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Information Sources and Services
Notes 5.5.1 Reference Service
Reference service, as a distinct function of the library, began in the late nineteenth century,
largely in response to the growing prevalence of publicly funded libraries (both public and
academic) seeking to serve relatively inexperienced and unskilled readers and scholars. There
was only one problem – they did not know how to use the library. Thus reference service was
developed to solve that problem.
According to the ALA Glossary of Library and Information Science, “Reference Service is that phase
of library work which is directly concerned with assistance to readers in securing information
and in using resources of the library in study and research”.
Ranganathan defines Reference Service as ‘Personal Service to each reader in helping him to find
the documents answering his interest at the moment pinpointedly, exhaustively and
expeditiously.’
Both definitions convey that reference service means ‘process of establishing contact between a
reader and his documents in a personal way’. His ‘documents’ refer to those who will serve his
requirements precisely. With the technological advancements, users’ information seeking
behaviour has undergone a lot of change.
Reference Process – Types of Reference Questions
Based on the nature of the query we may categorize reference questions. These categories could
broadly be:
General: Questions could be grouped into directional, fact or ready reference, specific
search and long range search. In directional type of question, a user only needs to be
directed to specific source or section; for fact type questions, the answer can be found
readily such as what is the height of Mount Everest? For questions requiring specific
search, one may be required to find limited amount of information on the topic, involving
search into number of sources of information. The reader/information seeker may be
given books on the topic available in the library and the reader might feel satisfied. While
in a long range search query would be the one, which cannot be answered from one or two
sources. It would require the use of many specialized sources of information.
Subject: Here as the name implies, the questions are analysed by subject. This would
indicate predominant subject interests of the users.
Sources of Information: Here questions are analysed on the basis of sources of information
from which the answers are found (primary, secondary and tertiary sources of information).
Inquirer: Categorization can be done on the basis of kinds of users, who make use of
reference services.
Reference Books: Questions can be categorized by kind of reference book.
Nature of Question: We may recognize various types of questions, concerning background,
a recent event, words, a fact, how to do, trends, evidence to support an idea verification of
a reference, new theory or idea or innovation, has somebody already done it, all about it
etc.
Channels of Receiving Reference Questions
The queries can be received from users through various channels. These channels could be:
Direct approach by a user
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