Reference Librarianship: Notes from the Trenches

Citation

Fourie, I. (2007), "Reference Librarianship: Notes from the Trenches", The Electronic Library, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 478-479. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470710779880

In Reference Librarianship: Notes from the Trenches, Anderson and Sprenkle deal with the day‐to‐day problems and scenarios reference librarians, also referred to as frontline librarians, face. It is based on a year‐long project on collecting information on actual reference encounters. Apart from a discussion on a designated topic, each chapter includes Grunt's dairy – a reflection on incidents, questions, remarks, etc. during the course of days in a specific month. These are marked by the date, as well as whether it happened in the morning or the afternoon.

Although Reference Librarianship: Notes from the Trenches is not a book I would purchase for factual information, it certainly will do a lot for moral support, stimulation, a reality check and a good laugh or chuckle. Anderson and Sprenkle succeed very well in their intention: “Our purpose in offering this material is to paint a clear picture of the field for library and information science students, to provide emotional and philosophical support for practitioners of reference librarianship (You are not alone!), and, finally, to remind library administrators of what life is like for a grunt in the reference trench lines” (p. ix). In this sense any librarian facing library users, regardless of the size, type and location of the library can benefit from Reference Librarianship: Notes from the Trenches.

Reference Librarianship: Notes from the Trenches consists of 12 chapters, a conclusion, references and a good index. The chapters cover the need for directions ranging from “Just point me to the Sunday newspapers, entrepreneurs like Puff Daddy, or information on a corporation called Cat, cat, cat” (p. 12). Another chapter reflects on the perception that the library has everything such as lost IDs, immigration forms, laminating machines, math tutors and tax assessments. The very practical matter of dealing with broken equipment such as copiers and fax machines, printers, and computers is discussed next.

Librarians at the frontline also face a variety of reference and policy questions. One chapter includes several interesting reference queries (p. 86): “Human sexuality books for a child development project”, “How to break into commercials” (p. 87) “My boyfriend's mother is in jail, and I want to find out why” (p. 131).

Chapters 9‐12 concerns challenges libraries may be facing, such as taking over a commercial function, the staff required for the library of the future (“hire for the smile; train for the job”), building the library of tomorrow and a reflection on what was done right or wrong.

It is often useful to confirm that you are not the only one facing such situations. This book can also serve as a reality check as well as offering a good laugh or chuckle for Library Science students who find themselves in similar situation.