Where to get help in a post-COVID library: Who do I call?
VALA2022 Lightning Talk
Amelia Rowe
Tanya Bramley
Steve Thomas
Angela Kopelis
- RMIT University Library
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Abstract
RMIT Library services consists of four physical sites offering studying spaces, access to physical collections, and formerly on-site face to face reference services. For many years now the data was telling us that most questions at the library reference desk were directional and fundamental service-related questions such as how to use the printers. Thoughts of a concierge model have been floating about the library for several years to consider how we might better respond to these types of queries. Then COVID19 struck. In less than a day RMITs library reference service moved to an online only mode of delivery. Ask the Library became the RMIT Library online front door acting as a referral service for our study support, peer mentoring, and research support services. This is how RMIT Library services stayed for the duration of 2020, and then for much of 2021. If this was not disruption enough for you add a library restructure at the end of 2020. RMITs reference services would never be the same again.
The library restructure saw the library service model for physical library sites shift away from staffed reference desks to online Ask the Library combined with a face-to-face user focused Concierge model. The new structure required strong collaboration between the Library Learning team where the Ask the Library service resides and the Library Facilities team where the Concierge service resides. On reopening in 2021 we had our first impression of how a library concierge model and online Ask the Library service would work.
This lightning talk covers RMITs experience in moving reference services online and some of our early experiences with a concierge service model at physical sites. We will explore where the concierge model idea came from. How the Ask the Library team responded to the sudden move to online only, and how they have adapted this model over the span of two years. What worked and what did not when RMIT Library sites reopened their doors. How we have reviewed and changed the service from our 2021 model to what we plan to deliver in 2022. We will get a quick glimpse of the teething problems the new Concierge service model faced. What we had to change in how we deliver Ask the Library service. How the Learning team and the Facilities team have changed their modes of communication to support the new model. Insights into the benefits a concierge can bring to the library service, both for staff and library users, and a few thoughts for the future.
Biography
Amelia, Tanya, Steve and Angela work at RMIT University Library. Between them they manage the library reference services and the library concierge service, two services that require constant interaction to deliver well.
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