Enhancing the Health Reference Interview

22 PUBLIC LIBRARIES VOLUME 64 NUMBER 3 FEATURE Dana Abbey / [email protected] Dana is Engagement Specialist at the Network of The National Library of Medicine Region 4.  Dana is currently reading Tell Me When It's Over: An Insider's Guide to Deciphering Covid Myths and Navigating Our PostPandemic World by Paul A. Offit MD. David Brown / dbr[email protected] David is Engagement Specialist at the Network of The National Library of Medicine Region 4.  William is currently reading Choose Your Medicine by Lewis A. Grossman. ENHANCING THE HEALTH REFERENCE INTERVIEW Sample - Not for Distribution Text VOLUME 64 NUMBER 3 PUBLIC LIBRARIES 23 The library reference interview promotes a personalized and user-centered approach to information service, enabling library sta! to provide tailored assistance, empower patrons, and enhance the patrons’ satisfaction with the library’s resources and materials. Patrons might be apprehensive or embarrassed to ask for assistance, have incomplete information on the health condition, have unrealistic expectations, or ask the librarian to interpret health information or solicit medical advice.1 At times, library sta! find it di"cult to interpret patrons’ questions and lack knowledge about the most appropriate medical/health information sources for the patron’s query.2 When conducting a health information reference interview, integrating the health-care industry’s AIDET tool3 should improve communication, enhance the library service experience, and foster a positive relationship between the patron and the librarian. AIDET is a tool developed for health-care professionals to enhance communication, address patient anxiety, and improve patient compliance and clinical outcomes. The goals of the tool are to help establish trust, improve understanding, manage expectations, and foster positive relationships between health-care providers and patients. The AIDET framework aligns well with the components of the traditional reference interview, which include approachability, interest, listening/inquiring, searching, and follow-up. The Reference Interview: History, Practice, and Challenges The library reference interview is an important tool that enables librarians to accurately identify and meet the information needs of their patrons. It promotes a personalized and user-centered approach to information service, enabling librarians to provide tailored assistance, empower patrons, and enhance their satisfaction with the library’s resources and services.# “Reference” has been defined by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) as “providing assistance by using expertise in response to an information need.”4 The roots of the reference interview can be found in ancient libraries, which served as custodians of scrolls and manuscripts, but formalized methods of conducting reference interviews did not exist during this time. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as libraries expanded their collections and services, librarians recognized the need for a more structured approach to assisting patrons. The rise of the Dewey Decimal Classification system, developed by Melvil Dewey in the 1870s, also contributed to the need for e!ective reference services. Librarians began to develop strategies for gathering information about patrons’ needs and directing them to relevant resources. The formalized concept of the reference interview as it is today gained prominence in the mid-twentieth century. Several librarians and scholars, including Samuel Rothstein, Jesse Shera, Sarah Anne Long, and Kathryn Luther Henderson, played significant roles in shaping and promoting the reference interview as a fundamental practice in library reference services. Samuel Rothstein was a librarian and scholar who conducted extensive research on reference services in the 1950s and 1960s.5 His work focused on the importance of e!ective communication and the role of the librarian in understanding and meeting the information needs of library patrons, laying the foundation for the development of the reference interview. Jesse Shera,6 a librarian and information scientist, contributed to the understanding and development of reference services from the 1950s to the 1980s. He emphasized the importance of user-centered approaches in providing reference assistance. Shera’s ideas on active listening, understanding user perspectives, and gathering relevant information influenced the reference interview methodology. Sarah Anne Long’s book The Reference Interview, published in 1969,7 is widely recognized as a seminal work in formalizing the reference interview methodology. Long provided a comprehensive framework for conducting e!ective reference interviews, addressing various aspects of communication, information gathering, and user assistance. Kathryn Luther Henderson,8 a librarian and professor, made significant contributions to the reference interview through her research and publications from the 1970s to the 1990s. She emphasized Sample - Not for Distribution