ABSTRACT
A young woman walked reluctantly up to the reference desk. Her face was sullen, and she responded to the question “May I help you?” with a hesitant, downward glance. “I need a book with statistics. I think my professor said something about Statistical Abstract. I gotta stick some numbers into my paper for EN 101.” The student clearly did not want to be in the library and even more clearly was only interested in doing with minimal effort what her professor asked. As the reference interview began with the standard questions such as “What is your topic? What statistics are you trying to find?”, the student’s lackluster answers suggested to the librarian that the information seeker had little ownership in the quest.
