College and Research Libraries


J A N E P. K L E I N E R 

The Information Desk: 
the Library's Gateway to Service 
Member libraries of the Association of Research Libraries were sur-
veyed via a questionnaire to determine whether they had an Infor-
mation Desk Librarian and, if so, the extent of services provided at 
such a reference point. The responses of the thirty-seven libraries 
offering this service were tabulated and formed the basis for ten 
guidelines listed at the conclusion of this study. It was hoped that 
these recommendations would be useful to libraries planning to es-
tablish this point of contact with the patron. 

U N I V E R S I T Y L I B R A R I E S today are ex-
periencing the most rapid growth in 
their history. The publication explosion 
has resulted in the mushrooming acqui-
sition of research material, a need for 
librarians to disseminate this material, 
and a resounding cry from library ad-
ministrators for more and better facili-
ties in which to house it. 

These trends, greeted by some li-
brarians with excitement and anticipa-
tion, have aroused negative feelings in 
others, for such an explosion in research 
can and does present many problems to 
academic libraries. Initially, these trends 
are increasing the complexities of pro-
viding good library service. Frequently, 
libraries, struggling under this tonnage 
of material, become so involved with the 
technical aspects of the problem that 
they possibly overlook the most impor-
tant single factor of library service—the 
library user. 

In considering the problems confront-
ing university libraries in improving serv-
ice to the user, it appears that the es-
tablishment of an information desk serv-
ice would be an excellent means of pro-
viding more and better contact with the 

Mrs. Kleiner is Interlibrary Loan Librar-
ian in Louisiana State University. 

patron. Many university libraries through-
out the country having recognized this 
fact are striving to develop a point of 
contact which will introduce the user 
into the areas of the library from which 
he can derive the most benefit. Others 
have not yet experienced the need for 
such a service or have not recognized 
the necessity for it. 

Research in library information serv-
ices has seemingly overlooked the area 
of the information desk. A thorough 
search of Library Literature reveals that 
no recent articles have considered this 
subject. Possibly, this lack of study of 
such an area is a primary reason for 
many libraries having failed to recognize 
the values of this initial point of con-
tact between the library and the user. 
This study hopes to focus attention on 
the possibilities of this service—a serv-
ice which may have many names. For 
the purpose of this paper, it shall be 
referred to as the information desk. 

In an effort to determine how many 
libraries had already instituted such a 
procedure, and the guidelines used for 
establishing the service, a questionnaire 
was devised and forwarded to seventy-
three member libraries of the Association 
of Research Libraries. These libraries 

4 9 6 / 



The Library's Gateway to Service / 497 

were surveyed because it was believed 
that they represent the types of libraries 
faced with large collections and com-
plex library procedures which would 
create a demand for an information 
desk. Hence the intent of the compila-
tion of this material was to set forth a 
policy by which large research libraries 
could develop their own information 
desk as future needs for such a service 
arise. It might be pointed out here that 
a number of ARL libraries not presently 
having this facility returned the ques-
tionnaire accompanied by letters report-
ing that plans were in process for es-
tablishing such a service. These libraries 
indicated a desire for further informa-
tion on the subject. 

The formulation of such a set of serv-
ice guidelines was necessarily depend-
ent on the type of information which 
could be gained from a questionnaire. 
Therefore, it was felt that information of 
a factual nature should be the primary 
concern and should form the basis of 
the guidelines. Fourteen of the fifteen 
questions required a response in fact 
rather than theory. The fifteenth ques-
tion opened the way for comments from 
the participating libraries. 

Also, as a semantics problem could 
arise because the term "information 
desk" is so general and can refer to any-
thing from a receptionist's desk to a very 
specialized reference service, a need 
existed for a definition of the term. A 
cover letter accompanying the question-
naire defined the information desk as 
"a desk usually located near the card 
catalog or in an area readily available 
to patrons first entering the building. 
The person manning this desk usually 
performs duties in instructing patrons in 
the use of the library, providing mis-
cellaneous information involving direc-
tions, etc., and offers limited ready ref-
erence service. Only a small collection 
of very general reference books are lo-
cated at this desk. Due to the limited 
collection, only simple questions may be 

answered. Questions of a more involved 
nature should be referred to the special 
reference areas. The Information Desk 
may also provide service in the Bibli-
ography Collection should it be close at 
hand. However, I would like to exclude 
specialized or extensive reference serv-
ice. In this way, I can set apart the 
duties of the Information Desk from 
the Reference Department." 

The questionnaire was sent to the 
seventy-three libraries at the end of No-
vember 1967. The participating libraries 
were asked to complete the form and 
return it in January 1968. Of the seventy-
three libraries queried, sixty-one re-
sponded, a response percentage of 83.7 
per cent. The sixty-one responding li-
braries included thirty-seven libraries 
which had an information desk that fit 
the definition outlined in the cover let-
ter. In order to clarify some discrep-
ancies in the following figures, however, 
it should be noted that one of the par-
ticipating libraries failed to answer all 
the questions, but did enter responses 
to the majority of queries. The infor-
mation provided by the thirty-seven li-
braries with the information desk facility 
formed the basis for the recommended 
policies. A list of these participating li-
braries is included at the end of this 
study. The following report on the 
questionnaire includes all of the sixty-
one that responded. 

1. Do you have an information desk? 

Yes 37 
No 24 

Even though twelve libraries did not re-
turn the questionnaire, slightly more 
than half the ARL libraries do provide 
this service. 

2. Is it located near the card catalog 
in the main lobby? 

All of the libraries providing this 
service agreed that this should 
be the location of the desk. 



498 / College <Lr Research Libraries • November 1968 

3. How is it staffed? 

Librarians 27 
Library assistants . . . 7 
Clerical employees . . . 3 

4. Is the desk staffed by: 

One person on a full-time basis 9 
Personnel alternating the hours 28 

5. How many hours is it open daily? 

Less than 6 
6-8 . . . 
8-10 . . . 
10-12 . . 
more 

1 
12 
4 
8 

11 

The average hours of daily service 
proved to be nine. One library reported 
sixteen hours of service at this position. 

6. Is simple reference service provided 
at this desk? 

Yes 
No 

26 
10 

7. How many reference books are kept 
at the desk? 

None 
5-10 . 
10-25 
30-60 
70-100 
more than 100 

15 
3 
6 
1 
2 

10 

Such a variety in the number of ref-
erence items housed at the desk indi-
cates the extremes in reference provided 
by the participating libraries, running the 
gauntlet from absolutely no reference as-
sistance to a considerable degree of it. 
Also, it should be pointed out that five 
of the fifteen libraries which reported no 
collection at the desk, stated they were 
in proximity to a reference collection and 
did not see the need for maintaining the 
tools at the desk. Hence, an average of 
ten to twenty-five books, based on a tab-
ulation of the various sizes of the col-

lections rather than the number of li-
braries now having such a collection, 
seems to be the recommended number. 

8. Are brochures, pamphlets, hand-
books, maps distributed to the pub-
lic at the desk? 

Yes 28 
No 9 

9. Does your library have a telephone 
switchboard? 

Yes 9 
No 28 

10. If no, does your information desk 
handle all incoming general library 
calls? 

Yes 4 
No 27 

Some libraries felt they could not give 
an unqualified reply to this question. 
Therefore, six refrained from giving a 
direct answer. 

11. Is simple telephone reference ser-
vice provided at this desk? 

Yes 29 
No 8 

12. Does your information desk staff 
member have any public relations 
duties, such as conducting tours, 
speaking to groups on library orien-
tation, etc? 

Yes 19 
No 18 

The opinions on this question seemed 
to be more divided than on any other 
in the questionnaire, and this is possibly 
as it should be. Whether or not the in-
formation desk librarian should have 
such duties can only be determined by 
the capabilities of the person filling this 
position. 

13. An information desk attendant usual-
ly provides three types of informa-



The Library's Gateway to Service / 499 

tion: directional (where is such and 
such); instructional (use of card cat-
alog and library); simple reference 
(either by phone or in person). 

The libraries were then asked to pro-
vide an estimate as to the percentage 
of these types of questions answered at 
the desk, basing their percentage esti-
mates on a 100 per cent total. This ques-
tion provided the most problems in de-
termining the manner in which to list 
the replies. In tabulating the estimates 
provided for this question, it appeared 
that for the percentages to be meaning-
ful, it was necessary to present them in 
three different categories. It should also 
be pointed out here that although ear-
lier in the questionnaire ten libraries 
stated that they offered absolutely no 
reference service at this desk, when 
asked to provide statistics, only six of 
the ten entered a 0 percentage on the 
statistical division. Also, it should be 
noted that the following statistics are 
based on those provided by only thirty-

six of the thirty-seven libraries having 
information desks, as one failed to re-
spond to this question. 

An average of all of the thirty-six par-
ticipating libraries estimated percent-
ages follows: 

Directional . . . . 41 per cent 
Instructional . . . 37.3 per cent 
Simple reference . . 21.7 per cent 

The following percentages exclude the 
six libraries having information desks, 
but not providing any reference service: 

Directional . . . 40.59 per cent 
Instructional . . . 33.18 per cent 
Simple reference . . 26.23 per cent 

It also seemed that, with the figures 
available, it would be interesting to show 
the division of questions in libraries 
which appear to be making full use of 
their information desk service. To arrive 
at this figure, the nine libraries which 
reported less than 10 per cent reference 
questions were excluded along with the 

L I B R A R I E S M A I N T A I N I N G I N F O R M A T I O N D E S K S 
Boston Public Library 
Boston University Library 
University of Colorado Library 
Harvard University Library 
University of Illinois Library 
University of Kentucky Library 
Louisiana State University Library 
University of Maryland Library 
McGill University Library 
Michigan State University Library 
University of Michigan Library 
University of Nebraska Library 
University of Missouri Library 
National Agricultural Library 
National Library of Medicine 
The Newberry Library 
New York Public Library 
Northwestern University Library 
University of Notre Dame Library 

Ohio State University Library 
University of Oklahoma Library 
Oklahoma State University Library 
University of Pennsylvania Library 
Pennsylvania State University Library 
Princeton University Library 
Purdue University Library 
University of Rochester Library 
University of Southern California Library 
Syracuse University Library 
University of Texas Library 
Texas A & M University Library 
University of Toronto Library 
University of Utah Library 
University of Virginia Library 
University of Washington Library 
Wayne State University Library 
University of Wisconsin Library 



500 / College 6- Research Libraries • November 1698 

aforementioned six. The percentages on 
this basis follow: 

Directional . . . 30.51 per cent 
Instructional . . . 35.01 per cent 
Simple reference . . 34.48 per cent 

A study of these figures indicated that 
59 per cent of the libraries having in-
formation desks are making full use of 
the potential such a service offers. The 
remaining 41 per cent have not yet rec-
ognized the extent to which such desks 
may be used to serve the patron. And 
16 per cent of this latter division are 
merely using the desk as a directional 
device. 

14. Bearing in mind the type informa-
tion provided by this desk, what do 
you believe the occupational status 
of the attendant should be? 

Librarian 25 
Library assistant 9 
Clerical 1 
Two libraries did not specify. 

The responses to this question showed 
that there was little variation in the 
present staffing of the position from 
what would be preferred. A comparison 
of the preferences shown here to the 
actual staffing policies revealed in ques-
tion 3 substantiates this statement. 

With the growth of the university stu-
dent body, constantly on the climb be-
cause of the continuing population explo-
sion, it appears that university libraries 
are going to be increasingly pushed to 
make provisions for such a service as 
the information desk. And, in considering 
the establishment of such a service in 
the library, its assets, not only to the 
students but to new faculty members, 
cannot be overlooked. The initial con-
tact by the information desk librarian 
with new faculty members can create 
an improved climate for cooperation be-
tween the library and the faculty which 

is so important to good academic re-
lationships. 

Bearing these ideas in mind and also 
the compilation of information obtained 
from the questionnaire, it seemed that 
this study would not be complete with-
out the formulation of tentative guide-
lines for the establishment of such a fa-
cility. Recommendations for such guide-
lines follow. 

1. The information desk should be lo-
cated near the card catalog which is 
preferably situated adjacent to the main 
lobby of the library. 

2. It should be staffed by librarians. 
3. An information desk librarian 

should be named to supervise the ser-
vice, but should not be expected to de-
vote the thirty-five- to forty-hour work 
week to this position. Such a librarian 
could be in the reference department 
in another area of the library, but that 
librarian should be responsible for the 
smooth operation of this service which 
is, after all, an extension of reference. 

4. The information desk librarian 
should personally staff the desk at spec-
ified hours, but the remainder of the 
desk's hours should be alternated with 
other librarians. The length of time spent 
at the desk must be determined by the 
staff available at the library initiating the 
service. 

5. The desk should be staffed a min-
imum of nine hours daily. These hours 
need not be in succession but should 
be arranged to provide service during 
peak hours. 

6. Simple reference should be provid-
ed at this desk if it is to fulfill its func-
tion as a useful library service. Depend-
ing upon its proximity to the general 
reference desks, this should be support-
ed by a collection of from ten to twenty-
five very carefully selected reference 
tools. This small collection should be fre-
quently scrutinized to insure that the 
librarian is able to provide a maximum 



The Library's Gateway to Service / 501 

of service from a minimal collection. 
Deadwood must not be allowed to col-
lect. 

7. Brochures, pamphlets, handbooks, 
maps, or any other literature concerning 
the library should be distributed at this 
point. 

8. The information desk is not a tele-
phone switchboard for the library and 
should not be used as such. The tele-
phone duties might naturally include a 
number of misdirected calls, however; 
this occurs in all parts of the library. It 
should be a part of the information desk 
librarian's duties to direct the callers to 
the proper department. 

9. Simple telephone reference service 
and card catalog information should be 

provided here. More difficult reference 
questions can be referred to the proper 
area from this point. 

10. The librarian who is assigned the 
position of supervising the information 
desk should be a person qualified in the 
area of public relations. The library 
should always bear in mind that the in-
formation desk is frequently the first 
point of contact with student and faculty 
and that first impressions, if unfortunate, 
are often difficult to dispel. Such a per-
son should be able to conduct tours and 
to speak to groups on library orientation. 
The first duty of the information desk 
librarian is to inform the patron, and 
this librarian should be suited to such a 
role. • •