Diskurser i referenssamtalet
En diskurspsykologisk studie
This Master's thesis aims to investigate the reference interview using the discourse analytical method discourse psychology. The reference interview has been studied thoroughly, and its importance has been proven repeatedly within the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). However, it has never been studied from a discourse analytical point of view before.The material for our study was gathered at Malmö public library, and consists of 10 tape-recorded and then transcribed reference interviews. Our study shows that there are several discourses within the reference situation. The dominating discourse, the reference interview discourse, is found within all the reference interviews. Within this discourse three subordinate discourses co-exist: the institutional discourse, the process discourse and the pedagogical discourse. The reference interview discourse positions the librarian as the active agent and the user as the passive. Furthermore, the discourse encompasses a view where professionalism to a great extent dictates that the librarian be in control of the situation. In the institutional discourse the librarian takes on the role of a representative of the library as an institution. Questions concerning rules and routines are often discussed within this discourse. The authority of the librarian is strong and the user is seen as a passive client. The librarian has another kind of authority within the process discourse, and the user is given the opportunity to affect the reference interview, although not to fully control it. This discourse is mainly found during the information seeking process. In the pedagogical discourse the librarian takes on the role of the teacher, and therefore gains the authority provided by this position. This discourse is often found merged with the process discourse when the librarian pauses the information seeking process in order to explain why the process is sensible. We suggest that these underlying discourses are tools used, within different contexts, to maintain the position of the librarian and the user within the reference interview discourse.