Reference Librarianship:

The study focuses on the use of reference sources and services by students in ACE Library, Ondo, Ondo State, Nigeria. Reference sources are materials in the reference section while reference services are rendered by reference librarian in meeting the information need of users in the library. The study surveyed 405 students comprising 183 and 222 Degree and NCE students respectively from the five schools in the College. Questionnaire was used to collect data. All the 405 questionnaires that were administered were returned and found valid for analysis. The findings of the study among others show that 246(60.7%) had good understanding of what reference materials are; 222 (54.8%) have good understanding of what reference service entails and 295(72.8%) make use of reference materials in the College Library. The major challenges confronting the students in the use of reference materials include very old materials 82 (20.2%) and time wastage when searching for materials 75 (18.5%). It could be concluded that students make use of reference materials and have understanding of reference sources and services probably because both the Degree and NCE students have compulsory courses in Library Instruction Programme and Introduction to Library Studies respectively. From findings of the study, it could be recommended that new reference materials should be acquired to cover all courses and reference librarian should organise orientation for the students on the use of reference materials in the library. Keywords: Reference, Sources, Services, Students, Education, Ondo, Nigeria.

Reference service has existed in public and academic libraries for over one hundred years, but as libraries move into an age of increasing technology, many traditional methods for providing reference service will no longer be adequate. By examinmg reference services of the past and present, reference librarians can learn from the mistakes and successes of their predecessors to better plan for the future. Reference librarians must be committed to retaining the most successful ideas from the past and giving up the least successful. This critical examination of past services must also be coupled with a visionary and risk-taking outlook for what is needed in the future if reference librarians are to remain a vital part of the information age.

Il contributo si propone di offrire un inquadramento teorico e pratico del servizio di reference, di descrivere le forme in cui il servizio di reference si attua, di analizzare il processo che caratterizza l'attivita di reference, di esaminare le componenti fondamentali del servizio e di presentare infine le idee di Ranganathan e di altri autori che si sono occupati di questo tema. A questo scopo, l’articolo procede sviluppando alcuni punti fondamentali di analisi del servizio: la definizione e l'ambito del termine inglese reference , le origini e le ragioni del servizio di reference, il processo di reference, i tipi di lettori e tipi di reference che si possono incontrare nel lavoro quotidiano e, infine, la figura del bibliotecario di reference. L’approccio scelto e quello di dare spazio alla voce dei molti studiosi che se ne sono occupati, con particolare riguardo al pensiero di S.R. Ranganathan. A questo scopo, oltre a numerose citazioni nel testo dell’articolo, e stata aggiunta un’appendice di brani scelti per il loro particolare valore esemplificativo.

The reference librarian and the services provided hold more than ever the attention of users at the “Dun?rea de Jos” University Library of Galati (DJULG). The Internet, technology and struggle for survival left a significant mark on both librarians' skills and reference services in the new context of the information society. In order to align with new trends in librarianship and to respond effectively to the increasingly complex demands of users, the reference librarians had to move beyond the traditional and reinvent themselves. As a result, new skills have been acquired and new services emerged in the information landscape of the university library. The paper examines the evolution of the reference services at DJULG over the last ten years, emphasizing the changes of the librarian profile in this area. The variety of information sources, the emergence of new information technologies, the movement on open access have been the main elements that contributed to the professional development of the reference librarian and the implementation of new models of services for users. The case of the university library in this study reveals different profiles of the reference librarian: researcher, educator in information literacy, bibliometrician, wikilibrarian, digital resources manager, reference manager etc. Not far from the truth, we can say that the reference librarian became a chameleon, from the perspective of information evolution and ensuring sustainable library services.

The major objective of this study was to investigate the use of Reference Sources in the Medical College Libraries of Punjab. The study was quantitative in nature. In this research, the users of libraries participated of different demographics such as; MBBS Students, M. PhilStudents, FCPS Students, Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, and Professors from medical libraries of Punjab, Pakistan as population. A questionnaire was prepared including 35 items and collected data from almost 361 respondents as a sample through simple random sampling bysurvey method. The data was analyzed with the help of the SPSS software.The study found that majority of the users of medical college libraries were moderately aware and getting most of the libraries' reference services and sources. The study further indicates that the majority of respondents used library reference sources for different purposes for learning, education and updating their knowledge. The study also highlights that majority of participants were partially satisfied with available library reference resources.

The University of Illinois Crawford Library of the Health Sciences at Rockford (CLHS-R) has been serving University of Illinois College of Medicine faculty, students, and staff and the area community since 1972. CLHS-R is a regional academic health sciences library for the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). The mission of the UIC University Library includes “ensuring that faculty, students and other users have access to a broad and diversified range of scholarly resources” and “engaging in outreach to the community” [1]. In keeping with this mission, CLHS-R welcomes members of the community into the library and provides borrowing privileges to Illinois residents with proper identification. The collection at CLHS-R primarily focuses on the curriculum and research needs of the faculty, students, and staff from the colleges of medicine, nursing, and public health. The secondary focus of the collection is on consumer health. At CLHS-R, the consumer health collection has been pulled from the regular collection and resides in a quiet reading area in the back of the library that offers privacy. Providing health information to consumers is a common practice among academic health sciences libraries [2, 3]. The purpose of this study is to examine the trends in reference services usage provided by CLHS-R from 1990 through 2009. Numerous articles can be found in the literature discussing the most efficient method of staffing the reference desk [4, 5]. Many studies have also asked if the reference desk should be eliminated completely [6–8]. At CLHS-R, the traditional reference desk has been phased out even though patrons still walk in the door and need assistance. Using a triage approach, patrons come to the user services desk to request assistance. The library staff member at the user services desk determines the difficulty of the question and handles the query directly or refers the patron to a reference librarian. Training of the library staff is critical so that the reference questions are handled properly. Over the past two decades, the method of providing reference services has changed dramatically [9–12]. The explosion of the Internet has changed the way libraries provide reference services today [13–16]. Overall traditional reference transactions have declined, while electronic reference questions have increased [17]. The author asked, “Who is really using the reference services at CLHS-R and why?” Knowing who is using reference and why should help reference librarians plan for the future.

SUMMARY This paper will briefly review the canon debate in African literature, situating it within a wider context of debates on other non-Western, non-central or emerging disciplines. It will then examine ways in which reference services can respond to the challenge of canon expansion, and how librarians can impact the study of African women writers in universities and colleges. I will approach these topics from two perspectives. The first involves reference librarians in their traditional role as information mediators. Using the works of female writers as examples in instruction sessions and reference guides are ways in which traditional methods can be given a new twist. In so doing, reference librarians will be combining intercultural literacy with information literacy. A bibliography of selected works will also be given that will help general reference librarians strengthen their collections and educate themselves on the subject. The second will be on ways in which librarians can add a layer to traditional mediating by becoming academic activists. In other words, instead of passively waiting for courses to be created and then supporting them, librarians can market to faculty ideas for possible uses of the Africana collection and thus provide impetus for new course development. Suggested initiatives include developing theme-related guides or readers' advisory based on African women's texts, and distributing them to other Area Studies faculty–an obvious way to encourage comparative, interdisciplinary research and teaching. Librarians can also hold workshops to demonstrate how works such as Aidoo's Changes or Dangaremgba's Nervous Conditions that examine the many faces of modern Africa can be discussed in social history, politics or education courses; or Alifa Rifaat's works dealing with women in Islamic communities in a religion or comparative law course. Additionally, libraries need to go beyond in-house, library-only lectures to organizing, for example, campus-wide author lecture series. To effectively implement these initiatives, reference librarians should collaborate more closely with Africana and Area Studies bibliographers. As librarians in the 21st century, we should be more proactive in our academic communities. We can generate impetus for breaking the literary canon and broadening literary research, foster greater understanding of African culture, while still playing our time-honored roles of guide, mediator, culture-keeper, and agents of change.

The division and tension between catalogers and reference librarians has had a long history. Many factors influence the dialog or division between reference and technical services. The authors of this article are trying to define those factors by looking back into their careers as catalog, reference, and network resources librarians. Based on their experience, the paper examines both the traditional methods of operation and the emerging blending of duties and the positive and negative effects on individuals and the profession. The changing demands of library users are also examined as a cause for the blurring lines. In conclusion, the authors explore the state of readiness of our profession to answer the questions of whether and how we can work together to provide optimal library service to our users.

From the Publisher: Constant developments in information technology are creating fundamental changes in librarianship. This book challenges the uncritical acceptance of these changes caused by technology. The volume begins by explaining the importance of a critical approach to information technology in librarianship. The first part of the book then explores the fundamental critical issues at the heart of technology in the library. Chapters in this section consider such topics as the neutrality of technology, information technology and censorship, the role of computers in education, and the sometimes critical views of scientists on technology. The second part of the volume looks more closely at issues related to the application of technology in librarianship. These chapters discuss technology and the civic role of libraries, the political apsects of electronic information, and the role of technology in the labor process. A selected bibliography concludes the work.

As library Web pages become more and more complex, reference librarians have difficulty locating resources in an efficient and timely manner. This paper is a study of the Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI) University Library World Wide Web interface. The author proposes that the creation of a single screen-length page created specifically for reference services would dramatically improve the efficiency of the librarians' interaction with the interface and delivery of reference services. The paper discusses the public interface and its shortcomings for reference services, issues in page design, research methodology, and evaluation of the final product. Efficiency and user satisfaction were increased with the new reference interface. The process revealed that the philosophy of delivering reference services and the design of the Web pages would have a reciprocal effect upon each other.

The availability of information in electronic form, specifically through on-line services and in CD-ROM format, has presented new opportunities and challenges for reference librarians in research libraries. Similarly, the advent of networked information tools and resources presents similar challenges. These challenges are examined, and the changing face of scholarly research and communication is discussed. How the individual reference librarian's job will change is a determination that needs to be made within each research library. But the author argues that if reference service in research libraries is to be responsive to user needs, most reference departments will be forced to confront reorganization or restructuring as a result of the changing nature of research practice.

Purpose – This paper aims to understand Social Questions & Answers (SQA) users’ perceptions of library reference services. Design/methodology/approach – The authors examined the postings on the largest SQA site, Yahoo! Answers, regarding library reference services and identified the major themes. Findings – Three themes emerged in library reference-related discussions: reference librarians and their services are well and positively recognized, reference services are less recognized and understood and Yahoo! Answers is recognized as a helpful service. Those who have used both library reference services and Yahoo! Answers are fully aware of the differences between the two services. Originality/value – This study provides new insights on how library reference services are perceived by SQA users. The results are helpful for libraries to position reference services to better serve users in today’s information environment.

A review of:
 Hernon, P., & McClure, C. (1986). Unobtrusive reference testing: The 55 percent rule. Library Journal, 111(7), 37-41.
 
 
 Objective – To determine the number of government documents reference questions that are answered correctly by professional library staff.
 
 Design – The authors utilized unobtrusive reference testing: reference queries posed to library personnel who were unaware they were being evaluated. As opposed to other designs that require the researcher’s presence in the setting, unobtrusive testing utilizes proxies to administer test questions to the subjects, reducing the possibility of reporter bias.
 
 Setting – Twenty-six public and academic libraries participating in the U.S. Government Printing Office Depository Program located in the Western, Southern, and Midwestern United States. The Federal Depository Program consisted of 1400 libraries at the time of the study. One public and one academic library were chosen for each city.
 
 Subjects – Reference and government documents librarians. These two staff types were selected in order to compare the accuracy of each group’s responses to the queries.
 
 Methods – A set of 15 predetermined factual and bibliographic questions were developed by the authors and administered to library staff respondents by proxies. Government documents were selected as the foundation for the test questions. In selecting federal depository libraries for their sample the authors could ensure all queries may hypothetically be answered using U.S. Government Printing Office documents, as all of the libraries would hold the resources in question.
 
 Graduate students enrolled in the University of Arizona and University of Oklahoma library science programs were trained by the authors to serve as proxies. The proxies posed as library users and administered the set of queries at each selected library. Reference librarians and government documents librarians were tested separately, receiving seven and eight questions respectively at each library visited. Over a four-month period a total of 390 questions were posed and their answers recorded.
 
 Main Results – The respondents correctly answered 241 of 390 queries (62 percent). Government documents librarians accurately answered 65 percent of questions, while reference librarians successfully responded to 59 percent. Hernon and McClure derived the “55 percent rule” for reference accuracy from these results and previous unobtrusive studies conducted by both the authors and other researchers. This body of research estimates the rate of accurate answers of factual and bibliographic questions to be between 50 and 62 percent.
 Data regarding the “interview and search process” (I&S), defined as the activities between the time a query was posed and when a resolution was provided, also yielded intriguing findings. Regardless of the question asked, the average I&S duration was three to five minutes. Two-thirds of the accurate answers were supplied within three minutes, and 89 percent within five minutes of the initiation of I&S. The duration of I&S did not vary significantly by library type or librarian type.
 
 Reasons for the provision of inaccurate answers included providing the wrong data (64 percent of instances), responding with “don’t know” and ending the interaction (20 percent), or claiming the library did not own a source that would answer the query (15 percent). Other findings included the fact that respondents infrequently offered referrals, which took place in 17 percent of all interactions, and that the three geographic regions studied had an even distribution of correct answers.
 
 Conclusions - Based on their research results as well as those of similar unobtrusive studies, the authors propose two rules regarding reference assistance that apply to public and academic libraries. First, reference librarians correctly answer approximately 55 percent of factual and bibliographic queries received (the 55 percent reference rule). Second, librarians spend no more than five minutes on most factual and bibliographic questions (the five-minute answer rule).
 
 Ultimately, Hernon and McClure recommend reevaluating the centrality of reference services to library operations. If trained professionals are unable to answer more than 60 percent of factual questions correctly, should reference services continue to receive such considerable staffing and funding? Or, alternatively, should libraries increase efforts to improve the accuracy of answers? The authors close by challenging the profession to address the need for strategic assessment of reference effectiveness.

Explores the possibility of considering the creation and maintenance of reference librarians’ personal Web sites as part of their professional duties. After reviewing a sample of personal Web sites and the results of an e‐mail survey targeting such sites and their creators, a case study is presented of three home pages detailing interactions with site visitors, especially interactions with research scholars, as well as examining non‐traditional reference service and scholarly publishing. Concludes the article by offering suggestions regarding the integration of personal Web sites into professional reference librarians’ duties and faculty activities.

ABSTRACTA national survey of academic librarians was conducted to examine relationships among reference service staffing changes, reference service innovations, adoption of reference technology, library type and size, and service quality. Analysis of the 606 response sets reveals trends toward reduced use of librarians and increased use of student staff at in-person service points, widespread increases in appointment-based and self-service reference, intensive efforts to reduce demand for reference by improving library instruction, and general improvements in reference service quality. Factors strongly associated with decreases or increases in quality are discussed in detail and implications for reference managers are provided.