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Unit 3: Reference Services

3.1 Definition of Reference Services Notes

“Reference Services” is defined to include the professional advice and assistance provided by the
library staff, from material in the library’s collections or elsewhere, to assist individuals using the
library’s reading rooms or making enquiries by mail, telephone or on-line to meet their information
needs.
It also include the range of information products, such as guides, directories and databases, and the
equipment and facilities that are provided to enable research to be carried out to meet information
needs. The delivery of materials from the collections to users in the reading rooms is also included
in the scope of Reference Services.

Ultimately, reference service is not simply someone asking a question and someone
else providing an answer. It is about someone with an information problem working
with someone with information skills.

The Components of Reference Service
Reference librarian performs four functions:
(a) Instructing the reader in the ways of the library: In its original sense, the role of instruction
was intended to help members of the newly educated public learn how a library is
organized so that they could take advantage of the knowledge contained in its books.
Today’s libraries are much more containing more resources in more formats serving more
people in more locations. Instruction, on both a formal and informal basis, has become
an even greater part of a reference librarian’s responsibilities.
(b) Assisting the reader with his queries: The second function of the reference librarian, answering
user questions, is the one that is most often associated with reference service. To many,
the standard image of the reference librarian is of a kindly and knowledgeable woman
sitting at a desk in a room full of reference books and patrons approaching with questions
great and small. In this function of the reference librarian that has received the most
publicity in recent years.
(c) Aiding the reader in the selection of good works: The third function of a reference librarian -
aiding readers in the selection of good works - is the link between the librarian’s knowledge
of the collections and the needs of the users. Originally, the word “good” referred to
morally and spiritually uplifting books. Today, we interpret good to mean appropriate,
as in those sources that are most relevant to a user’s needs. In some libraries, this service
is most commonly known as “Reader’s Advisory”. However, the practice of aiding the
reader in the selection of good works goes far beyond recommending novels and mysteries.
With the growth in the number of electronic resources and the advent of the Internet, the
reference librarian recommends sources and search strategies in almost every interaction
with a library patron.
(d) Promoting the library within the community: The final activity of the librarian was to publicize
the library within the community. The library as we all know is only one instrument of
the greater community and that its success depended on recognition by the parent
community. By having librarians available to the public, it is believed that the public
would better understand, appreciate, and support the work of those librarians.

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