Reference and Information Services in the 21st Century: An Introduction

Citation

Duckett, B. (2007), "Reference and Information Services in the 21st Century: An Introduction", Library Review, Vol. 56 No. 6, pp. 510-513. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530710760436

My apologies to Dogpile.com, the metasearch engine that commenced in 1994. Authors Cassell and Hiremath give its etymology as the term used to describe players piling on top of one another. I thought it had a more odorous origin! “Google” clearly comes from “googol”, the number ten raised to the hundredth power. But are they right about “Yahoo”? They claim it is an acronym for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle”. I assumed it came from the imaginary race of brutish creatures in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels! No matter, the service is the thing, and mention of search engines reminds us of the dramatic change we have seen in reference and information work. As a veteran from the Age of Print, it amazes me how readily reference staff today click mice rather than flick pages. But which page, and to where do they point their mice?

Reference and Information Services in the 21st Century is the latest in the excellent tradition of books on reference work published in the USA. Bill Katz (Katz, 2001) and Richard Bopp and Linda Smith (Bopp and Smith, 2001) are recent authors that spring to mind, but as the authors here remind us in their opening chapter, the US reference tradition goes back to Green (1876), W.W. Bishop (1915), James L. Wyer, Margaret Hutchins, and others. In Part 1, the authors consider the “fundamental concepts”, in which they provide a background to reference and information services, consider the crucial activity of interviewing the enquirer to determine the precise question – whether asked in‐person, by telephone, or in virtual interviews – and then they consider basic search techniques. All excellently done.

The major part of the book is Part 2, “Introduction to major reference sources”. Each one of nine chapters looks at answering questions on a particular subject area. In answering questions about books, magazines, libraries, publishers, and bibliographic networks, consideration is given to bibliographic resources. In “Asking questions about anything and everything”, the focus is on encyclopedias. Questions that require handy facts are answered by ready reference sources. The chapter on words covers dictionaries, and that on current events and issues is the cue to examine indexes. Special guidelines and sources are given to questions about health, law, and business, while questions about geography, countries, and travel are answered by atlases, gazetteers, maps, geographic information systems, and travel guides. Questions about the lives of people lead to biographical information sources and questions about government lead to a consideration of government information systems.

Each chapter in Part 2 highlights the essential formats, features, and titles needed to find answers. Overviews are provided, lists of top ten sources, how to use the resources, typical questions (and answers), and lists of recommended resources. Concerning the information provided, the sources noted are wide and up‐to‐date, with print and electronic sources integrated. There is a strong US bias; the chapter on government, for example, has but a brief paragraph on the UK, and none at all on other nations. Given this reliance on US information, it is a surprise to me that UK's Facet Publishing took on this title.

At the risk of controversy, information on so many subjects is, by and large, tied into national cultures, though subjects such as art, science, medicine and technology maybe less so. When compiling Know it All; Find it Fast (Duckett et al., 2004) for Facet, we were asked to “make it international”. We tried, but could not. Even within the UK there were so many geographically specific sources that the resultant book would have been too large to use, if ever finished! So many questions asked at the enquiry desk relate to social issues – health, law, politics, history, transport, entertainment – which are “situation specific”. But I do admire the authors here for what they have achieved and major UK titles are represented. It was nice to see Tim Buckley Owen's excellent Success at the Enquiry Desk noted (though the 2003 and 2006 editions in different places!) and Phil Bradley's Advanced Internet Searcher's Handbook (2004 edition) given a fulsome write‐up. A touch precipitously, The New Walford is noted as being in three volumes, or have I missed something?

Part 3 covers special topics in reference and information work. These include when and how to use the internet as a reference tool, reader's advisory work, reference work with children and young adults, and user instruction in the reference department. In Part 4 there are chapters on developing and managing reference collections and services. In particular, selecting and evaluating reference materials, managing reference departments, assessing and improving reference services, and the future of information service.

Taking chapter 17 “Selecting and evaluating reference materials” as an example, after an overview, sections are headed: Sources of reviews, evaluation criteria, Choosing between print and electronic resources, Management of the reference budget, Ongoing assessment of reference collections, Weeding the reference collection, Writing a reference collection development policy; Promoting and marketing reference materials to the library user; Recommended further Reading; and Sources Cited. Again, although much here is excellent, UK library managers have a need to be aware of UK government‐led standards of service and other issues of governance and public service.

The authors write well, at times lyrically: “To stay balanced and keep the collection from toppling over into the abyss of redundancy and irrelevance, the book buyer must combine knowledge and experience to great effect.” (p. 289); occasionally a touch “high‐falutin”: “The authority of the reference work is indexed by the qualification of the author or the publisher” (p.293) and “… public librarians may prepare pathfinders that address frequently asked questions of a more quotidian nature.” (p. 8) (My emphases). Clearly a textbook for wide use, the book is well‐structured for ease of navigation. There is a subject index and an index of reference sources described.

One thing has puzzled me throughout a career in reference and information services: what, exactly, is the difference between a “reference” and an “information” service? Although the terms are both used here, the difference is not discussed (unless I missed it). Is this another difference between UK and US traditions? Reference libraries, so‐called, are very much a thing of the past in the UK though, as indicated above when discussing the US publications on “reference service”, reference still seems pretty mainstream in the USA. Without departing too far on another hobby‐horse, surely reference service has something to do with collections beyond a quick reference function? Research enquiries are noted here, as contrasted with other types of enquiry, but just in the context of coping with the enquiry.

This is an excellent work and recommended for students and reference staff. On a personal note, my interest in this book was fuelled by the need to decide whether a new edition of Know it All; Find it Fast was needed. In its Part 2, introducing major reference sources, the book reviewed here covers a lot of the same ground, and often in more detail. But this is a book for the reference shelves and the reference librarian's office rather than the desk to be used by front‐line staff needing a quick‐reference source. And there is the US emphasis to consider. We complement each other.

Finally, there is The Firefly, a children's poem by Jack Kent, which the authors use to illustrate a question answered satisfactorily:

“How DO you make your bottom glow?How DO you make your sitter light?”The firefly cleared his throat and said,“Bioluminescence is an oxidation of an enzymeof protoplast called lucifern or luciferase.”I thanked him and went home to bed.