Reference Service: The New Dimension In Librarian ship

By SAMUEL ROTHSTEIN

T COULD BEGIN where almost everyone else begins and define reference work, A talk given by Dr. Rothstein, Associate but I won't. Instead, I prefer to begin University Librarian, University of British with the more logical beginning—the Columbia Library, at a meeting of the Ref- absence of reference service. erence Services Division of ALA in Montreal Reference service is so much a com- on June 22, 1960. monplace of present-day American li- brary practice that many of us have tended to regard it as an inherent ele- the case for such service was first put. ment of librarianship, something that When a pioneer of American reference was always done, something whose place work such as Samuel Swett Green of the in the library order of things is more or Worcester Public Library first began to less settled. Yet a consideration of foreign realize that the traditional policy of lais- library practices would show that refer- sez faire was inadequate to meet the ence work is still by no means universally needs of readers, he ventured no more regarded as a fundamental part of library than to champion what he called—and it service. I can recall, for instance, that is still my favorite title for a library right here in Canada, where I assure you paper—"the desireableness of . . . per- we consider ourselves reasonably ad- sonal intercourse between librarians and vanced in our methods, as recently as ten readers."1 years ago only one Canadian university That was in 1876, and Green had good library had a reference department for- reason to be modest in his claims; he mally labeled as such. I have no personal was backing a pretty dark horse in the experience of libraries on other conti- endless race for funds and attention. For nents, but from my reading I would con- a generation thereafter American librar- sider it a fair assumption that the term ians debated the value of the new service. and the service would both still be some- While there were supporters enough for thing of a novelty outside the United what they termed "access to librarians," Kingdom. many libraries were still inclined to Even in the United States the reference doubt the practicability and value of per- librarian is relatively a Johnny-come- sonal assistance. For example, when the lately on the library scene. May I re- Examining Committee of the Boston mind you that in the United States of Public Library suggested in 1887 that less than a century ago the library still there should be in Bates Hall a "person took no responsibility whatsoever for the whose sole duty it would be to answer provision of personal assistance to its questions of all sorts, and to direct in- users. Of course, there were instances quirers in their search for information," aplenty of personal helpfulness by li- the recommendation received the stiff brarians, but these were made as a mat- reply from the Trustees that it was hardly ter of simple courtesy rather than of re- 1 Samuel Swett Green, "Personal Relations Between sponsibility. Librarians and Readers," Library Journal, I (1876), 74-81. The longer title was used for the original reading Consider, if you will, how diffidently of the paper at tne 1876 conference.

JANUARY 1961 11 practicable in that it would require the definite recognition on the part of the li- transfer of personnel from other work!2 brary of its responsibility for such work Well, I can't make a good suspense and a specific organization for that pur- story out of this conflict, because you al- pose. In short, we are willing to give ready know who won; the name of your help, and what is more, consider such division and your numbers here today help an important enough part of our are the best evidence of the magnitude of obligations to justify training and assign- that victory. The point of this story is ing staff especially for this work. that reference service has not been and Now, "help" is a great big tent of a is not now an inevitable part of the li- word that embraces an enormous range brary order. If libraries simply were and variety of activities, and the only limited to "doing what comes naturally," way to distinguish the main features of they would acquire, preserve and organ- these activities is to categorize or classify ize materials, and perhaps make them them. Putting out of consideration the available. Traditionally, and by the na- many behind-the-scenes tasks in a refer- ture of the beast, the librarian's role has ence department and concentrating only everywhere been that of custodian, col- on the actual work with readers, we may lector, and cataloger. If in the United first distinguish the groups of assign- States and a few other parts of the world ments that finds us, say, clearing up the he has also undertaken to furnish per- mysteries of the filing system in the public sonal assistance on an organized basis, it catalog; making sure that the reader didn't just happen. We have reference knows about using the index in the En- service because it was once a "cause"— cyclopaedia Britannica; directing him to a cause to be propagandized for, an idea the appropriate division of the library to be formulated, developed and brought for a given inquiry; in some cases lectur- to fruition! ing to a class on the bibliography of a 1 say then that both the historical de- field. In sum, instruction in the use of velopment of reference work in Ameri- books and libraries. can libraries and its comparative absence We must reserve a second and separate in present-day libraries elsewhere strongly pigeon-hole for the work that we do in suggest that reference service represents response to requests such as; "What are a new dimension in librarianship and some interesting books on dogs for chil- that its establishment is the product of dren?"; "I want to do some systematic a more or less deliberate decision. I sub- reading on psychology, where do I be- mit further that the future development gin?"; "I've finished all the Zane Grey of our reference services calls for an novels; what do I do now?" We used to equally deliberate decision, and that our call this sort of consultation "readers' chief problem now is to decide on the advisory work", and at one time it bade proper dimensions of that service. fair to set up shop on its own, right out- At this point in my argument it seems side the reference department. I think desirable to make sure that we are all on that it is now back in the fold more often the same ground by agreeing on a defini- than not, and I shall include it in our tion of reference service—that is to say, roster under the heading guidance in the I want you to accept mine. I represent choice of books. reference work to be the personal assist- The last and by far the biggest pigeon- ance given by the librarian to individual hole I allocate for information service. readers in pursuit of information; refer- The distinction here is that the librarian ence service I hold to imply further the supplies the information itself and not just the books where it may be found. 2 Boston Public Library, Thirty-fifth [Annual] Report . . . 1887, p. 18. We may call this most variegated and

12 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES most debatable aspect of reference serv- their professional skill. They dextrously ice: getting information out of books. and sympathetically steer the bewildered Instruction in the use of books, guid- newcomer into the easy familiarity with ance in the choice of books, supplying indexes, subject-headings, and biblio- information out of books—these then are graphies that constitutes "library know- the three primary colors in the reference how." Occasionally, mind you, they find work picture. Almost every respectable it easier to supply the date or the popula- library in the United States and Canada tion figure outright than to show the in- does some of each; almost no two li- quirer how to get it, but they keep a braries mix the colors in quite the same wary eye out for the cunning student way. whose pretended ignorance would lure Let us extend this color analogy some- them into doing his assignment for what further and trace the reference him. spectrum. At one end we may have Li- For graduate students and faculty the brary A, say, a smallish public library. It reference librarians are willing to do has two public service librarians (they much more: verify a footnote, trace a don't call themselves reference librarians) quotation, identify an obscure name, who are kept pretty busy by an eager sometimes even compile a bibliography. clientele of high schoolers and house- They rather enjoy a "difficult question," wives. They do their best to help the and delight in the challenge it offers to students with their assignments, but are their ingenuity and knowledge. They shy very careful to avoid what they call away, however, from summarizing data "spoonfeeding" them. They will show or interpreting it; they take no responsi- them where to look for an answer but bility for the validity of the information would no more hand them a fact than they furnish. they would the key to the vault. With The last spectrograph depicts a special the adults they are more likely to "dig library in action. Mr. X, is in charge of up the answer", but only if it is narrowly the library that serves the research staff factual enough for them to be able to find of a chemical firm. He calls himself a it in a reference book. Anyway, few peo- special librarian or an "information of- ple really think of referring to this li- ficer" or perhaps even a documentalist. brary for specific information. They get He doesn't worry a bit about doing any- that by asking each other, or writing one else's work for him; in fact, he be- away for it, or most likely just do without lieves that that is what he is there for. it. The men in the community regard He compiles bibliographies, does litera- this library as a kind of cultural monu- ture searches, submits reports on the ment which fulfills its function by just "state of the art." He tries to anticipate existing. Their wives know that the li- questions by distributing abstracts of brary offers a good deal of light reading articles pertinent to the current research too, and the librarians exert devious but projects. At times he may prepare trans- determined efforts to inculcate in them lations or even take a hand in editing a taste for better books. Sometimes they material for publication. In short, he are successful; mostly they are not and holds himself almost completely respon- are regarded simply as the "library ladies" sible for the "literature side" of his firm's who look after the collection. research, and thereby frees his patron's Our next spectroscopic reading shows time for concentration on the "laboratory us Library B, a university library of some side" of their projects. size and consequence. The reference li- You all recognize these libraries, but brarians here are very self-consciously you may never have stopped to realize such, and they take deserved pride in that each bases its service on a different

JANUARY 1961 13 theory of reference work, or to examine cern to many people. For businessmen, the reasoning these rest upon. James In- legislators, researchers and scholars, it is gersoll Wyer identified these theories as more important that they have it than "conservative," "moderate" and "lib- that they learn how to acquire it, and eral,"3 but I prefer the more mnemonic extensive library assistance is therefore and alliterative sequence of "minimum," economical and worthwhile in any case "middling" and maximum." where the time saved by the client is The minimum theory bases its case on more valuable than the time spent by the education and fear. The library admit- librarian. The chemist no longer blows tedly has an obligation to assist the in- his own glassware and the doctor no experienced reader, but it serves him, longer takes temperatures; why should best, so this argument goes, when it limits they not have the librarian conduct lit- its help to showing him how. To which erature searches for them? And where ef- the minimal theory would add by way ficiency suggests the librarians should, of corollary the supposition that the ex- faith says the librarian can do these perienced reader or scholar does not want things, and perhaps even better than the or requires more than occasional per- client himself. Given the requisite sub- sonal assistance. Ainsworth Rand Spof- ject knowledge and sound bibliographi- ford wrapped all this up neatly in his cal training, the librarian can, in this dictum of sixty years ago: "It is enough view, become the specialist in "finding for the librarian to act as an intelligent out," even to the point of validating the guide-post, to point the way; to travel the data he secures. road is the business of the reader him- Between the "conservatives" and the self."4 "liberals" stand the "moderates" ... in Of course even the minimum reference the middle and, I fear, in a muddle. They department does offer something of an affirm the pedagogical superiority of in- information service, but diffidently. And struction over direct provision of infor- here is where the fear comes in. Fear, mation, but wonder whether this is an first of all, that the library can never appropriate reason to limit assistance to hope to have the manpower to render their non-student clientele. They want more than severely limited assistance. to promote demand for the library's serv- Fear, again, that the patrons will take ice, but are unwilling to extend the scope undue advantage and make exorbitant of the service most in demand. They demands. And finally, errorophobia, my range wide but seldom deep. Expediency new word for that old malady: the li- vies with principle. brarian's fear of making a mistake. You The result is a pattern of wonderful know the feeling—the world of knowl- inconsistency. I have the impression that edge is so large and much of it so hope- the patron who comes to a public library lessly specialized; let's play safe by stick- looking for, say, Babe Ruth's home run ing to our friendly reference books and record, is likely to be directed to Menke's ready reference questions. No mistakes, Encyclopedia of Sports; if he were lazy no worries—also not much service. enough to telephone instead, he would In sharp contrast, the maximum theory find that the same reference department of reference work takes its stand on the ran a very efficient information service. twin tenets of faith and efficiency. In- I know from personal experience that an formation, it contends, is of crucial con- ingenious student can, by writing a plau- sible letter to a neighboring university, 3 James Ingersoll Wyer, Reference Work: a Textbook have compiled for him the bibliography for Students of Library Work and Librarians. (Chicago: American Library Association, 1930), pp. 6-7. that his own library would never pro- 4 Ainsworth Rand Spofford, A Book for All Readers (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1900), pp. 204, 213. duce. A request from the City Hall or the

14 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES President's Office produces wonders of ties of service that the mass media are reference work. not equipped to give.7 Do I seem to you to have presented an In the libraries that serve scholars and inaccurate picture of the three theories? research scientists, the case for an am- I have no doubt that my slips and prej- plified reference service is even stronger. udices have been showing, and I now In the first place, it may be conceded that abandon the attempt at impartiality and the social importance of their work war- give you my own opinions. rants these people special consideration. I say first of all that we should give More important is the fact that research up our reservations about the direct pro- workers stand in growing need of a full- vision of information and recognize in- scale reference service. A recent textbook formation service as a principal and on the theory and practice of industrial worthy obligation of the library, some- research puts it this way: "It is inefficient thing we should try to push forward as to expect a research worker to obtain all far as we can. Let us admit frankly that this information on his own. In any case, our instructional efforts are logically ap- it is barely possible for him today to keep plicable only to students, and that our up with current information in his own other customers have no more reason to particular specialty, much less maintain be guided in the techniques of finding his contracts with other fields. The li- out than they have in being shown how brary . .. staff ... in any efficient research to fix a defective carburetor. Again to group must maintain or have access to quote Wyer: "It is service, not sugges- all the sources of information which tion, that is at a premium."5 would be of utility to a worker in a Wyer made his statement three decades given project. For best results, they ago, and I believe that the value and should be able to prepare bibliographies need of such service have mounted with and abstracts of pertinent material the years. For the general public there is rapidly and to furnish specific literature now greater need than ever for the public which the researchers feel would be of library to serve, in W. S. Learned's additional interest."8 famous phrase, as "the community in- This statement brings out the chief telligence service."6 In an age when the reason for the increasing dependence of media of mass communication assault research workers upon librarians. I refer, us every day with a barrage of distor- of course, to the astounding proliferation tions and half-truths, the public library of scientific literature since the Second can make an almost unique contribution World War. All of us have seen the fear- by serving the community's center for some statistics that prove this point, and reliable, detailed information. The pub- it is now quite evident that the volume lic library may sometimes find it hard to of pertinent literature in any single field, compete with television, picture maga- except possibly in the most narrow zines and the like when it comes to fur- specializations, has outstripped the ca- nishing entertainment and escape. But pacity of the individual research man to why compete? I hold with Dr. Robert cope with it unaided. Leigh and the Public Library Inquiry The scientist's bibliographical difficul- that the natural and appropriate role of ties are compounded by a number of the public library in our time is to em- other factors: the acknowledged deficien- phasize and develop the kinds and quali- cies of the abstracting and indexing

7 Robert Leigh, The Public Library in the United States (New York: Columbia University Press, 1950), 5 Wyer, op. ext., p. 9. p. 46. 0 Williams S. Learned. The American Public Library 8 David Bendel Hertz, The Theory and Practice of and the Diffusion of Knowledge (New York: Harcourt, Industrial Research (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Brace, 1924), p. 14. Company, 1950), p. 303.

JANUARY 1961 15 journals in covering the literature; the very well in such institutions as munici- present-day tendency to publish results pal and legislative reference libraries, in the relatively inaccessible "technical special libraries, and, not infrequently, reports" rather than in the standard in university libraries. May I recall to journals; the fact that scientific research you the "research librarianships" estab- has increasingly emphasized the inter- lished with Carnegie Corporation funds disciplinary approach and hence has a generation ago? At Cornell and Pennsyl- forced the researcher to gain cognizance vania, these "research librarians" engaged of work done outside the realm of his in such projects as: a report on methods own bibliographic competence. Without used in handling strikes in Australia; going into details on these much-dis- biographical sketches of sixty-four early cussed matters, I think I am quite safe British writers on economics; a study of in concluding that the task of tracing King Charles I's theory of government as and using scientific literature has become indicated in his speeches.9 considerably more difficult in the last And this was the confidential judg- decade. The effect, it seems to me, is to ment rendered on this service by one of justify a place for an intermediary be- the most eminent humanists at the Uni- tween the research man and his literature, versity of Pennsylvania: "It was of the and to suggest that the location of in- utmost value. I have never habituated formation almost necessarily becomes a myself to obtaining help in such research specialized function devolving upon as I have done, and it was a surprise and specially assigned personnel. satisfaction to find the immense advan- You will have already noticed that, in tage of such trained and intelligent help the foregoing analysis, I have leaned ... I have not the least doubt of the value rather heavily on the reference librar- of such assistance. I was not so sure of it ian's potential contribution to scientific at first. The only difficulty, it seems to research. It is certainly true that the sub- me, is on our part, that is, to formulate division of labor implied in this relation- our problems in such a way as to make ship is more readily applicable to the his contS^bution to their solution avail- physical sciences and technology than it able."10 is to research in the humanities and This is glowing testimony, and I wish social sciences. It is, I concede, equally the situation were quite as this famous true, that by far the greater number of scholar pictured it. I wish indeed that people actually functioning in this ca- the "only difficulty" about an amplified pacity of "research librarian" (or call reference service were on the part of the him what you will) work in libraries at- recipients. You and I know that "it just tached to industrial research laboratories ain't so." We know that the Carnegie or in scientific institutes. Corporation's scheme of "research li- Yet I refuse to admit that the reason- brarianships" never spread beyond the ing that makes an amplified reference two universities of the original demon- service feasible and desirable for scientific stration. We remember that the Detroit research does not extend to other fields of Public Library's plan for an Industrial investigation. The humanities and social Research Service died aborning. sciences suffer from a like proliferation It is all too easy to see the large practi- of publication. Team research and inter- cal difficulties that attend any grand-scale disciplinary research are certainly no information service: the need for highly- novelties here, either. And most convinc- ing of all is the fact that a research serv- 9 Cf. Samuel Rothstein, The Development of Reference Services . . '. (ACRL Monographs, Number 14. Chi- ice, catering especially to the humanities cago: Association of College and Reference Libraries, 1955.), p. 94. and social sciences, has actually worked 10 Quoted in Rothstein, op. ext., p. 95.

16 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES •4 J trained staff that can combine high bib- trieval" too. In any case the point is the liographical skill with special subject same; the library is freed to concentrate knowledge; the problem of discriminat- on the really intellectual tasks in librar- ^ ing between the trivial and the important ianship, and prominent among them the request; above all, the problem of num- information service. 1 bers. I recall being told some years ago 4. A foundation—and of course the on a visit to the New York Public Library Council on Library Resources springs that, in the Information Division there, promptly to mind—might be persuaded 4 each reference librarian was expected to to sponsor adequate demonstrations of deal with fifty to sixty inquiries an hour! amplified reference service, say adding a i I could only shake my head. dozen subject specialists to each of a I do not have ready-made, overall an- number of public and university libraries. swers to these genuine problems, and in- In the special library setting the work- A deed it would be presumptuous of me to ability and value of such service is al- present such solutions, for these can only ready an established fact; what we need be worked out in the individual library, to work out now is just how the goal with due regard for the circumstances at- can be realized in the far more com- tending each situation. Every case is plicated context of the general library. special. I do suggest the following pos- The Carnegie Corporation "research li- sibilities as food for thought: brarianships" constituted a test of sorts, 1. Library budgets can be increased— but were hardly conclusive. A full-scale k. perhaps several times over—without put- experiment is now in order. ting the slightest strain on the economy And now may I permit myself a few L of either the United States or Canada. last words of summary and peroration. As a British librarian recently stated, Historically and indeed in most of their when the cost of a single missile may ex- present-day functions librarians have t ceed the combined expenditure on the been technicians, handmaidens of both country's libraries, it is absurd to speak sexes, who work with books rather than of library costs. The scale of our present in them. When reference service and ^ services would have seemed Utopian a particularly an information service be- generation ago; why should we see the came established as a regular part of 5 future as static? American library practice, it really con- 2. The reference services—and espe- stituted a new dimension in librarian- K daily the information service—can get a ship; we began to deal in knowledge and p. large share of the existing library budget. not just volumes. I have no wish to start one more civil It was a radical idea, a big idea, but war in the ALA, but it may well be that sometimes I fear that we have been guilty we spend too much money on our tech- of considering it too big for us. Though nical processes and not enough on our the concept and techniques of an infor- r public services. (By the way, I happen mation service began in the general li- to be in charge of technical processes at brary, we general librarians have been r my library). diffident about exploiting it. Other peo- 3. There seems to be sound reason for ple have done so, and very effectively; hope that advances in library technology now they threaten to establish them- can produce savings which could be ap- selves as a wholly separate profession. plied to the expansion of information History gainsays them, but our claims * services. Much of our cataloging, circula- must rest on more than history. Both the k, tion, and acquisitions work can be mech- needs of our clients and our own self- anized, and for that matter, we are interest say that we should look for ways promised machines for "information re- to work at greater range and depth, to do

JANUARY 1961 17 always more not less. If first-class refer- practical difficulties. Rut I would remind ence service is valuable enough for the you that practical solutions are always a businessman to buy, then it is also im- secondary matter; what comes first is portant enough for the community and conviction. If we can achieve a clear- the university to support. cut decision on direction and policy, if This is a large objective, and to reach we can settle on ends, I have no doubt it we must somehow surmount great that we can find some of the means.

Problems of College And University Libraries

The Council for Financial Aid to Education has published Wake Up and Read, a Few Facts About College and University Libraries as one of its series of leaflets on the nature and needs of higher education in the United States. The leaflet em- phasizes the importance of libraries in higher education and summarizes their need for increased financial support. The pamphlet cites the fact that financing library series is a major problem to colleges and universities. "More than one president," it declares, "has said that this problem is second in urgency only to that of raising faculty salaries." It points out that the percentage of increase in expenditures has not kept abreast the increases in total institutional expenditures in a representative sampling of libraries. It notes that the medium beginning salary for professional librar- ians had, by 1958-59, risen only to $4,500 while the U. S. Department of Labor estimated in 1960 that starting salaries for college graduates with bachelor's de- grees only would average $5,400. "Viewed in the large," summarizes the Council's leaflet, "the expansion of services, the improvement of building plans, the raising of personnel standards for staff, and the building of collections are not examples merely of library progress, but part of the total program of improvement in higher education in the United States. That is why everybody—university administrators, teachers, parents, leg- islators, and the general citizen—has a stake in the future of the college and uni- versity library." A copy of the pamphlet has been sent with the compliments of ACRL to the libraries of each institution listed in the U. S. Office of Education's directory of col- leges and universities. Additional single copies may be secured from the ACRL of- fice or from the Council at fifteen cents each. Orders for twenty or more copies can be filled by the Council at a 40 per cent discount on the single-copy price. The ad- dress of the Council for Financial Aid to Education, Inc., is 6 East 45th Street, New York 17, N. Y.

18 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES