What Reference Librarians Can Learn from <i>Car Talk</i>

Abstract

My predecessor, Diane Zabel, introduced a new column to RUSQ, Your Enrichment. Diane described the column as occasional column that publishes interesting articles on topics outside the purview of the journal's regular columns (RUSQ 46:4, p. 7). This column has been an outstanding source of thoughtful articles on a wide range of issues and interests relating to reference librarianship. I am delighted to continue that tradition with Charlotte Ford and Susan Weiss's witty and insightful piece on Car Talk and librarianship. Who knows, maybe Tom and Ray will think about a post-show career volunteering in their local library.--Editor Note: Click on the speaker buttons next to the transcriptions to listen to Car Talk clips. Picture this: You walk into your local library, and who should be sitting at the front desk but the guys from the NPR show Car Talk, Tom and Ray Magliozzi! Recognizing their faces immediately from their website and their weekly newspaper column, you blurt out, Hi, I'm Susan from Miami and I have a question! Suuuusan! they exclaim in unison. Is that Susan with an S or with a Z? asks Ray. With an S, you reply. Yes, you seem like the more traditional type! says Tom. What's up, Susan? Last spring, Car Talk fans were saddened to learn that Tom and Ray (AKA Click and Clack, the Tappet brothers) would be retiring from the radio in October 2012. Their show, which features call-in questions about cars and car repair (as well as jokes, car songs, and a weekly puzzler) has aided, informed, and entertained listeners in Boston since 1977 and nationwide on NPR since 1987. (1) Given their years of public service experience, is it so crazy to imagine that we might find Click and Clack volunteering in a library reference setting, postretirement? Would they face a steep learning curve? Or have they actually been providing reference service all along--interviewing patrons over the phone and offering explanations, instruction, and referrals to help them resolve their problems? Car Talk is a wildly popular radio show, reaching 3.3 million listeners a week; it is the highest-rated show on NPR. (2) If it is in fact the case that Tom and Ray Magliozzi have been offering auto-specific reference services for the past thirty-five years, attracting a growing audience while traffic at many library reference desks has dwindled, (3) perhaps could learn something by looking closely at what they're doing. How do Click and Clack's interactions with their callers compare with the library reference interview? How do the qualities they display in these interactions compare with the reference librarians' ideal? What can reference learn from listening to Car Talk? In the summer of 2012, we set about to answer these questions--as well as to enjoy revisiting some classic Car Talk. We systematically selected for analysis twenty of the thirty Top Shows available on the Car Talk website (www. cartalk.com/content/top-shows) and divided up listening responsibilities. Kern and Woodard's chapter, The Reference Interview, in Bopp and Smith's 2011 Reference & Information Services: An Introduction provided the basis for our comparison of Car Talk interactions to reference interactions. (4) For every call in the twenty programs, we completed a reference evaluation sheet to evaluate Click and Clack's approachability and interest, question negotiation, searching and answering, and follow-up. (5) At the bottom of each evaluation sheet we included a checklist of the personal qualities of reference librarians outlined in Bopp and Smith: service orientation, patience and persistence, sensitivity, self-control, flexibility and sense of humor, good judgment, and knowledge and confidence. (6) As we listened to the interactions we took notes, where applicable, on how these qualities were or were not displayed in the interactions. …