Teens are from Neptune, librarians are from Pluto: an analysis of online reference transactions.(Live Homework Help)

ABSTRACT

As part of a project to evaluate the effectiveness of Tutor.com's Live Homework Help service, the authors examined over 100 transcripts of online transactions between teens and the virtual reference librarians in California who connect students to Live Homework Help tutors. Using content analysis, the authors document and discuss the difference in online communication styles between teens and adults. In addition, the transactions are measured against Reference and User Services Association's (RUSA) reference performance guidelines and are found to be severely lacking in the qualities required for effective reference service. Recommendations are made within the context of positive library service to young adults, including recommendations on how to make virtual reference encounters with teens more responsive to their homework needs.

INTRODUCTION

In 1992 family therapist John Gray published the self-help book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex. The cover of the 2004 paperback edition claims that more than fourteen million copies have been sold (Gray, 2004). The title has become a watchword for the seemingly galactic gaps in communication that can occur when people with different values and worldviews try to have a dialogue. The authors of this article were reminded of that watchword when they were charged with evaluating Live Homework Help, an online tutoring program funded by the California State Library. The service originally provided access to Tutor.com at designated hours at thirty libraries throughout the state. In 2003 the service was expanded to allow students to access the tutoring assistance program from their home computers by connecting through the state's 24/7 online reference service. We have analyzed 114 transcripts of transactions between teens and the 24/7 librarians. In this article we focus primarily on the communication gap that we discovered between the librarians and the teens. We situate our discussion within the overall context of library service to young adults. Within that context, we analyze the transactions using two different frameworks: the guidelines for effective reference performance and the basic tenets of critical discourse analysis.

PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE TO YOUNG ADULTS

While teens are heavy users of public libraries, they are still relatively unrecognized as a specialized target market. A 1995 report from the National Center for Education Statistics reported that only 11 percent of all public libraries in the United States employ a young adult librarian, a figure that had not changed since the 1980s (U.S. Department of Education, 1995, p. iii). Librarians who do serve teens, however, are strong advocates for their clients. Through their involvement with the Young Adult Library Services Association, they draw strength from their peers and lobby the larger library field for more attention.

Current notions of good practice in public library service to young adults are based on the principles of youth development. Patrick Jones describes this approach in New Directions for Library Service to Young Adults (2002) as a means for supporting teens as they move from childhood to adulthood. This document, bearing the imprimatur of the Young Adult Library Services Association, includes a checklist of services that libraries might provide to achieve the mission of positive youth development. The first item on this checklist is "Develops and offers reference and information services for young adults which provide a positive experience for the customer" (p. 63).

Youth development is also the centerpiece of Walter and Meyers's (2003) vision of effective young adult library services. They present six developmental outcomes that teens need to make a successful transition to their adult years:

* Contribute to their community.

* Feel safe in their environment

* Have meaningful relationships with adults and peers

* Achieve educational success

* Develop marketable skills.

* Develop personal and social skills (Walter and Meyers, 2003, p. 44)

This focus on youth development may be more normative than actual, however. It is operationalized in most instances through the mechanism of youth participation, usually through youth advisory councils of various sorts. In practice, young adults are served largely through the traditional mechanisms of reference and reading promotion.

There is some evidence that, if teens could design their own library services, they would put less emphasis on these traditional services in favor of more homework assistance and improved access to the Internet. A small study conducted in the state of Florida ranked the strategies that are most effective in attracting teens to libraries. Both the young adults and librarians agreed that the top three priorities were Internet access, volunteer opportunities, and school-related research (Bishop & Bauer, 2002). As part of a project for the Public Libraries as Partners in Youth Development initiative, Meyers also found that teens want libraries to offer more access to technology, longer hours, fewer restrictive rules and fees, and more help with homework projects and research (Meyers, 1999).

Linda Braun has been a particularly convincing advocate for the development of relevant library-based Internet services for teens. She observes a gap between the Internet services that young adults want and need and those provided by libraries. In particular, she finds that libraries have been slow to give teens access to the online chat and instant messaging media that they find so appealing (Braun, 2002, p. vii).

HOMEWORK ASSISTANCE

Homework has been defined as "tasks assigned to students by schoolteachers that are meant to be carried out during non-school hours" (Cooper & Valentine, 2001, p. 145). Teachers assign homework for various reasons, including: (1) to encourage students to practice skills or expound on concepts learned in class; (2) to prepare for the next lesson or class discussion; (3) to foster the student's personal development through increased responsibility, time management, self-confidence, and sense of accomplishment; (4) to promote communication within the family; (5) to promote parent-teacher communication; (6) to enhance peer interactions through group study; and (7) as punishment (Cosden et al., 2001; Epstein & Van Voorhis, 2001; Warton, 2001). Although educators agree that punishment is not necessarily a valid reason for assigning work, the students themselves may consider homework a punitive exercise if their assignments are confusing or poorly constructed (Epstein & Van Voorhis, 2001). As one researcher noted, parents and teachers alike cite class assignments "as a source of considerable difficulty and conflict at home and school," often leading to student frustration, procrastination, and noncompliance (Warton, 2001, p. 155). Not surprisingly, a majority of young adults recently surveyed by Teenage Research Unlimited indicated that homework was among their least favorite school-related activities (cited in Zollo, 1999, p. 279).

A large majority of the reference questions asked by kids are homework based. Helping students with their homework often has a profound impact on library services and may be the source of much staff frustration (Gross, 2000). In the early 1990s Sager asked several administrators to define the public library's role in facilitating education. No consensus emerged, although one director adamantly advised that it "would be a grave mistake to assign an additional mission to the public library, specifically one in education ... [as] we most likely would end-up with an institution that would do two jobs inadequately instead of one barely adequately" (Sager, 1992, p. 15). Sager subsequently described the rift between libraries and schools as a "blackboard curtain" that prevents…