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Requesting in library reference service interactions

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TitleInfo (displayLabel = Citation Title); (type = uniform)
Title
Requesting in library reference service interactions
Name (ID = NAME001); (type = personal)
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Downing
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Arthur
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Arthur Downing
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author
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Mandelbaum
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Jenny
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Advisory Committee
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Jenny Mandelbaum
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chair
Name (ID = NAME003); (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Stewart
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Lea
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Advisory Committee
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Lea P. Stewart
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internal member
Name (ID = NAME004); (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Robinson
NamePart (type = given)
Jeffrey
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
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Jeffrey D. Robinson
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internal member
Name (ID = NAME005); (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Lerner
NamePart (type = given)
Gene
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
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Gene H. Lerner
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outside member
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NamePart
Rutgers University
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
degree grantor
Name (ID = NAME007); (type = corporate)
NamePart
Graduate School - New Brunswick
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RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
school
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Text
Genre (authority = marcgt)
theses
OriginInfo
DateCreated (qualifier = exact)
2008
DateOther (qualifier = exact); (type = degree)
2008-01
Language
LanguageTerm
English
PhysicalDescription
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electronic
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application/pdf
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text/xml
Extent
x, 186 pages
Abstract
This dissertation is a conversation-analytic study of requests and the opening sequences that set up requesting in service interactions at a reference desk. The data reveal that openings consist minimally of an approach-availability display sequence followed by a request. Patrons and librarians jointly shape the course of action to provide a slot in which a request is expectable. Greetings may be used to: (1) maintain a state of engagement in an incipient interaction when initiated too far from the desk to transact business through talk or (2) advance to requesting by projecting the conditional relevance of a request in the next turn via a greeting+solicit construction or by reducing the opening through turn taking practices.
Patrons typically produce a request by presenting an assistable formulated as an unfinished activity. In the data requests make either instruction-giving or giving access to library resources relevant. Librarians' responses display their understanding of a turn as doing requesting by proposing a solution to the patron's problem, beginning to work on a solution, or initiating an interrogative sequence that solicits information relevant to a solution. When a request is not assistance-ready, the interactants collaborate on the production of an actionable request by: (1) augmenting the request turn; (2) initiating an interrogative insertion sequence; (3) constructing an extended, narrative request turn.
This study identifies the feature of needing assistance with completing a library-related activity as highly relevant to request-making. Librarians' orientation to this feature is consequential to the course of action, for when a patron does not construct a request around an unfinished activity, the librarian may: (1) respond as though the request had been formulated around an unfinished activity or (2) solicit a reformulation of the request in terms of an unfinished activity. The findings have implications for librarians' re-conceptualization of requesting as a social action and the improvement of professional practices based on the use of naturalistic data for research and training. The findings also support and extend prior research on the beginnings of face-to-face encounters, and on institutional talk-in-interaction, in particular work on the interrelationship of verbal and nonverbal practices in service encounters.
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references (p. 176-184).
Subject (ID = SUBJ1); (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Communication, Information and Library Studies
Subject (ID = SUBJ2); (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Reference services (Libraries)
Subject (ID = SUBJ3); (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Reference librarians
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Identifier (type = hdl)
http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.2/rucore10001600001.ETD.17131
Identifier
ETD_709
Location
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NjNbRU
Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T35M663Z
Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
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Rights

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The author owns the copyright to this work.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
AssociatedEntity (AUTHORITY = rulib); (ID = 1)
Name
Arthur Downing
Role
Copyright holder
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
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Type
Permission or license
Detail
Non-exclusive ETD license
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License
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Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
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Technical

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