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To judge from the published literature, recent conference topics, or any listserv where academic reference issues are discussed, reference service reforms are in the air. A steady increase in the sheer number of users seeking reference help, driven largely by the proliferation of new information technologies, has led to a questioning of the traditional structure and mission of the library reference desk. Brandeis University Libraries' approach, which has been described by Virginia Massey‐Burzio, is one example of such a reform. The essential change that the Brandeis model entailed was this: Brandeis' Main Library had included a reference desk at which one librarian at a time was assisted by one graduate student helper. Under the new model, reference services are divided in two: the graduate assistants staff an information desk, which is responsible for concerns like directional questions and quick look‐ups, while the librarians staff a research consultation office where more substantive questions are dealt with at greater length. The primary goal of this tiered approach, which we call the “research consultation model,” was to improve services to the classes of patrons who most need professional reference assistance, while also increasing professional job satisfaction in the face of the ongoing information explosion. (A more complete description of the model is given below under the heading: “Some characteristics of a research consultation model.”)

It all began a very long time ago, sometime before 1876, that annus mirabilis of librarianship during which the American Library Association was founded, Library Journal debuted, and Samuel Green published in its pages the first article about reference librarianship. And it continues today. In April 1994, an unidentified library school student from the State University of New York at Buffalo queried the participants of the LIBREFL listserv, asking them, “Can you give a summary of the ‘hot’ library reference issues of the week? I'm working on a project for my Reference course, and would like to find out what is REALLY vital to refernce (sic) librarians out there today.” I was tempted to reply that all of that week's “hot” issues were identified in Green's 1876 article. In that article describing the phenomenon we today call reference service, Green touched on issues such as the librarian's obligation to provide information without injecting personal values, the inability of any librarian to know everything, the need sometimes to refer a patron to another information agency, SDI services, the value of proactive rather than passive service, the challenges of the reference interview, and, of course, what has come to be called the “information versus instruction debate.”

Economist John Kenneth Galbraith was once quoted as saying, “There are two types of economists—those who don't know the future, and those who don't know they don't know.” The same can be said for librarians.

The changing reference environment and reference staffing have been the topic of several articles in the library literature, discussions at the American Library Association conferences and a recent conference offered twice by Library Solutions Inc. of Berkeley, California, entitled Rethinking Reference. Libraries are looking closely at the model at Brandeis University of eliminating the reference desk and replacing it with an information desk with research consultations with librarians taking place in an office. Larry Oberg urges librarians to stop thinking of the reference desk as a key reason for being a librarian. He contends that paraprofessionals can and do perform well at a reference desk, freeing librarians to concentrate on higher‐level tasks. These discussions and examples demonstrate a variety of solutions academic libraries have taken regarding the changing face of reference, and the evolving roles of reference librarians in moving towards the electronic library. The electronic library brings us new options and new opportunities and as a result librarians need to develop new ways of thinking and organizing reference services.

This study aims to explore the prevalence and librarian perceptions of no-show research appointments in academic libraries. These findings are examined in light of the literature within academic libraries and other industries (health, hospitality) with appointment models.

This paper uses an exploratory survey of reference librarians across a stratified sample of academic libraries in the USA. The findings are considered through the lens of critical theory in academic libraries.

Academic libraries lack consistent understanding and language used to describe appointment-based reference models. Librarians do not gather much reliable data on the percentage of no-show appointments and further research is needed on this topic.

Study results are limited to academic librarians in the sample who responded to the survey and indicated the availability of research appointments at their institution. The implications of this paper suggest ideas for gathering appointment statistics and evaluating the rhetoric used to advertise appointments to college students.

This research is unique in that it is the first exploratory study on the prevalence and perception of missed appointments in academic library reference models.

To support the success of their students and faculty, libraries have to understand changing user needs. Robust user assessment programs and analysis of service patterns can reveal many of those needs. Many libraries have responded to changing user expectations by consolidating service desks and providing better organization of user services. Recent advances in assessment have added to libraries’ capacity to refine the scope and goals of service desk mergers. Assessment and analysis support better conceptual frameworks for realigning organizational structures and overarching service models. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Using a renovation and organizational restructuring in Ekstrom Library at the University of Louisville as a case study, this paper examines the assessment process, organizational restructuring, and physical renovation that resulted in service desks merging.

This study found that comprehensive and ongoing user assessment is crucial to planning for renovations and service changes. User needs awareness must then be linked with organizational models and service delivery systems. Service desk mergers will be successful when they result from thoughtful assessment and analysis.

Other case studies with assessment driven renovation projects, service desk mergers, and organizational changes would be useful to add to these findings.

This paper provides a process and framework for library leadership who are evaluating and revising service delivery models.

The perspectives and process described in this case study will be of value to improve library service delivery models.

Reference librarians in today's academic libraries are typically confronted with a growing array of simultaneous demands. Strained financial resources, staffing shortages, the challenge of adding new services, the explosion of information, and the electronic revolution have complicated (and sometimes compromised) the delivery of quality services. In response to many universities' growing commitment to offer nontraditional degree programs, reference staff are also assuming more responsibility for night and weekend instruction.

For the past ten years or so, librarians have been discussing the way reference service is provided, the most conspicuous recent installments being the “Re‐thinking Reference in Academic Libraries” conference and the widely publicized changes at Brandeis University. No one has heard every statement in this debate because it has been so extensive in time, space, and medium. Nevertheless, it seems safe to say that mathematical queuing theory has not played a significant role in it. At first, this lacuna is puzzling, since queuing problems are one of the fundamental types treated in operations research, which in “those thrilling days of yesteryear,” the fifties, sixties, and early seventies, was taught in some library and information science programs. By 1978 articles that applied the theory specifically to reference work appeared. Yet, the second edition of a text on operations research for librarians that appeared in 1991 says not a word about reference queues. Perhaps this theory has been neglected in recent discussions because it is usually applied to telephone calls or local area networks and other configurations of computers, while its use in analyzing queues of people in banks, supermarkets, and the like was passed over as too mundane. Perhaps, too, the failure of banks to take the theory to its logical limits in arranging the queues for bank tellers has led to caution.

The purpose of this study is to develop a mathematical model that can be used to forecast the number of individuals who enter the library as well as the number of patrons that seek assistance at the reference desk of the library. An accurate estimate of demand at the reference desk is valuable for effective staffing decisions.

An exponential smoothing model (Winter's model) was developed for forecasting. Data were gathered at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga for an entire year. Using these data, an exponential smoothing model was formulated for forecasting the number of patrons seeking assistance. Since the data showed no trend but the presence of two seasonality factors, one for the week‐of‐the‐semester effect and one for the day‐of‐the‐week effect, the Winter's method appeared to be best suited. The Winter's method develops a formula from the data and allows the formula to be continuously fine‐tuned as new observations come in day after day.

The modified Winter's exponential smoothing model proved to be a good predictor of the number of patrons seeking assistance. In spite of large natural random variability present in the data, the actual values seem to follow the forecasts very closely.

It is vital to be able to forecast the number of clients at the reference desk that seek assistance per day. The modified exponential smoothing model is a valuable tool for such forecasting.