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

Citation

MacRitchie, J. (2007), "Reference and Information Services in the 21st Century: An Introduction", The Electronic Library, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 254-255. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470710741403

Reference librarians have to come to terms with an increasingly diverse range of materials, and it cannot be easy for novice reference workers to know where to begin. Cassell and Hiremath have produced a textbook which suggests the best resources to consult, in the most suitable format, for a range of reference enquiries. Some of this goes over old ground, such as determining the question, and visualizing the answer. Still, this is the bedrock of reference work, and the authors treat it with clarity and some humour, referring to “futile medical information plied on the user who needs to research Wounded Knee”. Anyone starting out on a reference desk would be sure to learn from the introductory chapters.

The bulk of the book looks at major reference sources, both in print and in electronic format, such as encyclopedias; indexes; legal, health and business sources and so on. There are alternative guides to this material, such as Duckett, Walker and Donnelly's Know It All, Find It Fast (Facet, 2002), which are more suited to the zappy demands of the enquiry desk, but Cassell and Hiremath offer more depth of consideration of the available sources. Most practicing professional librarians would pick up new tips from their discussion of standard reference works.

Four topics are given special consideration: children's services, and reader's advisory work (chapters contributed by Mary K. Chelton); the use of the Internet as a reference tool; and user instruction (often a neglected area). Whether reader's advisory work needs the attention in a work of this sort is debatable – local studies reference work, which they completely overlook, might have benefited from the authors' analysis. Some consideration might also have been given to reference enquiries requiring illustrated answers, such as for a photograph or a diagram of something, which can be among the more challenging enquiries in a ref desk session!

Concluding chapters are devoted to developing and running reference collections, with a look at the future where it is predicted that new models such as virtual reference and user instruction will grow as face‐to‐face services decline. Will the informed personal touch still be essential?

The authors are quick to observe bias in some of the works they discuss, so it is only fair to say that prospective purchasers should note the heavy American bias in their own book. The authors describe relatively few non‐USA reference works, and give little space to discussion of reference initiatives in the rest of the world. Where they do succeed, and succeed very well, is in providing a practically‐grounded textbook, suitable both for learners and experienced professionals.