This bachelor thesis is about communication problems and treatment during the reference interview. The purpose was to investigate the reasons of why users’ information needs are not always understood by the librarian and what to do about it. I have also investigated what kind of skills that can be useful for librarians to have and how a librarian can act in a way that makes the user feel welcome during the reference interview. The method I used was a literature study and an own study through interviews of library users. The theories I used was Taylor’s information need theory and Argyle & Dean’s equilibrium theory. The result I found was that a librarian can ask a user open questions like how the user plans to use the information in order to find out more about what kind of information needs she has. To make the user feel welcome the librarian can invite her to return if she does not find the information by herself or ask her if she is satisfied with the information the librarian found for her. It is often appreciated by the users if librarians are friendly, have patience, smile, have eye contact during the interview and show that they are really interested in helping the user. / Uppsatsnivå: C

This master thesis concerns the subject of a reference service named Book-a-librarian. The service makes it possible for the library-user to indulge in a subject with the help of a librarian after having made an appointment in advance. The main purpose of this thesis is to study the function of it. The methods used are a mix of literature and empirical studies to be able to comprehend and explain the practical nature of the service as well as placing the service in a theoretical framework. The empirical study is performed by a questionnaire, where librarians working with the service are asked to participate. To evaluate the results of the questionnaire we have studied different scientific views of reference work in the library environment. The purpose is to identify strengths and weaknesses in the way the service is conducted. The weakness that becomes most apparent in the empirical study is the lack of users of the service. However there is a great enthusiasm for this Book-a-librarian service among the librarians. They all believe in a future for the service. To improve and develop this service we believe the solution is to have an active discussion concerning reference work as a whole and the usability of the service and finally to formulate a strategy to market it. In the final chapters we are presenting a set of recommendations for marketing this service, by studying marketing theories and validating these recommendations with professional librarians. By using marketing as a tool for development we are looking at Book-a-librarian from different perspectives, such as the importance of management, the physical atmosphere of the library and the involvement of the staff. Marketing puts focus on the user and we find that crucial for this information-based profession. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how Swedish highereducation librarians mediate discovery tools to its users. Thisstudy aims to investigate higher education librarians’ generalattitudes towards discovery tools, their perception ofstudents’ discovery tool usage, and how they mediatediscovery tools to students through reference interviews anduser training. The empirical ground of this study is a semistructuredsurvey that was answered by 115 instructinglibrarians. The study concludes that although librariansgenerally have a critical attitude towards discovery tools theyalso think that the discovery tools serve a useful purpose,especially as a starting point in the information searchprocess. The study also concludes that librarians generallyperceive students’ attitudes towards discovery tools aspositive, although students do not always use the tools totheir full potential. The librarians also raised the importanceof user training that is less focused on teaching searchtechniques and more focused on information literacy. / Program: Bibliotekarie

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to investigate how academic librarians experience reference work aimed at international students. International students are a growing usergroup in Swedish academic libraries. The study’s main research question is:- How do academic librarians experience reference work aimed at international students?The study was performed with a phenomenographic methodological approach where seven qualitative interviews with academic librarians were conducted. These interviews were transcripted in their entirety and analysed using three key concepts based on the study’s research questions that formed the different experiences that created the study’s outcome space. The results show three major viewpoints on reference work aimed at international students. These viewpoints are based foremost on variations on how the barriers that international students meet in their library use are experienced. Within experience category A barriers are perceived as a hindrance for effective reference service. Barriers are acknowledged within experience category B but are seen as possible to overcome. Within experience category C barriers are overlooked, international students are here perceived as user group in no more need than other user groups. Two of the experience categories also represent different views on the relationship between the library system and the user. Experience category A is characterised by a user perspective whilst perception category B has a system oriented view of the interaction. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of social distance used by the librarians and users in the virtual reference interview. With a conversational analysis and applied politeness theory 49 chat transcripts where analysed in order to answer the question of how the interlocutors positioned themselves regarding the social distance between them. By identifying what communicative strategies where used the following results were found. Generally the social distance between librarians and users is low in the Swedish virtual reference interview. Even though both parties used informal and casual language the results indicate that the librarians face wants were valued slightly higher than the users which were illustrated by a some what higher social distance in the stages of the conversations when the librarians face was under most threat. The conversations were relatively symmetrical and it was also concluded that feedback and positive utterances contributed to lowering the social distance. Thus the analysed transcripts can be said represent a form of institutional conversation that is of a personal and informal character. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The purpose of this thesis is to study how some librarians working at a public library experience problems that can occur at the reference interview, slightly focusing on communication difficulties. Therefore I interviewed three librarians working at the reference desk on a daily basis. I chose to limit the study to public libraries and to the south of Sweden. My main question is: what difficulties can a librarian encounter during a reference interview and what can he/she do to treat these? In support of my main question I have three subordinated questions:What reasons can there be to a librarian not understanding a user’s information need?What methods are useful for a librarian to enhance the condition of the reference interview? What attitudes and qualities can be of use for the librarian at a difficult reference interview?For the collection of empirical data I chose to use semi-structured interviews. The semi-structured interview is a method which is open to following up the answers of the interviewee, therefore giving him/her more freedom in developing his/her answers than following a rigorously constructed interview formula. I recorded the interviews and then typed out the interviews in their entirety. The transcriptions were then analyzed using a set of statements extracted from earlier studies and literature. The study shows, among other things, that communication difficulties can depend on; that the librarian lacks knowledge about the subject of the user’s inquiry, that the question is out of its context and therefore has less or no meaning, and that the user has problems with formulating his/her question or information need. The study also shows that the librarians interviewed use their intuition as a way of handling the reference interview. / Uppsatsnivå: C

The aim with this thesis is to investigate how librarians experience communication with children in reference interviews. In today’s interactive community it is meaningful to study how children communicate with the librarian in virtual reference interview as well as in ordinary reference interviews in physical libraries. Focus has been on finding out what children ask about and how they are asking in virtual reference interviews and in ordinary reference interviews, what type of information needs the children have. The study also focuses on which barriers there can be in reference interviews. Empirical data has been collected by interviewing librarians who work in physical libraries and librarians who work with virtual reference interviews. The method used is qualitative interviews. The transcriptions were analyzed using Höglund’s and Persson’s theory about information needs and Buckland’s theory about barriers in information seeking. The findings show that the children’s own questions represent a subjective information need and the questions that children ask that come from school represents an objective information need. There are both similarities and differences between face to face and virtual reference interviews. The main differences are that the nonverbal communication is lost in the virtual reference interview and that the children are more anonymous in the virtual reference interview and therefore ask more private questions.

The aim for this bachelor thesis is to examine how school librarians assist first to sixth grade elementary students with their information seeking in a digital environment. The study also focuses on the need for suitable digital tools to aid the students in their information seeking using a digital system or the internet. To reach the purposes two research questions was designed: What assist are the school librarians providing to the students? What problems can be identified with the student’s information seeking when using the internet? In order to understand how school librarians assisting the students with their information seeking process, semi-structured interviews was conducted with five school librarians from five different schools. Their response was then analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Carol Kuhlthaus Zones of intervention and ISP model worked as the framework for the analysis. It became clear that the support from the school librarians engaged the students with their information seeking. Also, school librarian’s support isn’t only about showing or handing them useful sources, it is also of importance to locate the sources within the library, particularly on the internet. Such work included exploring steps where the school librarian acted as guide for the students. Furthermore, student’s digital information seeking skills was not to be assumed only because they have skills and knowledge using the internet in everyday life, outside the school.

One of the purposes with this master’s thesis is to shed light on tacit knowledge in the reference interview. Theoretical starting points are Robert Taylor’s report about question-negotiation and information-seeking in libraries, tacit knowledge, the concept of horizon in human consciousness and conversation methodology. The empirical material has been collected through the qualitative methods shadowing and interview. The thesis has a section that delves into the method of shadowing, as this turned out to be a useful method to perceive tacit knowledge in reference interviews. The study’s second purpose aims therefore to investigate if shadowing can be developed to perceive and describe tacit knowledge in unspoken work situations, like a reference interview. The empirical analysis shows aspects and components of tacit knowledge in the reference interview. It also shows strategies developed and used by librarians to be able to help users to find the information they express that they need. Shadowing was a useful method in the study, as it can capture nuances and non-verbal details in the interplay between librarian and user.  This is a two years master's thesis in Library and information science.