Becoming an Expert on the Spot: Observations from a Library Reference Desk

Reference librarians must always be prepared to find any resource at their finger tips and match it to a request specific to an individual—with his or her own information needs. The personal aspect of an information need in a reference transaction makes reference work a category unto itself with its own best practices.

One of those best practices begins with how reference librarians educate themselves along their various career paths.   They are well served by a background in which they learned about as many subjects and topics as they possible could. You can never anticipate what kind of questions patrons will ask with 100% certainty, so it is more than merely valuable to know strange and obscure facts and jargon that would be irrelevant in other career fields. In reference work no knowledge is discounted because all knowledge can be potentially useful.

Librarians take advantage of this practice once they are in reference positions, as well. There is always something to learn from patrons' questions and librarians find out just the kind of obscure information that is valuable to store away for future reference transactions.  Librarians can provide consistent, quality service to patrons by combing the information they've learned through the years, the information they've learned from patron transactions, and training in their own collections.