Presentation Title: Developing an Asynchronous Reference Training Program

Presenter(s): Claire Bowling, School of Information

Abstract: As staff numbers steadily decline and service desks face inevitable consolidation, the presenter developed a flexible reference training program that empowers staff to maintain a high level of reference service while being responsive to change. This presentation discusses the development of an asynchronous reference training program designed to teach library student assistants to answer reference questions scaling to READ 3 (ready reference and basic research questions) and make accurate referrals. Topics covered in the reference training program include Google Scholar, website evaluation, advanced search techniques, databases, citation resources, the reference interview, and more. The development and implementation of the reference training program supported the professional growth of the presenter by providing an opportunity to apply the principles of workplace communication, project management, and instructional design in a real-world context. Next steps, including assessment, follow-up training, and taking what was learned from the development of the program to apply to the creation of information literacy tutorials for the library instruction program, will be discussed.

Link to Recorded Presentation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1On5ZZFXwvDnuBiK0ek-Dpl3dlRsjb6pC/view?usp=sharing