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Reference and Information Services

2
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3
REFERENCE AND INFORMATION SERVICES

An Introduction

Fifth Edition

Linda C. Smith and Melissa A. Wong, Editors

Library and Information Science Text Series

4
Copyright © 2016 by Linda C. Smith and Melissa A. Wong

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the
inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Smith, Linda C., editor. | Wong, Melissa Autumn, editor.

Title: Reference and information services: an introduction.
Description: Fifth edition / Linda C. Smith, Melissa A. Wong, editors. | Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited,
[2017] | Series: Library and information science text series | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016013108 (print) | LCCN 2016032711 (ebook) | ISBN 9781440836961 (paperback) | ISBN
9781440836978 (eBook)
Subjects: LCSH: Reference services (Libraries) | Information services. |
BISAC: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Library & Information Science / Cataloging & Classification. |
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Library & Information Science / Collection Development.
Classification: LCC Z711 .R443 2017 (print) | LCC Z711 (ebook) | DDC 025.5/2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016013108

ISBN: 978-1-4408-3696-1
EISBN: 978-1-4408-3697-8

21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5

This book is also available as an eBook.

Libraries Unlimited
An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC

ABC-CLIO, LLC
130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911
Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911

www.abc-clio.com

This book is printed on acid-free paper

Manufactured in the United States of America

5
 Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
PART I: Concepts and Processes
1 —History and Functions of Reference Services
Dave A. Tyckoson
2 —Ethics
Emily J. M. Knox
3 —The Reference Interview
M. Kathleen Kern and Beth S. Woodard
4 —Instruction
Wendy Holliday
5 —Cooperation and Consortia
Rick Burke
6 —Models of Reference Services
Lili Luo
7 —Management of Reference Services
JoAnn Jacoby and M. Kathleen Kern
8 —Evaluation and Assessment of Reference Services
Laura Saunders
9 —Training and Continual Learning for Reference Staff
Beth S. Woodard
10 —Marketing and Promotion of Reference Services
Elisabeth Leonard and Rosalind Tedford
11 —Reference Services for Children and Young Adults
Marcia A. Brandt
12 —Reference Services for Diverse Populations
Nicole A. Cooke
PART II: Information Sources and Their Use
13 —Selection and Evaluation of Reference Sources
Carol A. Singer
14 —Licensing Electronic Sources
Rick Burke
15 —Search Strategies for Online Resources
Melissa A. Wong
16 —Bibliographic Sources
Linda C. Smith
17 —Indexes and Abstracts
Linda C. Smith
18 —Sources for Facts and Overviews
Melissa A. Wong
19 —Dictionaries
Stephanie R. Davis-Kahl
20 —Geographical Sources
Jenny Marie Johnson

6
21 —Biographical and Genealogical Sources
Jeanne Holba Puacz
22 —Government Information
Sarah Erekson and Mary Mallory
23 —Sources for Data and Statistics
Celina Nichols McDonald
24 —Readers' Advisory Services and Sources
Neal Wyatt
25 —Business Sources
Celia Ross
26 —Health and Medicine Sources
Maura Sostack
27 —Primary and Archival Sources
Shelley Sweeney
28 —Legal Sources
Paul D. Healey
PART III: The Future of Reference Service
29 —Creating the Future of Reference Service
Amy VanScoy
Index
About the Contributors
About the Editors

7
 Preface
The fifth edition of Reference and Information Services reflects the dramatic changes shaped by rapidly
developing technologies and increasing volumes of digital content over the past five years. This edition takes
the introduction to reference sources and services significantly beyond the content of the previous edition. In
Part I, “Concepts and Processes,” chapters have been revised and updated to reflect new ideas and methods in
the provision of reference service in an era when many users have access to the Web. New chapters in this part
provide coverage of consortia and cooperation, models of reference services, and marketing and promotion of
reference services. Two chapters provide more thorough coverage of services for specific populations, by
dealing separately with children and young adults and with a wider range of diverse populations. In Part II,
“Information Sources and Their Use,” discussion of each source type has been updated to encompass a much
more extensive list of Web resources, both freely available and licensed. New chapters in this part cover
licensing electronic sources, search strategies for electronic sources, sources for data and statistics, readers’
advisory services and sources, business sources, health and medicine sources, primary and archival sources,
and legal sources. A final chapter makes up Part III, exploring how professionals can create the future of
reference service.
A number of new authors are contributors to the fifth edition, bringing to their chapters their experience as
teachers of reference or as practitioners in various types of libraries. Throughout the text, boxes are used to
generate thought and discussion. Despite these updates and changes, the fifth edition has the same goal as its
predecessors, to provide students and practitioners with an overview of current reference sources, issues, and
services.

Linda C.
Smith Melissa A. Wong

8
 Acknowledgments
A number of individuals assisted the editors or authors in the creation of the fifth edition of Reference and
Information Services. We would like to express our gratitude for their valuable contributions here.
First, we would like to thank the editorial and production staff of Libraries Unlimited, an imprint of ABC-
CLIO, for their support in publishing this new edition.
The authors of several chapters in the fifth edition built on the work of authors who contributed to the
fourth edition. We would like to acknowledge our debt to David A. Cobb, Prudence W. Dalrymple, Eric Forte,
Jim Hahn, Frances Jacobson Harris, Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, Josephine Z. Kibbee, Kathleen M. Kluegel, Lori S.
Mestre, Carol Bates Penka, Richard E. Rubin, Joseph E. Straw, Jo Bell Whitlatch, and Lynn Wiley for helping
shape earlier editions of this text.
Thanks go to Holly Soboroff for creating the Venn diagram figures in Chapter 15 and to Matthew Beth for
his assistance.
We are deeply indebted to Richard E. Bopp (1944–2011), who first proposed the idea of a collaboratively
authored reference textbook in the late 1980s and served as the lead editor for the first four editions published
in 1991, 1995, 2001, and 2011.
Melissa would like to thank her family, Bob, Erica, and Craig, for their patience and support while she
worked long hours on this project. You make it a wonderful world every day.

9
 Part I
Concepts and Processes

10
 Chapter 1
History and Functions of Reference Services
Dave A. Tyckoson

11
Introduction

We are living in the information age, where information is available everywhere all the time. With devices that
we carry in our purses and pockets, we are able to find, collect, and utilize the information that we need—no
matter when we need it or where we are located. The tools for connecting to a vast array of types and quality
of information are always at hand—meaning that the information we want is also always at hand. We can
collect statistics on climate change, quote Macbeth, watch the rise and fall of the stock market, read news
stories from around the corner and around the world, listen to our favorite music, find out when the bus will
reach our stop, figure out which store has the best price on the product we want to purchase, and watch cat
videos—all at the same time. Every person has the power to retrieve the information that he or she needs—so
why do we still need libraries? And why do we still need reference librarians?
There are obviously many answers to those questions—and this book will provide a variety of opinions,
options, and actions that will keep libraries and reference services growing and thriving. But ease of use does
not always equal ease of understanding. And too much information can cause some of the same problems as
too little information. To fully understand the roles, responsibilities, and continuing need for reference
librarians, we need to look back at the reasons that reference service was established, the things reference
librarians have done traditionally, and how those activities have evolved to the present day. And to start, we
need to understand the role of the library within the broader community that it serves.

12
 The Library and the Community

Libraries do not exist in isolation. Every library serves a specific, defined community. The library is not an
independent institution in and of itself, but exists to serve and support the community for which it was
established. Public libraries serve the residents of a certain geographical area, most often a city or county.
Academic libraries serve the faculty, staff, and students at the college or university. School libraries serve the
teachers and students attending a specific school. Medical libraries serve the doctors, nurses, staff, and patients
of the hospital. Law libraries serve the attorneys and staff of the firm. Corporate libraries serve the
management and employees of a specific company.
In each case, the function of the library is to provide information to its parent community. When members
of the community need information services, the primary objective of the library is to fill that need. Whether
that need relates to research, business, or entertainment, members of the community often turn to the library.
Most libraries, especially public and academic libraries, also allow people from outside the primary community
to use their collections, facilities, and services. However, the primary focus needs to be on the people who
make up the parent community. If a library fails to serve its primary clientele, it will not remain in business. A
library that is perceived as vital to its community will receive the support, staff, and funding to maintain its
role as an information utility for the community. A library that does not fill the needs of its parent community
will slowly wither, will become marginalized, and may even close. To serve the community effectively,
librarians must learn who composes that community, what their information needs are, and how those needs
are changing. Know the community, and one will know what the library should contain, which services to
offer, and what level of support to expect in return.

13
 What Libraries Do

Libraries perform three basic functions in order to fill the information needs of their communities. Each is
extremely detailed and highly complex, yet all of the activities of the library can be reduced to one of these
three functions. The functions of the library have evolved over time as libraries and their parent communities
have coevolved. In many libraries, a new function has taken root, and in some, this new function is flourishing.
To fully understand reference service, one first needs to understand the basic functions of the library.

Collections

Historically, the first function of libraries was to select, collect, and preserve information. From ancient
times, librarians have collected and retained documents of interest to their parent communities. From the
scrolls in the Great Library of Alexandria to the books chained to the desks of the Bodleian Library, to the
scientific journals of the National Library of Medicine, to the children’s books of the local public library, every
library has had and continues to have as its first role the accumulation of information of interest to its
community. This information takes many forms, which today include books, journals, microforms,
photographs, compact disks, videos, DVDs, websites, MP3s, computer files, and any other form of information
storage that has been used in the past. In response to the needs of the community, librarians will also collect
any new information formats that will be developed in the future. The popular image of the library as a
warehouse for materials—whether those materials are row after row of books on shelving, cabinets of
microfilm or audio CDs, or a Web page full of links—comes directly from this collection function. This is the
oldest historical function of libraries: to find, select, acquire, and preserve documents of interest to the
community. It remains a vital role to this day. Part II (Chapters 13–28) of this book discusses collections for
reference service.

Organization

The second function of libraries is to organize the information they collect. The fact that librarians organize
information is intuitively obvious, but it is a much more recent function than collecting. Historically, this was
the second function to arise in libraries, evolving as a corollary to the first function. As libraries grew in size, it
became more and more difficult for users (and librarians) to find the information in which they were
interested. When libraries were very small, the user could simply browse the entire collection to find what was
needed. As the size of libraries grew, other methods of organization were required.
From alphabetical order to RDA and from MARC to metadata, librarians have developed a wide variety of
methods for organizing and finding materials in their collections. Most of these tools were initially developed
by librarians primarily for self-assistance. As libraries grew larger, it became much more difficult for librarians
to know where to find specific documents or pieces of information within the overall collection. As a result,
librarians developed concepts such as subject headings, main entries, authority files, call numbers, metadata
tags, and controlled vocabularies. Although libraries must have always had some kind of organization, the first
true catalogs were developed as inventory control devices in the latter half of the 15th century (Hanson and
Daily 1970). The first published catalog was the book catalog of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, which was
published in 1620. Although no precise date can be given for when librarians began to organize information on
a large scale, they have been doing so for at least 500 years.
Over time, our organizational tools became more and more sophisticated, with author, title, and later even
subject entries included. By the early 19th century, librarians had developed a number of codes that described
how such information would be organized, resulting in the publication of the famous 91 rules of Panizzi in
1841 and Cutter’s Rules for a Dictionary Catalog in 1876. Today we use RDA, MARC records, HTML, XML,
EAD, OpenURL, and metadata coding to describe our collections. Tomorrow, new schema will be developed

14
that will be applied to as-yet-undeveloped forms of information or that will better organize materials in our
collections. However, the central function remains the same: to tell the users what information is included in
the library and to help them retrieve that information.
Librarians have become quite sophisticated in organizing and indexing the materials contained within their
collections. Using the technology of the times, from scrolls to books to cards to databases, librarians have been
and continue to be leaders in the theory and practice of indexing and cataloging information. Google may tell
library users what exists out on the Web, but librarian-developed tools and guides tell people where the useful
information is located. Although Google will always provide the searcher with lots of websites, it relies on
automatic linking and indexing, whereas library guides include only sources that have been evaluated by the
librarian. For more on the organization function of libraries, see Chapter 13.

Publishing

The third function of libraries is newer and is a direct extension of the organization role—that is, to serve as
a publisher and distributor of information produced by its community. Many communities are digitizing their
unique materials and making them available to the world—and it is often the library that takes the lead in these
projects. In an age when information is everywhere, it is hard to find information that has the highest value.
For many communities, that hard-to-find information is contained in the special collections area of the local
library. In many communities, it is only the library that has made the effort to retain and preserve these
materials. With new digitization technology, the library now has the ability to share those local resources with
the rest of the world—and many libraries are doing exactly that.

Service

However, it is the fourth function of libraries that is most relevant for this book— and that is to provide
direct assistance to users in their search for and retrieval of information, which is what librarians now call
reference service. This aspect of librarianship began in the mid- to late 1800s. Although everyone today has
grown up with reference service and tends to take this service for granted, it was truly a revolutionary concept
when first introduced. To understand how revolutionary the idea of reference service really was, a look back in
time at what society was like in that era is required.

15
 Historical Development of Reference Services

Universal Education and Public Libraries

The fact that reference service was developed at all is linked to two different, yet related 19th-century ideals:
universal education and public libraries. These two movements transformed the fabric of American society and
had a lasting impact that remains today. Universal education was the concept that all children in the United
States, no matter what class, race, or religion, would be able to receive free public education. Reasons for
establishing universal education for all school-age children varied widely and were often at cross-purposes to
each other (Gutek 1970, 51–52). Business leaders saw universal education as a way to attain better workers.
Labor leaders saw it as a way for people to move up in society. Religious leaders saw it as a way to enable
more people to read the Bible. Politicians saw it as a way to create a single national identity among a varied
immigrant population. Regardless of the true motivations for establishing universal education, state and local
governments throughout the nation established free public schools, which did in fact result in a more highly
educated society. As a direct result of universal education, the literacy rate in the United States rose
significantly.
Precise data on literacy prior to 1870 are difficult to obtain, and rates varied widely from region to region
(Soltow and Stevens 1981). Estimates of literacy rates in the 1850s range from 90 percent in Massachusetts to 60
percent in the Southern states. However, these figures count only white males. Female literacy rates tended to
be lower than that for males, ranging from 2–4 percent less in the Northeast to 10–15 percent less in the South.
Literacy among the free black population was estimated at 50 percent, and the literacy rate of slaves was 5–10
percent. The literacy rate for Native Americans would have been even lower. By 1870, the literacy rate had
risen to 88.5 percent in the white population and 20.5 percent in the nonwhite population (U.S. Bureau of the
Census 1975, 1: 382). As more and more people learned to read, they became more and more interested in doing
so.
At the same time as universal education was becoming the norm, the concept of the free public library was
being established. To convince the city fathers that such an institution would be a necessary and valuable
component of the community, the trustees of the Boston Public Library made these arguments: “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” (Trustees [1852] 1975, 9). The fact that the public library was viewed as a component of
universal education is emphasized again later in that same report (emphases in the original document):
And yet there can be no doubt that such reading ought to be furnished to all, as a matter of public policy and duty, on the same principle that we
furnish free education, and in fact, as a part, and the most important part, of the education of all. For it has been rightly judged that,—under
political, social and religious institutions like ours,—it is of paramount importance that the means of general information should be so diffused
that the largest possible number of persons should be induced to read and understand questions going down to the very foundations of social
order, which are constantly presenting themselves, and which we, as a people, are constantly required to decide, and do decide, either ignorantly
or wisely. That this can be done,—that is, that such libraries can be collected, and that they will be used to a much wider extent than libraries
have ever been used before, and with much more important results, there can be no doubt; and if it can be done anywhere, it can be done here in
Boston; for no population of one hundred and fifty thousand souls, lying so compactly together as to be able, with tolerable convenience, to resort
to one library, was ever before so well fitted to become a reading, self-cultivating population, as the population of our own city is at this moment.
To accomplish this object, however,—which has never yet been attempted,—we must use means which have never before been used; otherwise
the library we propose to establish, will not be adjusted to its especial purposes. Above all, while the rightful claim of no class,—however highly
educated already,—should be overlooked, the first regard should be shown, as in the case of our Free Schools, to the wants of those, who can, in
no other way supply themselves with the interesting and healthy reading necessary for their farther education. (Trustees [1852] 1975, 15–16)

The Boston Public Library did, in fact, become a reality and opened its doors to the public—all of the public
—on March 20, 1854. It was an instant success. In less than six months of operation, more than 35,000 volumes
were borrowed (Stone 1977, 158). When given an opportunity to read, the public responded at an
overwhelming rate, borrowing an average of one book for every two people living in the city, and this at a
time when the concept of borrowing books was new to the majority of the population and not yet a common
practice. The concept of the free public library was rapidly adopted by other municipalities, with 188 such

16
libraries having been established in 11 different states by 1876 (Poole 1876).
Reference service came about as a direct result of these two innovations. Universal education taught the
public to read, and public libraries offered material to read. As Melvil Dewey put it,
The school teaches them to read; the library must supply them with reading which will serve to educate, and so it is that we are forced to divide
popular education into two parts of almost equal importance and deserving equal attention: the free school and the free library. (1876, 6)

The newly literate members of society knew how to read and sought out materials that would allow them to
practice that newly learned skill. Unlike today’s society, where information is ubiquitous, information was
somewhat scarce in that time period. Few families owned reading materials, and books were relatively
expensive, so people turned to the newly formed public libraries. However, they had no idea how to use a
library. Naturally, they asked the librarians for advice. By 1876, the idea of reference service had been born.

Samuel Green and the Founding of Reference Service

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 fact that reference service originated in public libraries is proof positive of the democratic ideals on
which those institutions were founded. Instead of being developed within the walls of academe, where students
were theoretically seeking to build upon the knowledge of the past, it was in the people’s university, the free
public library, that the concept took hold. Samuel Rothstein, who studied the development of reference services
in academic libraries, accounts for the lack of interest among academics as follows: “Actually, the student of
that era was little inclined to make much use of the college librarian in any case. The idea of research had as
yet scarcely reached American universities, and the teaching methods in undergraduate courses still
emphasized the traditional reliance upon the textbook. The student had little occasion to borrow books from
the library, and his demands for personal assistance must have been even more rare” (Rothstein 1953, 4).
However, some positive reaction to the concept of personal assistance was found in academic institutions. In
the discussion that followed Green’s presentation, Otis Robinson of the University of Rochester heartily
endorsed the concept (1876, 123–24). At the London Conference the following year, Reuben Guild of

Box 1.1 Why Do We Call It "Reference Service"?

When the idea of helping library users was first proposed, the terms “reference service” and “reference
librarian” had yet to be coined. However, the term “reference book” was already widely in use. Reference
books earned that name because they were the books, such as catalogs, indexes, and bibliographies, that
one consulted to find references to other sources. By the 1870s, any library book that did not circulate
was being called a reference book.
In the first paper discussing reference service, Samuel Green called it “personal intercourse between
librarians and readers.” Fortunately, that phrase was quickly shortened to “aid to readers.” Later, the
term “assistance to readers” came into more widespread use as the service end of reference began to be
more widely recognized. Because the librarians who helped readers tended to use the books that were
located in the reference collection, they gradually became known as reference librarians. In 1885, Melvil
Dewey became the first to hire staff with the title of “reference librarian” when he organized the first
multiple-librarian (i.e., two-person) reference department at Columbia College. “Reference work” was
what “reference librarians” did. That name caught on, and the rest, as they say, is history.

(Rothstein 1972, 25–27)

17
Brown University described the availability of librarians to the public (faculty and students) at his university
(1878, 278). Within a decade of Green’s paper, Melvil Dewey had embraced the idea of reference service in the
Columbia College (now Columbia University) Library. Dewey was the first to establish a team of librarians to
provide personal assistance to users and was the first to use the phrase “refer-ence department” when referring
to that team. Rothstein indicates, “Under Dewey’s dynamic and positive leadership, the Columbia College
Library had already recognized that such assistance was more than just another aid or subsidiary activity, that
the personal help given to individual readers was a necessary and integral part of the library’s educational
function” (1972, 27–28). As the teaching methods used in colleges and universities evolved into a more
research-based model, the use of the library by students increased to the point where reference service became
established in academic libraries. 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.

Original Functions of the Reference Librarian

So what exactly does a reference librarian do? Green’s (1876) original paper on the topic consists primarily
of examples of the types of questions asked by the variety of users of his public library. However, embedded
within those examples are four distinct functions of the reference librarian. They include:

1. Teach people how to use the library and its resources. Although some scholars may have known their
way around catalogs, indexes, and the stacks, most of the newly literate members of the society were
unfamiliar with what libraries contained and how to find it. The first function of the librarian
providing personal assistance to readers was to teach them how to find things in the library. Green
states, “Give them as much assistance as they need, but try at the same time to teach them to rely
upon themselves and become independent” (80).
2. Answer readers’ questions. Green’s paper provides a myriad of examples of the types of questions
asked by users of the public library, ranging from simple factual queries to in-depth research projects.
The librarian was expected to be able to answer—or more accurately, to provide sources that would
answer—all of these types of questions. As Green states so succinctly, “persons who use a popular
library for purposes of investigation generally need a great deal of assistance” (74). He then presents
three pages of examples of the type of assistance that readers in his library have needed.
3. Aid the reader in the selection of good works. People wanted to read but did not know what was
worth reading. One of the major roles of the librarian was to serve as a readers’ advisor,
recommending material that fit each reader’s interests and ability. Green, in discussing his reference
librarian, comments, “I am confident that in some such way as this a great influence can be exerted
in the direction of causing good books to be used. . . . Only let her aim at providing every person who
applies for aid with the best book he is willing to read” (79).
4. Promote the library within the community. Underlying all of Green’s examples is the concept that by
being personally available to members of the community, the librarian would generate support from
the community, which of course would lead to more use of the library and greater financial support.
Green closes his paper by stating, “The more freely a librarian mingles with readers, and the greater
the amount of assistance he renders them, the more intense does the conviction of citizens, also,
become, that the library is a useful institution, and the more willing do they grow to grant money in
larger and larger sums to be used in buying books and employing additional assistants” (81). In other
words, if you help them, they will come—and provide funding!

Changes since 1876

Technology

18
 Of course, society has changed significantly since 1876. The area that is most obviously different is the
technology used in libraries. While librarians in Green’s time had essentially two formats, books and
periodicals, librarians today use a wide range of resources. The reference librarian today almost always
consults a computer rather than a book when responding to a question. A wide range of types of machines are
found throughout the library. Technology has transformed the way that libraries operate and the way that
readers use the library. Over the decades, the library has gone from a place that relied on paper and pencil to
one that uses silicon chips and electrons. Figure 1.1 illustrates the parade of technology through libraries by
decade.
Although this is a vast array of technologies, each of which has had a profound impact on libraries, all of
these technologies can be broken down into three distinct categories: technology that stores information,
technology that reproduces information, and technology that communicates information. The technologies in
Figure 1.1 can be divided into these three categories as illustrated in Figure 1.2.

FIGURE 1.1 Technology arranged chronologically

19
FIGURE 1.2 Technology arranged by function

Some of these technologies are used to perform more than one of the three listed functions (e.g., the
computer), but each technology enhances the ability of the library to function in one or more ways. While each
of these technologies is a tool that enhances library service, it does not fundamentally change the nature of that
service. The next several years will undoubtedly bring about even more technological developments, and
libraries will adopt those technologies that help them improve service to their communities. The chapters in
Part I (Chapters 2–12) of this book address many aspects of reference and include a discussion of how
technology continues to influence reference services.

Diversity

The other major change in libraries over the past 130 years has been in the nature of the populations that
libraries serve. Since the 19th century, the population of the United States has become much more diverse.
While the users of libraries in Green’s time were primarily English speakers of European descent, users of
libraries in the United States today come from all over the world and speak hundreds of languages. As our
communities have changed to incorporate immigrants from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, our libraries also
have changed to include more materials about other cultures in more and more languages.
Diversity is not only ethnic in nature. In the 1870s, libraries existed to serve adults. During the ensuing
years, libraries have established a number of specialized services and departments for various segments of the
population, including children, teens, senior citizens, veterans, persons with disabilities, students, teachers, the
business community, unemployed persons, and virtually any other discrete population not served by basic
library programs. Diversity has had an impact on reference service by creating the need to respond to these
demographic changes. For more on diversity and reference service, see Chapters 11 and 12.

20
21
 Functions of the Reference Librarian Today

So what do reference librarians do today? With all of these changes in technology and the growing diversity
of our users, what is reference like now? Surprisingly (or perhaps not), the actual functions of the reference
librarian have changed very little over the years. A century after Green first discussed reference service,
Thomas Galvin (1978, 25: 220–21) listed the functions of the modern reference librarian as follows:

Assistance and instruction (formal or informal) in the use of the library

Assistance in the identification and selection of books, journals, and other materials relevant to a
particular information need
Provision of brief, factual information of the “ready reference” variety

In the 1980s, a series of essays was commissioned in honor of Margaret Monroe, the esteemed library science
educator at the University of Wisconsin. The main body of the work consists of four survey articles that
present the state of reference and public service at that time. These chapters are titled simply “Information,”
“Instruction,” “Guidance,” and “Stimulation” (the latter referring to promotion of the use of the library’s
human and material resources) (Schlachter 1982).
More recently, in her dictionary of librarianship, Joan Reitz (2004, 602) has defined reference services as:
including but not limited to answering substantive questions, instructing users in the selection of appropriate tools and techniques for finding
information, conducting searches on behalf of the patron, directing users to the location of library resources, assisting in the evaluation of
information, referring patrons to resources outside the library when appropriate, keeping reference statistics, and participating in the
development of the reference collection.

The role of the reference librarian today is also reflected in the definitions of a reference transaction and
reference work, adopted by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) (2008a) of the American
Library Association:
Reference Transactions are information consultations in which library staff recommend, interpret, evaluate, and/or use information resources to
help others to meet particular information needs. Reference transactions do not include formal instruction or exchanges that provide assistance
with locations, schedules, equipment, supplies, or policy statements.

Reference work includes reference transactions and other activities that involve the creation, management, and assessment of information or
research resources, tools, and services.

Although these definitions do not mention the public relations role of the librarian, the functions described
today are otherwise essentially the same as those mentioned by Green. While technology and information
sources today are entirely different than they were in Green’s era, the process and function are essentially the
same.

22
 Reference Work: Varieties and Approaches

Styles of Reference Service

Although what librarians do has remained fairly constant over the years, the relative importance of those
functions has varied tremendously. Ever since librarians began providing direct assistance to users, the
librarian has had to determine whether it is appropriate to conduct research for the patron or to instruct the
patron in how to do that research. This debate has raged for at least a century and is one that is still
appropriate today. In one of the early textbooks on reference service, James Wyer (1930, 6–7) described three
different philosophies of reference service, which he labeled “conservative,” “moderate,” and “liberal.” In his
landmark history of reference service, Samuel Rothstein (1961) calls these same philosophies “minimum,”
“middling,” and “maximum.” No matter what one calls them, these philosophies define the range of possible
reference services. Simply stated, these alternatives are as follows:

1. Conservative or minimum. The primary role of the librarian is to teach patrons how to use the
library. The librarian helps users find sources but does not read or interpret those sources for the
user. The library is seen as an extension of instruction. Not surprisingly, this approach is most
common in academic libraries.
2. Moderate or middling. The librarian not only teaches the user how to use sources but also provides
answers to many questions. The librarians do not do homework assignments for students but will
search exhaustively to find answers for research and factual questions. This model is most common
in public libraries.
3. Liberal or maximum. The librarian takes the user’s question, conducts the research, finds appropriate
material, and presents it to the user. In some cases, the librarian even writes a summary or analysis of
the information found. This type of reference service is most often found in special libraries,
including medical libraries, law libraries, and corporate libraries.

The conservative/minimum philosophy emphasizes instruction over answers, the liberal/maximum

philosophy emphasizes answers over instruction, and the moderate/middling philosophy comprises equal parts
of each. All reference services fall somewhere within this overall spectrum; exactly where depends on the
needs and expectations of the parent community.

Types of Reference Service

Within these philosophies and functions of the reference librarian, several particular types of reference
service have been developed. Some common forms of reference service include readers’ advisory, ready
reference, research consulting, subject specialists, bibliographic verification and citation, interlibrary loan and
document delivery, instruction, literacy programs, and outreach and marketing.

Readers' Advisory

Readers’ advisory is the process of recommending titles, particularly fiction, for leisure reading to library
users. In her dictionary, Joan Reitz (2004, 592) defines this service as: “a readers’ advisor recommends specific
titles and/or authors, based on knowledge of the patron’s past reading preferences, and may also compile lists
of recommended titles.”
Commercial information suppliers have also jumped on the popularity of readers’ advisory services by
creating their own recommendation services. Shopping sites use aggregated data to recommend additional
titles to consumers, music streaming sites recommend similar artists or styles to listeners, and video sites

23
recommend similar themes to viewers. Recommendation has become a ubiquitous component of the always-
online information age and is an example of how work originally done primarily by reference librarians has
evolved into a standard service in a wide range of environments. For more on readers’ advisory, see Chapter
24.

Ready Reference

Ready reference is the provision of short factual answers to highly specific questions. Answers to these
questions are verifiable as accurate or inaccurate. The following are examples of ready-reference questions:
“What is the population of Chicago?” “How many apples were grown in Washington State in 2014?” “Who
played the role of Stella in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire?” “What is the address of the
headquarters of Microsoft?” “In what year did Yugoslavia cease to be a single nation?”
Answering ready-reference questions is the most common image of the reference librarian. This image has
been popularized by media, as in the portrayals by Katharine Hepburn and her staff in the film Desk Set (Lang
1957). However, ready reference has never been the primary function of reference service and is rapidly
becoming an even smaller component of the reference librarian’s duties. In the past, reference librarians did
more ready reference simply because the sources required to answer such questions were in library collections
and not in the hands of the users. With the development of the Web and search tools such as Wikipedia and
Google, users have the tools to find this type of information on their own. As a result, there is less need to
consult a librarian for ready reference. This is another example of how today’s information age has changed
reference services.

Research Consulting

A more common form of reference service is assisting users with research questions. These questions do not
have single, factual answers but have many possible results that vary depending on the researcher’s interests
and needs. In this case, the librarian may suggest sources, search terms, and pathways that will lead to material
relevant to the research project. The following are some examples of research questions: “Why did the various
ethnic groups in Chicago settle in the neighborhoods that they now occupy?” “What is the effect of pesticides
on apple production?” “What is Stella’s psychological background in A Streetcar Named Desire?” “How did
Microsoft grow into a company that dominates the information industry?” “What political, economic, and
social issues led to the breakup of Yugoslavia?”
Each of these examples corresponds to one of the ready-reference examples in the previous section, but in
each case, the question touches on issues that are much more complex. With research questions, there is not
one single answer that can be verified as categorically correct or incorrect. Instead, a wide range of possible
approaches, search strategies, and potential sources are available, each leading in a different direction. The role
of the librarian as a research consultant is to find out what aspects of the problem the user is interested in and
to suggest possible search strategies that will lead the user toward the best solution. As a research consultant,
the librarian may get the user started in the research, but the user will do most of the actual searching,
potentially returning to the librarian for additional assistance several times during the process. Research
consulting is more common in academic and research libraries than in other types, but it is becoming the
dominant form of reference service in all libraries.

Subject Specialists

Many large libraries hire librarians to be specialists in a specific subject field or discipline. These librarians
immerse themselves in the subject area, usually selecting materials for the collection as well as assisting users
with specialized research. Although subject specialists can be assigned to cover any discipline, they are most
common in areas that society sees as requiring more specialized knowledge to succeed, such as law, medicine,
the sciences, and business. Subject specialists often have advanced degrees within their field of specialization.

24
They work closely with the researchers who comprise their community and often handle very complex
questions. Subject specialists are most often found in academic libraries, large public libraries, and special
libraries.

Bibliographic Verification and Citation

Bibliographic verification is the process of reading, identifying, and interpreting citations to information
sources. Those sources include books, journals, theses, Web pages, manuscripts, or any other form of
publication. In the process of verification, the librarian usually finds other reference sources that cite the same
publication, corrects errors, and determines where to find the desired information. As information becomes
more and more complex, verification is a growing activity for reference librarians. A newer function related to
bibliographic verification is helping users to correctly cite the information sources that they have used.
Students, researchers, and the general public all need to be able to provide accurate citations to their sources so
that others will be able to find those same sources. With the wide range of available citation styles, such as
APA (from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association ), MLA (from the MLA
Handbook for Writers of Research Papers ), and Chicago (from The Chicago Manual of Style ), and an ever-
growing number of information formats, users find it increasingly difficult to accurately cite the information
sources that they use. Add to that the ubiquity of information on the Web, and users are very confused about
citations. Aiding users with citations is probably the single most rapidly growing function of the reference
librarian. This is extremely common in academic and school libraries, where students are learning how to cite
material, but citations are also frequent inquiries in public and special libraries. Reference librarians are often
the people behind the scenes who are most responsible for maintaining good standards in citations and
references.

Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery

Interlibrary loan is the process of sharing materials among and between libraries. One library may loan a
physical item to another library for a specific period of time or may copy the original and deliver it to the
requesting library. Interlibrary loan is a common service in most libraries of all types because it extends the
range of material available to users beyond the home library’s collection. Most libraries belong to consortia
that determine which materials may be borrowed or photocopied using established codes (Reference and User
Services Association 2008b). When cooperative union catalogs such as OCLC were adapted for interlibrary
loan, the process was made significantly easier, and the volume of traffic among lending libraries rose
tremendously.
Interlibrary loan librarians spend a lot of time doing bibliographic verification. Their primary responsibility
is to search for material requested by users, verify that the information is accurate, determine that the home
library does not own it, and identify potential lending partners who can provide the material. Software such as
OCLC’s ILLiad makes the processing of requests much easier for the librarian, allowing the same staff to
handle an increasing volume of requests.

Instruction

Green’s first function of the reference librarian was to instruct readers about the library, and that
instructional role continues well into the 21st century. Instruction tends to take two forms: direct and indirect.
Direct instruction is characterized by the librarian communicating directly to the user and may be delivered
through any of a number of channels. It may come in a one-on-one situation in which the librarian teaches the
user as they work together on a query; it may be done in a voluntary group environment, through workshops
or classes that teach general or specific skills to those who choose to attend; or it may be a required part of a
specific course or assignment in which the instructor wants all students to use library resources. Required
instruction is more common in academic libraries, whereas voluntary and one-on-one instruction are features

25
of reference service in all libraries.
In indirect instruction, the librarian does not communicate directly with the user, but communicates through
instructional tools. In order to assist users with common problems, librarians create guides or tutorials that
describe how to approach typical research problems. These guides range from printed handouts to videos to
interactive modules. Some cover specific issues, such as how to use the catalog, a specific database, or a specific
reference source, while others may be directed at specific disciplines or topics, such as biology, music, or
education. Guides may be in print or electronic form and are updated as needed. Indirect instruction is
provided in anticipation of user needs. For more about instruction, see Chapter 4.

Literacy Programs

In addition to providing resources for the literate segment of society, libraries have continued to play a role
in education itself. Many librarians conduct literacy programs that are designed to teach reading and writing
skills to those members of the community who have not acquired such skills through other channels.
Frequently, these programs are aimed at adults who have not completed their schooling, for whom English is a
second language, or who are new immigrants to the community. Literacy programs are most common in
public libraries. These programs continue the historic role of the public library in educating members of the
communities that they serve.

Outreach and Marketing

Public relations is as important in today’s libraries as it was back in Samuel Green’s time. Green realized the
value of having the public interact directly with librarians, and this type of personal interaction has been a
symbol of reference service ever since. However, librarians today have gone beyond a passive approach of
waiting for users to come to the library and now work to generate interest in their communities. Academic and
public libraries frequently have staff whose primary responsibility is to work with specific segments of the
community to increase library awareness and use within those populations. In the academic environment, the
library may target outreach efforts at specific disciplines or departments, or toward specific types of users, such
as faculty or graduate students. In public libraries, outreach is often directed at segments of the community,
such as teens, senior citizens, particular ethnic or cultural groups, or members of clubs or interest groups.
Outreach activities continue to grow in libraries and are often a part of the reference librarian’s duties. Some
reference librarians spend more time on outreach and marketing than they do in ready reference and research
consulting. This is a growing responsibility in all types of libraries. See Chapter 10 for more on outreach and
marketing.

Models of Reference Service

Samuel Green saw great value in having the librarian interact directly with the users of the library. The
method by which that interaction happens may take many different forms, including service at a reference
desk, roving reference, tiered reference, reference by appointment, and service to remote users. Chapter 6
discusses models of reference service in more detail, so the following provides a brief overview.

Reference Desk

In this traditional model of reference service, the librarian staffs a desk or counter at a fixed location within
the library. The location is usually in a prominent position within the building so that users can easily find it.
The materials consulted by the reference librarians—books, indexes, computers, and so on—are usually found
adjacent to the librarian for easy access. Users approach the desk when they have a question. The librarian may
work with the user at the desk or take the user to the appropriate sources or facilities elsewhere in the building.
One distinguishing characteristic of the reference desk model is that the user initiates the transaction, not the

26
librarian.

Roving Reference

In order to provide more proactive reference service, some reference librarians wander through the library
looking for users who may have questions. This has the advantage of offering assistance to users where they
are already working on their questions, of allowing more hesitant users to be helped, and of eliminating any
physical barriers that the desk itself poses to users. The roving method is distinguished by the fact that the
librarian is the one who initiates the reference transaction by approaching the potential user. The main
problems with roving are that users sometimes are unsure of whether the person who approaches them really
is a librarian and that users who do have a question do not know where to go if they want to find the librarian.
Roving is used in many libraries, often as an adjunct to the traditional reference desk.

Tiered Reference Service

Tiered service is a model in which staff members with varying levels of skills answer different levels of
queries. The theory behind tiered reference is that staff will answer questions that best fit their training.
Paraprofessionals or student assistants staff an information desk and answer directional questions and basic
questions regarding library holdings, as well as ready-reference questions, freeing up reference librarians to
answer all of the research-level questions. When a user comes to the desk with a complex question, that user is
referred to the reference librarian on duty, who is often in a private office or another area of the building, away
from the busy atmosphere of the information desk. A benefit of tiered reference is that high-level staff is not
wasted on routine directional questions. The problem with this method is that many users simply accept the
information provided at the first level of service and do not follow through with the referral. This method of
reference service is also known as the Brandeis method because it was first popularized at Brandeis University
(Massey-Burzio 1992). Although tiered reference is not a widespread service model, it is used in many
academic libraries.

Reference by Appointment

A more extreme version of tiered reference is reference service by appointment. In this method, users who
wish to consult a reference librarian make an appointment to meet with the librarian. The benefit of this
method is that the individual has the full attention of the librarian for an extended period of time. The
disadvantage of appointment-based service is that many users do not want to wait for an appointment and
simply accept whatever information they can find on their own. Appointment-based reference service is most
often used with subject specialists in research and special libraries.

Service to Remote Users

All of the service models mentioned earlier require that the user be physically in the library building in
order to receive assistance. In Green’s day, that was always the case. Unless a user wrote a letter to the
librarian, the only way to make any use of the library was to go in person to the physical library building. In
today’s environment, advances in telecommunications have made it very easy for people to use just about any
library from almost any physical location. Using technologies such as the telephone, e-mail, chat, instant
messaging, and social networking tools, individuals can communicate instantly with librarians at a distance.
As a result, many libraries have developed special reference services based on those technologies.
Reference service has been available by telephone for many years. This is such a popular service in urban
public libraries that such libraries often have separate telephone reference departments handling hundreds or
thousands of calls each day. More recently, most libraries have established e-mail accounts or Web forms that
allow users to submit questions. Some have initiated virtual reference services using chat, instant messaging, or

27
other software that allows the librarian to communicate over the Web with users. Because of the technical
requirements of some of these virtual reference services, they are often established in cooperative ventures
with other libraries or with commercial companies. These services succeed when the community members
served by the library are frequent users of those communication technologies. Virtual reference is now offered
by many libraries of all types and has grown to become a standard service in many libraries.

28
 The Personal Nature of Reference Service

Whether they are physically present or not, people who ask reference librarians for assistance are often at a
psychological disadvantage. In today’s information environment where information is available everywhere all
the time, people feel that if they cannot find what they want, then they have failed. In the user’s mind, there is
a feeling that they are inadequate because they could not retrieve what they wanted. Having to approach
another person for help implies that they have to admit that they are a failure, which some users are not
willing to do. Of course, the librarian does not see the user as a failure—but the user does not know that.
Because users are not certain how to proceed, they rarely state exactly what they want.
It is very important that people feel comfortable in asking for the reference librarian’s help and that each
user is treated with dignity and respect. Most of the time, reference librarians are not helping users find
specific factual information but are helping the user to identify sources and suggesting search strategies. In this
regard, reference service is more like counseling the user than providing answers. Reference service is about
developing a relationship between the user and the librarian, not about a specific answer to a question. In order
to help librarians work with users, RUSA (2013) has developed a set of guidelines to assist librarians with the
behavioral nature of the reference process. This is where the reference interview comes into play.
The reference interview is a set of questioning skills that enables the librarian to work with the user to figure
out what the query really is. A good interview is a conversation between the librarian and the user that
identifies and clarifies what the user is looking for. In many cases, the user has not thought deeply about the
topic, and the librarian helps the user determine the parameters of the information need. By using good
interview skills, the librarian can help the user define the information need and come up with some search
possibilities to satisfy that need. For more information on the reference interview, see Chapter 3.
Even the most skilled reference librarians have limits to what they can offer. In some subject areas,
especially law and medicine, the librarian needs to be very careful about giving advice to users. Even in his
original paper, Green (1876, 78) recognized that librarians cannot provide answers to all questions: “There are
obvious limits to the assistance which a librarian can undertake to render. Commonsense will dictate them.
Thus no librarian would take the responsibility of recommending books to give directions for the treatment of
diseases. Nor would he give legal advice nor undertake to instruct applicants in regard to the practical
manipulations of the workshop or laboratory.” In light of recent events and the current political climate,
formerly theoretical ethical issues for reference librarians have become practical realities. Ethical questions
such as the provision of information that has the potential to harm society (e.g., how to build a bomb) are now
concrete issues that reference librarians encounter in their daily lives. For more on the ethics of reference
service, see Chapter 2.

29
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 “But I thought you said only one queen bee could live in a swarm,”
said Violet. “And if the queen bee lays eggs and other queens hatch
out I should think——”
Mr. Bunker pointed to Farmer Joel, who was still chasing after his
runaway swarm.
“That’s what happens when two queens get in a hive,” said Daddy
Bunker. “One queen leaves, taking with her perhaps half the worker
bees and some drones. They fly away to start a new hive, swarm, or
colony, as it is sometimes called.
“But not always do bees swarm because there are two queens in a
hive. Often the queen may take a notion that she would like a new
home, so out she flies and with her go her faithful subjects, just as in
real life the subjects of a human king or queen follow them.”
“Where do you think these bees will go?” asked Rose.
“It is hard to say,” answered their father. “It looks now as though
they would go to the woods,” for they could see the dark cloud of
insects near the edge of the forest. “They may pick out some hollow
tree and set up housekeeping there, making a wax framework to
hold the honey juices they will later gather from the flowers.”
“Then couldn’t Farmer Joel go to that hollow tree and get the
honey if he wanted to?” asked Laddie.
“Yes, that is sometimes done,” his father replied. “And he might
even get his swarm of bees back, if he could find the right hollow
tree. But that isn’t easy. In the olden days, before men knew how to
build little houses, or hives, for the bees to live in, all the honey was
stored in hollow trees. But men studied the ways of bees, they
learned the manner in which queens ruled and how swarming came
about, and they built hives in which it is easier for the bees to store
their honey, and from which it is also easier to take it.”
“What about that smoke?” asked Rose. “I didn’t know bees liked
smoke.”
She was speaking of the queer machine that Farmer Joel carried.
They could see smoke coming from it now in a cloud.
 Later, when they had time to look at the smoke machine, the six
little Bunkers saw that it was like a funnel with a bellows, or blower,
beneath it. A fire of rags or rotten wood could be built in the larger
part of the tin funnel, and when the bellows was pressed this blew
out a cloud of smoke.
“Bees don’t like smoke,” said Daddy Bunker. “But when a cloud of
it is blown on them it makes them rather stupid—it calms and quiets
them so they are less likely to sting whoever is working around them.
And a little smoke does them no harm; though, of course, if they had
too much of it they would die.
“So when a man works in his apiary he puts a mosquito veil over
his head and takes his smoker. A few puffs from that down in a hive
of bees will so quiet the insects that he can, with his bare hands, pick
them up and they will not sting him. In this way he can also pick out
the queen from among her thousands of workers and put her in
another hive. If he can do this in time he will stop the swarm from
dividing, part of it flying away, as just happened.”
“Bees are queer,” said Russ.
“Indeed, they are! But I like to hear about them,” said Rose.
By this time Farmer Joel was out of sight in the woods, where his
runaway swarm had gone, and as the children had not been allowed
to follow they played about, waiting for Mr. Todd to return.
“Will he bring the bees back with him?” asked Russ.
“Oh, no, though he could if he had taken a box with him,” said Mr.
Bunker. “All he will do, very likely, is to notice where they light on a
tree, perhaps. Then he may go back this evening and shake them
into a hive.”
It was late that afternoon when Farmer Joel came back, very tired
and looking rather discouraged.
“Did you find the bees?” asked Russ.
“No,” answered Mr. Todd. “They got away, and they took with them
a queen worth fifty dollars. I wish I could have seen where they went,
for then I might get them. But they are lost, I guess.”
 “Don’t you think you’ll ever find them again?” Rose wanted to
know.
“I’m afraid not,” answered Farmer Joel. “I’ve lost one of my best
swarms and a fine queen bee. Yes, I’d give even more than fifty
dollars for her if I could get her back. Well, it can’t be helped, I
suppose.”
The six little Bunkers felt sorry for Farmer Joel, and they wished
they might help him, but they did not see how they could go after a
queen and a swarm of stinging bees.
“Come to supper!” called Mrs. Bunker, a little later, when Russ and
Laddie were working over their water wheel and mill, and when Rose
was swinging Margy and Violet under the apple tree.
“Where’s Mun Bun?” asked his mother, as the other little Bunkers
came hurrying to the house at her call.
“I saw him a little while ago,” answered Violet. “He had a shovel
and he was going toward the garden.”
“I guess he was going to dig worms so he could go fishing,”
suggested Laddie. “He asked me if there were fish in the brook.”
“See if you can find him, Russ,” begged his mother.
Russ went toward the garden where he soon saw Mun Bun busy
making a hole, tossing the dirt about with a small shovel.
“Hi there, Mun Bun!” called Russ. “You shouldn’t dig in the garden.
You might spoil something that’s planted there.”
“Nuffin planted here,” said Mun Bun, as he kept on digging. “I did
ast Adam, an’ he said taters was here but he digged ’em all up.
Nuffin planted here, so I plant somethin’.”
“What are you going to plant?” asked Russ, with a smile, while
Rose and the other children drew near.
“I goin’ to plant bones,” answered Mun Bun, hardly looking up, so
busy was he with the shovel.
“Bones!” cried Russ. “You’re going to plant bones?”
 “Yes,” answered Mun Bun solemnly, “I plant bones. Look out—
you’re steppin’ on my bones!” he cried, and he pointed to the ground
where lay a pile of chicken bones that Norah had thrown out from
dinner.
“Well, what kind of a garden are you making, anyhow?” asked
Russ. “Planting bones!”
“Yes, I plant bones!” declared Mun Bun, the youngest of the
Bunkers, while the other children looked on in wonder.
 CHAPTER XII
A STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE

Mrs. Bunker, seeing the group of children gathered about Mun

Bun, hurried across the garden to see what it was all about.
“I hope nothing has happened to him,” she said.
“Probably the worst that has happened is that he’s dirty and you’ll
have to scrub him before he can come to the supper table,” chuckled
Daddy Bunker.
“That wouldn’t be so bad,” replied his wife. “I’m used to dirt, and I
expect the children to get grimy. That will wash off.”
“I’ll walk over with you and see what it’s about. Something is going
on, that’s sure!” said Mr. Bunker.
Mr. and Mrs. Bunker found five little Bunkers grouped about the
sixth, and youngest, little Bunker.
“Oh, Mother, look what Mun Bun’s doing!” cried Violet.
“What is he doing?”
“He’s making the funniest kind of a bed in the garden!” laughed
Rose.
“A bed!” cried Mr. Bunker. “I hope he isn’t going to sleep out here!”
“No, it’s a bed like a flower bed or a cabbage bed,” explained
Russ. “Only he’s planting——”
“Bones!” burst out Laddie. “Oh, I could make a funny riddle about it
if I could think of it.”
“Mun Bun, what in the world are you doing with those bones?”
asked his mother.
“Plantin’ ’em,” answered the little fellow coolly, as he dropped
some of the chicken bones into the hole he had dug and covered
them with earth.
“Why in the world are you planting bones?” asked his father.
“So more bones will grow,” answered Mun Bun, in a matter-of-fact
way. “Farmer man plants seeds to make things grow, an’ I plant
bones so more bones will grow.”
“Who for?” asked Russ.
“For Jimsie, the dog,” answered the little fellow. “Ralph said his
dog never had enough bones, so I’m going to plant bones and then
more bones will grow, an’ Jimsie can come over here an’ pick off the
bones when they’re ripe an’——”
“Oh, you dear, foolish little boy!” cried his mother, gathering him up
in her arms and kissing and hugging him, dirty as he was. “Don’t you
know bones don’t grow?” she asked.
“Oh, don’t they?” asked Mun Bun, in surprise.
“Of course not!” chimed in Russ. “Only seeds grow.”
“Um,” remarked Mun Bun, his face all rosy where his mother had
kissed him. “Den I plant to-morrer some bird seed.”
“Why bird seed?” asked Daddy Bunker.
“So some birds will grow,” Mun Bun answered.
Then how the other Bunkers laughed, especially Daddy and
Mother Bunker and Rose and Russ, for they saw what a mistake
Mun Bun was making! Margy, Laddie and Violet laughed also, but
more because the others did. And then Mun Bun laughed himself.
“I’m hungry!” he announced.
“Maybe if you plant a knife and fork and plate you’ll get something
to eat!” chuckled Russ.
They had many a good laugh over the queer garden bed Mun Bun
made when he thought that if you planted bones a plant would spring
up with more bones on for Jimsie, the dog. Then they all went in to
supper.
 “To-morrer,” said Mun Bun, as he was taken off to bed later in the
evening, “I’ll plant some flowers for Jimsie to smell.”
Early the next day Mrs. Bunker was seen in the kitchen with a
sunbonnet on, while on the table near her were a number of small
baskets.
“Are we going on a picnic?” asked Russ, who came in to get a
string to fix something on the water wheel that he and Laddie were
constantly “fussing over,” as Norah called it.
“A sort of picnic,” answered his mother. “Farmer Joel told me
about a wild strawberry patch beyond his south meadow, and I
thought we could all go there and pick the berries. There is a basket
for each of us except daddy, who isn’t going, and if we get enough
berries——”
“I’ll make a strawberry shortcake!” cried Rose. “Excuse me for
interrupting you, Mother,” she went on, for it was impolite to do that.
“But I just couldn’t wait. May I make a shortcake if we get any
berries?”
“Yes, I think so,” answered Mrs. Bunker. “Come, children,” she
called to the others who flocked into the kitchen, “we’ll have a good
time picking strawberries.”
“We’ll have a better time when we eat the shortcake,” laughed
Russ.
“I know a riddle about a shortcake,” said Laddie, wrinkling up his
forehead. “I mean I just made it up. Here it is. How can you make a
strawberry shortcake last the longest?”
“That isn’t a very good riddle,” objected Rose.
“Well, let’s see you answer it,” challenged her small brother. “How
can you make a strawberry shortcake last longest?”
“Put it away in a safe,” guessed Violet.
“Nope!” answered Laddie, and before any one else could make a
guess he cried: “Don’t eat it. That’s how to make a strawberry
shortcake last longest—don’t eat it!”
 “Well, if I made a cake I wouldn’t want it to last very long,” laughed
Rose. “I should want people to eat it and tell me how good it was.”
“I’ll eat some,” offered Mun Bun.
“So will I!” added Margy.
“That’s very kind of you!” laughed Rose again, and then the six
little Bunkers and their mother started for the strawberry patch. The
berries grew wild on a warm, sunny hillside, and soon little fingers
were busy turning over the green leaves to find the scarlet fruit
beneath.
Into the baskets the berries were dropped one at a time. Wild
strawberries are much smaller than the cultivated variety you buy in
the market, and it takes longer to fill a basket with the wild ones. But
gradually the bottom of the basket Mrs. Bunker carried was covered
with a layer of the delicious fruit. Then she looked into the baskets of
Margy and Mun Bun.
“Is that all you’ve picked?” she asked, in surprise, for Margy had
three berries in her basket and Mun Bun had two in his, and yet they
had been in the berry patch half an hour. “Don’t you know how to find
the berries, my dears?” asked their mother. “See, you must turn over
the leaves——”
“Excuse me, Mother,” broke in Rose, first asking pardon for
interrupting, “but I guess Margy and Mun Bun eat the berries as fast
as they pick them. That’s what they’ve been doing—eating the
berries, I saw them put only a few in their baskets.”
“Oh, well,” said Mrs. Bunker, “we don’t expect them to pick many.
We older ones will have to get you enough for your cake, Rose.”
“I ate only about forty-’leven berries,” confessed Margy.
“An’ I ate six-fourteen,” admitted Mun Bun. “They is awful good,
these berries is, an’ maybe Rose wouldn’t make a cake, anyhow,
an’——”
“I see!” laughed Russ. “They were afraid they wouldn’t get their
share of berries if they waited, so they’re taking them now.”
 “It’s all right, my dears,” said their mother, for Margy and Mun Bun
did not like to be laughed at. “Eat as many berries as you wish. They
are ripe and fresh and very tempting. We’ll get enough for Rose’s
cake, I think.”
So while the younger ones ate the lovely fruit, the older ones
dropped the berries they picked into the baskets until they had a
sufficient quantity—more than two quarts.
Once, while they were picking, the six little Bunkers heard a
roaring, bellowing sound off behind a second hill.
“Oh, maybe that’s the old bull who has gotten loose—Ralph’s bull!”
cried Violet, as she ran toward her mother.
“I hardly think so,” Mrs. Bunker answered. But the noise sounded
again, very much like the bellow of a bull.
“Russ, get a club and some stones!” cried Rose. “There isn’t any
fence here to jump over. Get a stick and drive away the bull!” Russ
caught up a short club—not a very heavy one if it was to be used
against a bull. Mrs. Bunker stood up and looked around. Then she
laughed.
“Don’t be afraid, children,” she said. “It isn’t a bull at all. It’s the
whistle of an engine on a distant train. There it goes!” and she
pointed to the railroad, about a mile off over the hill. A train was
going along, very slowly, it seemed, but probably it was speeding
faster than it appeared to be. And as the Bunkers looked they saw a
puff of white steam from the locomotive. A little later they heard the
whistle. When they had been stooping down the whistle had
sounded like the distant bellow of a bull.
“I’m glad it wasn’t,” said Rose.
“If it had ‘a’ been I’d ‘a’ hit it with a club,” boasted Russ.
“An’ I could throw a stone!” declared Mun Bun.
“Mother, did you notice how funny the whistle was?” asked Rose.
“First we saw the smoke puff up, and then we heard the sound. Why
was that?”
 “Because light, or sight, travels faster than sound,” said Mrs.
Bunker. “You can see something much quicker than you can hear it.
If you should ever stand far off and see a gun shot off, you would
first see the flash and the smoke, and, some seconds later, you
would hear the report. Sight and sound travel in what are called
waves, almost like the waves of the ocean, except that the sound
waves are made of air instead of water. Light waves are different
from air or water waves, and travel much faster—almost as fast as
electricity.”
“And electricity is terribly fast,” said Russ. “Once I took hold of a
battery and as soon as I touched the handles I felt a shock.”
After this the picking of strawberries went on until enough had
been gathered. Then they all ate some and went home, and Rose
made the shortcake, Norah helping her.
“I’ll set the shortcake in the back pantry to cool for supper,” said
Norah, when Rose had finished making it, and very proud the little
girl was.
The shortcake was put away and the little Bunkers were
wondering how next they could have some fun when there came a
knock on the kitchen door.
“I wonder who that can be?” said Norah.
 CHAPTER XIII
THE SHOE-LACE BOY

Russ, who was nearest the door, went to open it. Afterward Violet
said she thought it might be some of the neighbors coming to ask for
a piece of Rose’s strawberry shortcake. Laddie said later that he
thought it might be Ralph come on the same sort of errand.
Well, it was a boy who had knocked on the door, but it was not
Ralph, the master of Jimsie, the dog, nor was it any boy the Bunker
children had ever seen around Farmer Joel’s place.
It was a “peddler boy,” as Violet called him—a boy with dark hair,
dark complexion, and deep brown eyes, and he carried a pack on his
back and a box slung by a strap in front of him.
“Shoe laces, collar buttons, suspenders, needles, pins—anything
to-day?” asked the peddler boy, rattling out the words so quickly that
Russ could hardly tell one from another.
“Wha—what’s that?” asked the bewildered Russ.
“Want any shoe laces? Any collar buttons—needles—pins—
suspenders—hooks and eyes—court plaster—pocket knives—any
——”
“No, we don’t want anything to-day,” said Norah, advancing to the
door and looking out over Russ’s head.
“How do you know you don’t want anything, Lady?” asked the
peddler boy with a pert and rather smart manner. “I haven’t told you
all I carry yet. I have——”
“But I tell you we don’t want anything!” insisted Norah. “I know
what you have—notions—and we don’t want any because we’re only
visiting here and——”
 “I have baggage tags!” interrupted the boy. “If you are only visiting
you’ll want to send your trunks back and you’d better put a tag on. I’ll
show you!” Quickly he opened the box he carried, slung by a strap
about his neck. The other Bunker children, crowding to the door, saw
in the box many of the things the boy had named—pins, needles,
some combs and brushes, and other things.
The boy took out a package of baggage tags, each tag having a
short piece of cord attached to it. These he held out to Norah, at the
same time saying:
“Use these and you never lose any baggage.”
“We take our baggage in the automobile,” said Rose.
“Well, maybe a piece might fall out and if it had a tag on it you
wouldn’t lose it,” said the boy, who spoke in rather a strange manner,
like a foreigner who had recently learned English.
“I tell you we don’t want anything,” said Norah, speaking a little
more sharply.
“What about some letter paper and envelopes?” persisted the boy.
“You could write, couldn’t you, and I sell ’em cheap——”
“No! No! We don’t want a thing, I tell you!” and Norah spoke very
sharply and began to close the door.
“Huh, I guess it wouldn’t be much good to sell you letter paper,”
sneered the boy. “You’re so mean you haven’t any friends that’d
want you to write!”
The door was closed but the words came through.
“Say,” cried Russ, as he struggled to open the door again, “if you
talk like that to our Norah——”
“Never mind,” laughed the good-natured cook. “Such peddlers
aren’t worth answering. He’s angry because we didn’t buy
something. If he had been polite about it I might, but he was too——”
“Too smart! That’s what he was!” finished Rose, and that about
described the shoe-lace peddler.
 In the kitchen Norah and the six little Bunkers could hear him
muttering to himself as he walked away, but as Daddy Bunker just
then called the children to give them some picture papers that had
come by mail, they forgot all about the impolite lad.
The Bunker children had fun looking through the illustrated
magazine and they were rather glad to sit down and do this, for
picking the strawberries on the distant hill had been rather tiring.
“I wish supper would soon be ready. I want some of Rose’s
shortcake,” remarked Violet.
“It looked good,” returned Russ. “If it tastes half as good as it
looks, it will be great!”
“I hope it will be good,” said Rose modestly.
Six hungry little Bunkers sat down to the supper table, and pretty
soon there were no more six hungry little Bunkers, for they ate so
many of the good things Norah cooked for them that they were no
longer hungry. But there was still six little Bunkers, and they were
anxious to try Rose’s strawberry shortcake.
“I’ll bring it in to the table and Rose can cut it,” said Norah.
She went to the pantry, but in less than half a minute she came
hurrying back with a strange look on her face.
“What’s the matter?” asked Daddy Bunker. “Did you see a ghost,
Norah?”
“No, sir. But—but—didn’t we put the strawberry shortcake in the
pantry?” she asked Mrs. Bunker.
“Yes, surely,” was the answer. “I saw you put it there to cool.”
“Well, it isn’t there now!” exclaimed Norah.
“Oh, did some one take my lovely strawberry shortcake?” sighed
Rose.
“Russ, you aren’t playing any of your jokes, are you?” asked his
father, somewhat sternly. “Did you take Rose’s shortcake and hide it,
just for fun?”
 “No, sir! I never touched her shortcake. I didn’t see it after Norah
put it away!”
“I’ll take a look,” said Mrs. Bunker. “Perhaps Farmer Joel went in
and set it on a higher shelf.”
“No, indeed!” declared Mr. Todd. “I never go into the pantry. That
isn’t my part of the house. And Adam didn’t touch the shortcake, I’m
sure. Did you?” he asked.
Mr. North shook his head.
“I like strawberry shortcake,” he said, “but I’d never think of playing
a joke with the one Rose baked.”
By this time Mrs. Bunker came back from the pantry whither she
had gone to make a search.
“The shortcake isn’t there,” she said.
“Who could have taken it?” asked Norah.
“Maybe Jimsie!” suggested Russ.
“No dog could reach up to the high sill of the pantry window,” said
Mrs. Bunker. “I can see where the cake was placed on the sill, for a
little of the red juice ran out and made a stain. The cake was lifted
out of the window, perhaps by some one from the outside.”
“I’ll have a look!” exclaimed Mr. Bunker.
He hurried outside to the pantry window at the back of the house,
followed by Russ, Rose and the others. Supper was over except for
the dessert, and this finish of the meal was to have been the
shortcake. With this gone—well, there wasn’t any dessert, that’s all!
Mr. Bunker looked carefully under the window, motioning to the
others to keep back so they would not trample in any footprints that
might remain in the soft ground. Carefully Mr. Bunker looked and
then he said:
“Some boy went there, reached in and took the cake.”
“What makes you think it was a boy?” asked Farmer Joel.
 “Because of the size of the footprints. They are not much larger
than those Russ would make.”
“I wonder if Ralph was here?” murmured Rose.
“No, I saw Ralph and his Jimsie dog going over to Woodport right
after dinner,” remarked Adam North. “He said he was going to be
gone all day. Ralph didn’t take the cake, nor did his dog Jimsie. Of
that I’m sure.”
“Then I know who it was!” suddenly exclaimed Russ.
“Who?” they all asked.
“That peddler, the shoe-lace boy!” Russ answered. “He was mad
because we wouldn’t buy anything, and he sneaked around and took
Rose’s shortcake off the window sill.”
Russ started toward the road.
“Where are you going?” asked his father.
“I’m going to chase after that shoe-lace boy and make him give
back the strawberry shortcake!” cried Russ.
 CHAPTER XIV
THE SHORTCAKE COMES BACK

Before his father could stop him Russ had run out on the porch.
Laddie, too, left his seat and started after his brother.
“Charles!” exclaimed Mrs. Bunker, “are you going to let them go
after that boy? He’s big and might hurt them!”
“I guess Russ and Laddie together are a match for that mean little
peddler,” answered Mr. Bunker. “But perhaps I’d better trail along
after them to see that they don’t get hurt,” he added, getting up. “I
hardly believe, however, that they can catch that peddler. He must
be a long way off by this time.”
The two oldest Bunker boys were already out in the road, looking
up and down for a sight of the shoe-lace peddler.
“Which way do you think he went, Russ?” asked Laddie.
“I don’t know,” was the answer, for the boy who it was thought had
taken Rose’s strawberry shortcake was not in sight. “But here comes
a man driving a team,” Russ went on. “We’ll ask him if he saw this
peddler down the road.”
A neighboring farmer who was known to Russ and Laddie just
then approached Farmer Joel’s house. Mr. Bunker, who was slowly
following his two sons, heard Russ ask:
“Did you see anything of a shoe-lace peddler down the road, Mr.
Harper?”
“A shoe-lace peddler?” repeated Mr. Harper. “Um, let me see now.
Yes, I did pass a boy with a pack on his back down by the white
bridge,” he answered.
“That’s the fellow!” exclaimed Russ. “Come on, Laddie!”
 “Charles,” said Mrs. Bunker, following her husband out to the front
gate, the other little Bunkers trailing along behind, “do you really
think you ought to let them go?”
“I don’t see any harm in it,” he answered. “In the first place, I don’t
believe Russ and Laddie will catch that boy. But if they do, I’ll follow
along to see that he doesn’t harm them.”
“And if you need help call on us!” chuckled Farmer Joel, as he and
Adam North began to do the night chores around the place. Farmer
Joel called it “doing his chores,” when he locked the barn, saw that
the hen-house was fastened, and got in kindling for the morning fire.
“Oh, I guess there’ll be no trouble,” said Mr. Bunker.
Rose came hurrying out toward the front gate, running ahead of
her father.
“Where are you going, Rose?” he asked her. “I’m going with Russ
and Laddie,” she answered.
“Oh, no, Rose,” said Mrs. Bunker. “I don’t believe I would.”
“Yes, please!” pleaded Rose. “It was my shortcake that peddler
boy took, and I want to bring it back. Please let me go!”
She seemed so much in earnest about it, and looked so
disappointed when her mother had spoken of keeping her back, that
Daddy Bunker said:
“All right, run along. But don’t get hurt. Your mother and I will come
along after you.”
So it was that Russ, Laddie, and Rose hurried down the country
road after the peddler who it was suspected had taken the cake.
Trailing after them, but coming more slowly, were Mr. and Mrs.
Bunker and the other little Bunkers.
“What shall we do to him, Russ, when we catch him?” asked
Rose, as she jogged along beside her older brother.
“I’ll ask him for the cake, that’s what I’ll do.”
“And if he doesn’t give it up?”
 “Then—then—I—I’ll thump him!” exclaimed Russ, doubling up his
fists.
“And I’ll help,” offered Laddie excitedly.
“We-ell, perhaps,” said Rose doubtfully. It sounded to her a little
too boastful.
The white bridge which Mr. Harper had spoken of was about half a
mile down the road from Farmer Joel’s place, and soon after making
a turn in the highway Russ, Rose, and Laddie saw the structure.
“I see some one fishing off the bridge,” remarked Russ. “Maybe it’s
that boy.”
As the three Bunkers came nearer they could see a boy sitting on
the bridge railing, holding a pole from which a line was dangling in
the water that flowed under the bridge. And when the children drew a
little nearer they could make out that the fisher was the shoe-lace
peddler boy.
Almost at the same time that they recognized him, the boy knew
them, and he sprang down from the bridge railing, began winding up
his line and started to pick up his box and basket.
“Here, you! Wait a minute!” ordered Russ.
“I don’t have to wait!” sneered the peddler. “There’s no fish here,
so why should I wait?”
“You’ve got something that we want!” went on Rose, drawing
nearer with Russ, while Laddie began looking about for a club or a
stone.
“You said you didn’t want anything,” grumbled the peddler. “I was
up by your house, and you wouldn’t buy any shoe laces nor collar
buttons yet, so why should it be you come running after me now?”
“Because you have my shortcake!” burst out Rose indignantly.
“You took my strawberry shortcake and I want it back.”
“I should have taken your shortcake, little girl?” cried the boy, as if
greatly surprised. “You are mistaken! Why should you say I have
your shortcake?”
 “Because you were the only one around the house after the
shortcake was set in the pantry window to cool,” said Russ boldly.
“And my father saw your footprints under the window.”
“And my father’s coming, and so is my mother, and if you don’t
give my sister back her cake they’ll have you arrested!” threatened
Laddie.
“Oh, your father and mother—they is coming, are they?” asked the
boy, who did not speak very good English. He was not quite so bold
and defiant as at first.
“Yes, they’re coming,” said Russ, looking over his shoulder down
the road. “But if you give up the shortcake there won’t be any
trouble.”
“Why should I have your cake?” cried the boy. “Look you and see
—it is not in mine pockets!” He turned one or two pockets inside out
as he stood on the bridge.
“Pooh! Just as if you could put my big strawberry shortcake in your
pocket!” scoffed Rose.
“It’s in your box or your basket, that’s where it is!” declared Laddie.
And then another thought came to him as he added: “Unless you’ve
eaten it!”
“Oh!” cried Rose, in distress at the thought of her good strawberry
shortcake having been eaten by the shoe-lace peddler.
“I should eat your cake? No! No!” cried the boy, raising his hand in
the air over his head.
“Well, I’m going to have a look in your basket!” threatened Russ,
walking toward the place on the bridge where the peddler boy had
set down the things in which he carried his wares.
“Don’t you touch my basket!” yelled the peddler. “If you open it I
shall a blow give you on the nose!”
He said it in such a funny, excited way that Rose had to laugh, and
Russ said:
“I can give you a hit on the nose, too!”
 “You don’t dast!” sneered the peddler.
“Yes, I dare!” insisted Russ.
“And I’ll help him!” added Laddie, who had found a stick.
The peddler boy, who was almost a head taller than Russ, closed
his fists and was walking toward the three Bunker children. Rose felt
her heart beating very fast. She looked back down the road and saw
her father and mother coming, followed by Margy, Mun Bun, and
Violet.
“Oh, here come daddy and mother!” cried Rose.
Instantly a change came over the peddler boy. His fists
unclenched and he smiled in a sickly, frightened sort of way.
“Oh, well, maybe your shortcake did get in my box by mistake,” he
said. “I takes me a look and see.”
Quickly he opened his box, and there, wrapped in a clean paper,
was the strawberry shortcake Rose had made.
“Oh!” cried the little girl, in delight. “Oh, my shortcake has come
back!”
“Huh! I thought you said you didn’t have it!” exclaimed Russ, as
the peddler lad lifted out the cake and handed it to Rose.
“Well, maybe I make a mistake and forget,” said the other.
“Huh, I guess you forgot on purpose!” declared Laddie.
By this time Mr. and Mrs. Bunker had come up. They saw that
Rose had her shortcake again.
“Look here, young man,” said Mr. Bunker sternly to the peddler,
“you mustn’t go about the country stealing things, you know! You
may land in jail if you try that again.”
“It was all a mistake, I tell you!” said the shoe-lace peddler, who
was really older in experience than a boy of his years should have
been. “It was a mistake.”
“What do you mean—a mistake?” asked Mr. Bunker.