Voter Registration Services at an Academic Library: A Non-Traditional Reference Service

Academic library reference services are ideally suited to register students to vote. Voter registration services may be more commonly associated with public library settings, but experiences in an academic library at Illinois State University in the autumn of 2004, 2008, and 2012 indicate that we provided a valuable service to our campus community—one that filled a need for the library’s primary clientele of undergraduate students, most ranging in age from 18 to 24 years and eligible to vote for the first time. Aspects of voter registration are similar in style to reference interviews. Providing a non-traditional service is also an effective avenue for outreach to students and community organizations, as well as to state and municipal agencies.