Item
If I Ask, Will They Answer? Evaluating Public Library Reference Service to Gay and Lesbian Youth
title
If I Ask, Will They Answer? Evaluating Public Library Reference Service to Gay and Lesbian Youth
author
Curry, Ann
publisher
Reference & User Services Quarterly
pub year
2005
description
For gay and lesbian youth, the public library can be a key resource for information about emerging and often-confusing sexual feelings. A good reference librarian can mean the difference between the youth fleeing the library or considering the library a helpful refuge. This article reports the results of an unobtrusive observation study in British Columbia in which a youth asked a gay and lesbian-related question at twenty different public library reference desks. The behaviors and verbal responses of the reference librarians were recorded afterward by the youth on an observation checklist based on the RUSA Guidelines for Reference Behavior. Most of the librarians scored acceptably in areas such as maintaining confidentiality but the study showed that improvement is needed in other areas such as conducting a good reference interview and awareness of relevant gay or lesbian book or Web resources.
Audience Education Level
temporal
keywords
reviewer
Katie Arthur
links to
None