Sulle tracce del reference. Tre indagini qualitative per scoprirne i misteri

We present methodology, results and developments of three qualitative surveys on reference (both quick and specialist one) made at the Library of the University of Milano-Bicocca in the years 2007-2008. These surveys were aimed at discovering causes and reasons for certain phenomena, such as poor use or high satisfaction, through open questions submitted to a target sample of users, during face to face interviews or by questionnaires sent by e-mail. The sharing of survey results has led to an improvement in the efficacy of oral and written communication, both for information- promotional and educational-consultative tasks. The paper ends referring to international experiences and theoretical considerations in favor of the use of qualitative methods of research in libraries.