information on product research in a particular field to a new world of valuable information sources—the Thomas Register, the Moody's Manuals, the indexes published by the Institute for Scientific Information—and to an understanding of how to, _Use such sources as Chemi­cal Abstracts and scientific journals.

Finally, public librarians may find in the question, "Where are the maga­zines?," anything from a request for directions to _a request for instruction in the use of popular magazine literature by a town resident and inventor who wants to stay current with the interests of the teenage consumer.

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