Success at the Enquiry Desk: Successful Enquiry Answering – Every Time, 5th edition

Citation

Peare, T. (2007), "Success at the Enquiry Desk: Successful Enquiry Answering – Every Time, 5th edition", Library Review, Vol. 56 No. 5, pp. 419-420. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530710750617

The value of a professional librarian or information specialist has never been more called into question as the internet and broad‐spectrum search engines as exemplified by Google brings a wealth of resources to everyone's desktop or internet café terminal. This book's author is not afraid of the challenges and suggests in his introduction that the range of opportunities for reference work has actually increased as for example, remote enquirers can just as easily access the professional as the personal visitor and internet resources are powerful additions to the professional's tool‐kit.

This book empowers professionals both by providing good strategies for answering enquiries and lists of practical research tools and sources. It is very well written, in a conversational style with lots of examples and anecdotes of both successful and not‐so‐successful outcomes! Enquirers are neatly (and accurately) categorised by such descriptors as “the muddler”, “the obsessively secretive” and “the know‐all”, but included are techniques to identify each and to formulate appropriate responses.

The layout of each chapter with a summary of the aims at the beginning and a recap at the end lends the book to be useful as a workshop manual for training sessions on this topic.

The skill of a good reference worker lies in their ability to understand the question as much as it is to supply an answer. Certainly, time spent on discovery the enquirer's need for the information, the level of detail necessary and the timeliness required is never wasted and will enable a much more efficient approach to identifying the answer. The author spends a considerable portion of the book in this area and proposes a collaborative strategy as the potential answers are explored with the enquirer. Sometimes, complete success is not always possible and exit strategies are provided in a chapter headed “Sign‐off: What can we learn form this enquiry?” The practical chapters on resource selection, search strategies and evaluation are comprehensive and clearly laid out.

This is the fifth edition – an indication that the book's value and usefulness is well recognised generally. For this edition, an extra chapter has been added on how to establish a new information service within an organization. It is another practical section that could be equally used to revitalise a service under threat. Written by a practising librarian, the book has a comprehensive index and an annotated guide to 25 multi‐purpose reference sources used to illustrate the examples.

All in all, this is a comprehensive treatment of the subject; a well‐written practical guide of use to the student, the beginner and the experienced professional – to be recommended.