At the University of Toledo when there is no one at the Reference Desk users will turn to other users. A question was raised about the cost of staffing the Reference Desk when few questions are asked. At the University of Oklahoma even when a user asks a question at the Reference Desk another user may jump in and answer the question without waiting for the person on duty to respond. At Pepperdine University monitoring occurs because of the proximity of the desks. T he participant from California State University-Fresno noted that ALA guidelines say there should be a reference librarian on duty every hour the library is open.
Faculty think the quality of research has fallen off.
Also, this impacts on statistics which indicate there is less in-house traffic. Users are more computer knowledgeable. At Pepperdine University all students don't know how to use the Web. High schools may not have given them the background to use the Web. All students are required to take a freshman seminar in which students are introduced to major databases.