After much reflection, the Middlesex Community College Library in Connecticut took the plunge last summer. Are we talking a day at the beach? A dip in someone's pool? No, not as refreshing as that, although we did feel as if we were drowning at times. The plunge was our decision to intershelve reference books with circulation. The changing nature of how students access information, as well as a growing number of distance learners who never visit our physical campus, ultimately became the tipping point. You may think that your library could never reach this point because of its size or some other factor. And perhaps it's true that you might never shift your entire reference collection to circulation. But could you choose a few underutilized gems and shift those? Could you move certain reference works to a more visible location while keeping them noncirculating? To answer such questions, you need to focus on the patron experience in your community. And if the time comes to make the shift, use this "ref-to-circ" travelog to help you get there more efficiently.

Advance Planning is Key

Begin by trolling listservs for information on best practices and discussing the pros and cons with your Library Advisory Committee. In our case, the advantages (e.g., it's easier for patrons to find everything on a given topic) outweighed the disadvantages (e.g., patrons may think reference is gone for good). We then conducted a thorough analysis of our virtual reference collection. For this, you need to use any evaluative measures at your disposal. For example, LJ's E-Reference Ratings tool (www.libraryjournal.com/reference) lets you compare products by considering a range of criteria. We signed up for a number of trials and ultimately chose Credo Reference (www.credoreference.com) for the clarity of its interface, currency, scope, and affordable price tag.

Create A Little "Packing" Space

The next big undertaking is to weed your reference collection (and some circulation), taking into consideration which materials are available electronically. This is also the perfect opportunity to review your library's collection development policy. Our main criteria for weeding included keeping materials that support existing college programs and those not available elsewhere in their entirety. We also created dedicated holding areas for books in transit—areas for books needing updating in the catalog, those to be withdrawn, those needing new labels, and so on.

How Many are Traveling in Your Party?

Teamwork and constant communication are key. In our case, all library staff members and student workers were on board. Many of the weeding decisions were made by the subject librarians, who asked one another for second and third opinions. We also kept the communication lines open with faculty subject experts.

Every Task Plays A Crucial Role

Keep in mind that every task is equally important in ensuring the success of the project; this includes everything from dusting shelves and creating signs to filling in at the front desk while others "shift." Never underestimate the value of a good road map. Each library must develop its own "rules of the road." We based our moving decision on whether a patron might need access to an entire book (make it circulating, move to the circulation stacks); whether numerous patrons might need access to the same material or we didn't want to break up multivolume sets (keep these noncirculating but still move to circulation); and what was still important to keep in "general reference" so that students could get their hands on various facts and figures quickly.

Embrace Bumps in The Road

Even though we live with our collection every day, we didn't envision the sheer volume of the withdrawals. Many books were given away to students during graduation—a parting gift! Many others were given to our local public library's Friends book sale. And some are being used by our art department students for creating recycled artwork. It must also be said that physical shifting is not for the faint of heart, knees, or back—or those with dust allergies!

Tell Everyone about Your Travels

Talk it up! Sharing your experiences is part of the fun of returning from any excursion. Advertise databases in flyers, blogs, and workshops, and point out relocated materials when showing patrons to the stacks. Finally, look forward to your next journey. The plunge was actually just the beginning of a process of assessing our library's physical layout in terms of noise control, signage, relocating and weeding seldom-used resources, creating group study space, facilitating research assistance to students, and more. BOTTOM LINE: Before taking the plunge, ask yourselves what might work for your library and patrons and take it from there. Intershelving reference with circulation was one of the most student-centered and rewarding moves we have made in a long time—despite the good, the bad, and the ugly. In the end, we never lost sight of our ultimate goals: to make these materials more accessible to our students through the art of browsing, to reconsider our collection development policies, and to make our library more responsive to the needs of our community. All in all, a truly satisfying excursion!

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Author Information

Joy Hansen, MS, MLS, is a librarian at Middlesex Community College (MCC) Library, CT. She wrote this in collaboration with Lan Liu (Director), Gayle Esidore, Tamara Ottum, Anne Paluck, and Alma Zyko. The MCC Library serves about 2200 students and housed almost 4000 reference books prior to June 2008.