The purpose of this paper is to answer the questions: What challenges do students face in an information commons and how does roving reference help?.,The author recounts her work roving in her community college information commons and supplements this with an analysis of 1,500 records from her detailed reference log that compares roving reference results with conventional references and with reference questions as a whole.,Her autoethnography and data reveal that roving substantially increases the number of reference encounters. In addition, her data sheds light on students’ struggles with common, productivity software, academic packages and malfunctioning hardware. More importantly, these findings show that roving reference data identify problems that librarians, as stakeholders, can solve.,Roving reference in a community college information commons brings students in one library into sharper focus. Roving reference increases the number of reference encounters and the reach of reference service. It also exposes a use-based digital divide that calls for collaboration in the long run and increased point-of-need service immediately.,Even data that points to digital divides, hardware issues or other shortcomings and offers empirical evidence of problems for which library staff, unlike student workers, can find long-term solutions. This study shows that it is possible to gather rich and extensive data with minimal personnel and off-the-shelf software.,A college degree is vital to social mobility and easing inequality. Fluency with academic technology and information is necessary for completing college. Roving reference means more opportunities to teach information and computer fluency at point of need and more opportunities for librarian stakeholders to find and remove obstacles to student learning.,This is one of the few, recent studies, autoethnographic or otherwise, on roving reference in a community college library’s information commons.

中文翻译：

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近距离观察：社区大学图书馆信息共享区中的参考资料

本文的目的是回答以下问题：学生在信息共享区中面临哪些挑战，以及流动参考如何帮助？。作者在社区大学的信息共享区叙述了其流动的工作，并通过对1,500条记录的分析作为补充从她的详细参考日志中可以比较粗略的参考结果与常规参考以及整体参考问题。她的民族志和数据显示粗纱大大增加了遇到参考的次数。此外，她的数据揭示了学生在使用通用的，生产力软件，学术软件包和故障硬件时的挣扎。更重要的是，这些发现表明，粗略的参考数据可以识别作为利益相关者的图书馆员可以解决的问题。在社区大学信息共享场所中获得大量参考资料，可以使一个图书馆中的学生更加关注。漫游参考会增加参考遇到的次数和参考服务的范围。它还暴露了基于使用的数字鸿沟，从长远来看需要进行协作，并立即增加需要的服务。甚至指出数字鸿沟，硬件问题或其他缺点的数据，也提供了针对哪些图书馆问题的经验证据与学生工人不同，工作人员可以找到长期的解决方案。这项研究表明，可以用最少的人员和现成的软件来收集丰富而广泛的数据。大学学位对于社会流动和缓解不平等现象至关重要。流利的学术技术和信息是完成大学的必要条件。