Katz, W.A.: Introduction to reference work : Vol.1: Basic information sources; vol.2: Reference services and reference processes (1992)
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- Content
- The ten chapters in Volume 11 are divided into 3 parts: Part One, "Information and the Community," contains two chapters to familiarize readers with various groups in the community, their information and reference needs, and how professionals attempt to serve those needs. Part Two, "Interview and Search," devotes Chapters 3 through 6 to the vital task of explaining how to isolate and understand the questions readers put to librarians as well as basic methods of finding the correct answer(s). The emphasis is an practical application of tried and true methods of interviewing and searching. Attention is given to both manual and computer searches. Chapter 6 is a guide to basic information about databases, including CD-ROMS. Part Three, "Library Instruction, Networks, Policies, and Evaluation," is comprised of the last four chapters and covers the activities of reference librarians when not responding to direct questions. This part includes hints an teaching people how to find information as well as the networks that help both librarian and user to discover what is needed. Chapter 10 discusses methods of deciding how well the individual has fulfilled the task of being a reference librarian. Only space and the fact that this text is for beginners limits what information it contains. First, many new developments and potentially important technological changes in the field of information are impossible to cover without turning to technical language and jargon quite beyond the average reader of an introductory textbook. However, basic developments are covered and explained, and there is a guide (via the footnotes and suggested readings) for those who wish to explore the future. Second, this volume is for students and working reference librarians and is intended first, foremost, and always as a pragmatic, practical approach. This is not to discount the importance of research and information science. Leaders and followers in those fields are responsible for much of what is revolutionary in references services today. There are other courses, other places where information science can be considered in depth; all that can be done here is to hint at the joy of the intellectual fields that open up to the information scientist and researcher. Students and teachers alike should be aware that much of the material covered in this book is updated, argued, and dutifully considered in several basic journals. RQ, the official voice of reference librarians of the American Library Association, excels in its coverage of the topics considered in this text. Library Journal, while more general, now offers excellent and timely articles an the new technology and its influence an librarians. The Reference Librarian, edited by the author of this text, offers specific discussions of single topics in each issue, and these have ranged from online reference services, to personnel, to problems of evaluation. And, not to be missed, is the nicely edited, always useful, and sometimes downright inspirational, References Services Review.
