Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Communication Overload: A Phenomenological Inquiry Into Academic Reference Librarianship, C. Sean Burns, Jenny Bossaller

C. Sean Burns

Purpose – This study aims to provide insight on the meaning of communication overload as experienced by modern academic librarians. Communication is the essence of reference librarianship, and a practically endless array of synchronous and asynchronous communication tools (ICTs) are available to facilitate communication. Design/methodology/approach – This study relied on a phenomenological methodology, which included nine in-depth interviews with academic librarians. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using RQDA, a qualitative analysis software package that facilitates coding, category building, and project management. Findings – Seven themes about librarianship emerged from this research: attending to communication abundance, librarians of two types, …