Introduction

to Reference
Services
Prepared by;
Sharmaine Luba- Galapate
Main Functions of the Library
The Three Main Divisions
Administrative Work
Handles internal and external
administrative matters of the library
including decision making and
implementation, planning, policy making,
resource management, supervision and
ensuring general discipline of the staff.
Technical Services
Technical services are jobs done in a
library to obtain and prepare library
materials for use by the patrons. This
area of library service encompasses
ordering materials, receiving materials,
entering materials in the library catalog,
and labeling materials for use by the
patron.
Readers Services
This division establishes direct contact
with the Library users. It takes custody
of materials that have been processed
in the Technical Services Division and
makes them available to users in an
organized and controlled system.
Main Functions of the Library
The Three Main Divisions

Administrative Work

Technical Services Readers Services

Acquisition Cataloging Circulation Other Library Sections

 ANALOGY

Technical Services

Readers Services
 Reader's Services
Reference and Information Services

Historical Development
The Birth of Reference
Services
Prior to the 1800’s there was no need of
reference service since education and
knowledge were reserved to the elite of the
society.
After the mid 1800‘s with the spread of
democracy, public education was more
common and community members started
using libraries. Users started being
acquainted with libraries and the services
they offered
 19th Century Ideals
Universal Education Public Libraries

All children in the united Public library is a

states would be able to component of Universal
receive free public education
education

Business Leader Religious Leader

Labor Leader Politician
 RESULTS OF UNIVERSAL
EDUCATION
Literacy rate in the United States rose
significantly

1850-1870 literacy rate had risen 88.5 %

concept of free public library was being

established
 " The question is not what will be brought about
by a few individuals of indomitable will and an
ardent thirst for improvement, but what is most
for the advantage of the mass of the Community.
In this point of view we consider that a large
public library is of the utmost importance as the
means of completing our system of public
education"

March 20, 1854

Boston Public Library opened it's door to the public-
it was an instant success.
What does the Development of
Universal education and Public
Libraries have to do with
Reference Service?
Reference work arose in the late 19th and early 20th century to
respond to several forces and trends of which are :
• an increase in the number and variety of information resources
available, including, but not exclusively, those found in libraries
• an increase in the complexity of those information resources
jointly, these combine to make it more difficult, in general, for
people to find the resource they are looking for and to find the
information they need within that resource
• an increase in the number and diversity of people using libraries
(particularly public libraries), leading to a wider range of
information needs and enquiries and sophistication with the search
for information
The People Behind

• The first discussion of any type of direct service by librarians to help

library users was in a paper presented by Samuel Swett Green at the first
conference of the American Library Association in Philadelphia in 1876.
• His paper, “Personal Intercourse and Relations between Librarians
and Readers in Popular Libraries,” outlined the concept of the librarian
interacting with and assisting the reader;
• he did not use the phrase “reference service” because that term had not
yet been developed.
• His paper was published with a shorter title in the first volume of Library
Journal and is universally recognized as the first professional discussion
of what we now call reference service.
The People Behind

• Otis Robinson of the University of Rochester heartily endorsed the

concept
• At the London Conference the following year, Reuben Guild of Brown
University described the availability of librarians to the public (faculty
and students) at his university
• Within a decade of Green’s paper, Melvil Dewey had embraced the idea
of reference service in the Columbia College (now Columbia University)
Library.
• More traditional academic institutions took longer to adopt this idea, but
eventually reference service was available in virtually any public or
academic library in the United States.
Definition of Reference Service
• 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 includes 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.
 ANY
QUESTIONS?
 SEAT WORK
1. Based on the lecture, narrate the historical
development of the reference service. (30 pts. )
2. Give 4 functions of a Reference Librarian in today’s
time. (20 pts.)