Reflecting on the reference interview

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I have always become anxious when students ask me to help them find articles in a database on a certain topic.  I'm much more at ease when I get asked if the library has a certain book, then it is a simple yes/no answer.  Searching databases effectively is hard.  I have had a lot of practice at it but what I have realized is that I don't make it easy for myself.  For example, when I'm with people, I rush.  I want a quick answer.  Part of me just wants to quickly get rid of the person, another part of me really wants to help.

This week a student asked me that she wanted to search articles for references in EBSCO on "adult-run teaching models."  I knew straight away with such vague sounding terms this was not going to be a good search.  I asked the student the right questions like, what do you need this information for?  And what exactly do you mean by "adult-run teaching models?"  Her answers were not very clear so I went and asked one of the lecturers for assistance which was very helpful.  She told me which article the student had got her search terms from and explained what the student needed to do, which was to look up references from that article in EBSCO.  I passed all of this onto the student and that was a good result.

I've been thinking about this encounter and about how important it is to have some context around why the student wants whatever they are looking for.  I need to take my time.  I could have asked this student for the written instructions for their assignment, or where did you get these search terms from?  Show me the article.  When I saw the article I could see it was about "communities of learners" which I know a bit about as there are books in the library on it.  That made helping the student much easier.

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