College and Research Libraries


ALFRED J. LEWIS 

The Use of an Automatic Answering 

Service in Research Libraries 

An answering device will help fill the gap in professional service 
during evening and weekend hours. The inexpensive system eliminates 
the drawbacks of having nonprofessional personnel answer inquiries 
phoned in to the library. 

ALL LIBRARIES THAT SERVE a research 
clientele share one problem. Research 
people (students, faculty, and others) 
do not observe regular business hours. 
Consequently, university, college, and 
special libraries stay open for long hours 
every day of the week. However, be-
cause of financial shortages and the dif-
ficulty of getting librarians to work odd 
hours, the library often finds it possible 
to offer experienced, professional serv-
ices only during conventional work 
hours, Nlonday through Friday. In such 
cases the library is generally staffed the 
rest of the time by student assistants or 
other part-time help. Research libraries 
perform a desirable service by making 
the collection and the study facilities 
available during such an extensive pe-
riod, but there is also a way of extend-
ing professional personnel services at a 
very low cost during odd hours. It is b y 
the use of an automatic phone answering 
and recording machine. 

The University of Michigan Law li-
brary has been successfully using such a 
system for about two and a half years. 
Its cost is modest; less than $25.00 per 
month for rental of the Bell Telephone 

Mr. L ewis is Assistant Law Librarian , 
Univ ersity of California at Davis. 

Automatic Answering Service machine, 
including the phone line, plus an initial 
$15.00 installation charge. Similar ma-
chines can also be purchased outright 
for about $200.00. Such devices, of 
course, "answer the phone" with a re-
corded message, then record the call-
er's question for later playback. 

How does this machine extend library 
service? For one thing, it can be "on" 
twenty-four hours a day, whether the 
library is open or not. For another, it is 
a better system for answering many 
types of phoned-in questions than that 
of allowing the student assistant on duty 
to attempt to answer the question or to 
tell the caller to call back in the morn-
ing when the "regular librarians" are in. 
Many inquiries are not answered by 
students due to lack of knowledge or, 
worse yet, are answered only partially 
or incorrectly. The answering service 
can accept inquiries on such matters as 
reference questions, location of materi-
als, library holdings, requests to deliver 
books (paging service), and such mis-
cellaneous items as futur e hours of the 
library, information regarding personnel 
on the staff and faculty , why the flags 
are flying at half-mast, and other "in-
formation desk" type questions. 

The obvious drawback to this system 

I 107 



108 I College & Research Libraries • March 1970 

is that the question is not answered im-
mediately. However, the question is re-
corded immediately and accurately. 
This means that the researcher at least 
knows that his question is "on file," will 
be answered soon and that he can go 
on to other things. In most cases, a re-
searcher is more annoyed by wrong an-
swers or the necessity of having to re-
member to call back at another time 
(with all the problems of finding the 
right person or department to answer 
the question) than he is by the delay. 

Without the machine, the student on 
duty could of course take notes of tele-
phoned messages. This does not always 
work, for several reasons. At times he is 
busy attending to patrons at the desk, 
or he may not understand the question, 
and it may not be recorded correctly, 
or, finally, the query may not get to the 
proper person. By use of the phone 
service, an experienced librarian, prob-

ably a member of the reference staff, 
can play back each morning the record-
ed questions with the caller's name and 
number and either answer the questions 
himself or see to it that they are di-
rected to the proper person. It is a fact 
of human nature that inquiries, once 
having been recorded in such a de-
liberate, accurate, and "scientific" fashion 
will receive priority treatment over in-
quiries received in a less formal manner. 
It is the difference between asking some-
one for something in the hallway and 
asking for the same thing via a signed 
memorandum. 

In summary, such a system has two 
advantages: ( 1) it will in actuality pro-
vide more service and ( 2) it will seem 
to provide more service. It will give the 
user the feeling that the library is pa-
tron oriented, that the librarian did not 
go home at five o'clock and forget 
about him and his needs. • •