Ready Reference Collections a History

Feature Ready Reference collections A History Ready reference collections were origi- to hand and a ready reference collection carol A. Singer nally formed, and still exist, because they would have naturally been assembled. perform a valuable function in providing Carol A. Singer is Reference and convenient access to information that is Early histoRy oF Instruction Librarian, Bowling Green frequently used at the reference desk. As State University, Bowling Green, library collections have been transformed ReferencE Services Ohio. Submitted for review December from print to electronic, some of the mate- The frequently cited 1876 article by 22, 2008; revised and accepted for rials in these collections also have inevita- Samuel Swett Green, “Personal Rela- publication April 2, 2009. bly been replaced by electronic resources. tions Between Librarians and Readers,” This article explores the historical roots of is generally regarded as the first pub- ready reference collections and their recent lished call for a program of help to evolution. library users.2 Reference service wasn’t invented by Green, as evidenced by s Katz wrote, “In almost ev- the testimony of the Columbia College ery library there is a small librarian that reported in 1857 that his collection of print sources, work included helping students with usually near the reference their research. He explained, “The Li- Adesk, which can be labeled ready-refer- brarian is really an instructor, as much ence works.”1 We don’t know when or so as a professor. His business is where the first print ready reference col- not merely to suggest plans of reading, lection was formed in the United States. but actually to discuss a subject.”3 Even However, we can assume several condi- in 1876, Green was far from being the tions had to be met before there was a only librarian to promote the idea of as- need for a ready reference collection. sistance to readers. In that year, Librar- There must have been sufficient refer- ian of Congress Spofford wrote, “That is ence activity to require the provision of the best library, and he is the most use- a place dedicated to reference service. ful librarian, by whose aid every reader There also must have been a reference is enabled to put his finger on the fact collection large enough to make it cum- he wants just when it is wanted.”4 A let- Reference & User Services Quarterly, bersome to find the most heavily used ter by Cutter, published in 1877, said, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 253–264 © 2010 American Library Association. items. Once those elements existed, the “To assist those who come to the library All rights reserved. reference librarian would have wanted in finding what will suit their needs is Permission granted to reproduce for the most essential tools of the trade near the librarian’s highest work.”5 nonprofit, educational use. volume 49, issue 3 | 253 Feature In 1880, the librarian of Rochester University standard service in many university libraries, and wrote, “during the free hours on Saturday the some libraries had recognized the importance of professor of English, the professor of history, and this service by forming a reference department.12 the librarian are always present” to assist students. Reference staff often focused on answering ready The president of the university and other faculty reference questions, although they also compiled members also were sometimes available for assis- bibliographies and indexes.13 tance.6 However, Robinson made it clear that the reference work was being done primarily by the teaching faculty: Early histoRy oF ReferencE collEcTionS Professors come, not with a lecture pre- Katz traced the history of reference books back pared, but ready in a semi-official way to to the beginning of writing, citing clay tablets or take up any subject which may be presented papyrus used by Egyptian and Mesopotamian and show the inquirer how to chase it down. scribes.14 In late-nineteenth-century America, They understand that they do this at some most reference collections were limited to a few risk. It is one thing to appear always before books in the reading room. Rather than being on classes on carefully studied subjects in one open shelves, these collections were sometimes department of learning. It is quite another kept behind a railing or desk. These were not thing to go into a library for several hours ready reference collections, except for the fact every week where scores of students are at that the reference collection in many libraries was work, take off your professional gown, and so small as to be made up entirely of frequently offer yourself for assistance on everything used resources. However, library collections were that comes to you.7 growing rapidly. In 1876 there were only 18 libraries with fifty thousand books or more in Robinson felt that “the demand which we often their collection. By 1900 there were more than hear for library professorships” would be more ef- 140 libraries with collections of this size. As new fectively met if all teaching professors scheduled libraries were built to accommodate these larger time each week to help students, because students collections, reference rooms were incorporated profited from access to the subject specialists, and into the design.15 an individual librarian could not provide such In the papers published for the World’s Library broad subject expertise. Nevertheless, he believed Congress, held at the Columbian Exposition of that doing research in the library was extremely 1893, the Librarian of Princeton College wrote, important for students: “Students who are thus en- “At least a small selection of the best reference couraged and assisted, almost invariably become books should be accessible to the public. These our best scholars while here, and after graduat- have come to be known as the reference depart- ing look back to their work in the library as one ment, and are in general usage, par excellence, of the most beneficial exercises of their college reference books.”16 By 1902 there were so many course.”8 reference books that Kroeger wrote her Guide to Ware described the Harvard College Library the Study and Use of Reference Books.17 This was not in 1880: “It is safe to say that a public library the earliest list of recommended reference books does not exist to which readers are more cordially published in the United States, but the first that welcomed, or more intelligently and courteously was large enough to publish as a book itself. In aided in their researches, than the library of 1876, Librarian of Congress Spofford had written Harvard College under its present and modern a twenty-five-page list of recommended reference management.” He noted that students “gratefully books for libraries.18 acknowledge the aid which an educated, trained librarian can afford, to lessen their labors, to save their time, to suggest what they need, to hint what histoRy oF Ready ReferencE 9 they do not need.” collEcTionS In 1884, Melvil Dewey hired the first two known college reference librarians, George Baker The term “ready reference” has been used in li- and William G. Baker, to work at Columbia Col- braries since at least the nineteenth century. The lege.10 By 1895, there were still only a few col- preface to Spofford’s 1876 list of recommended lege and university libraries with a staff member reference books refers to dictionaries, encyclope- whose primary function was to provide reference dias, bibliographies, and biographical dictionaries service.11 However, by 1915 reference work was a as “ready reference” tools. Spofford also described 254 | Reference & User Services Quarterly Ready Reference Collections a “central bureau of reference” that he said should Year Book,” Hoyt’s “Practical Quotations,” be in every library. Lippincott’s “Biographical Dictionary,” Lip- pincott’s “Gazateer,” “Standard Diction- Here should be assembled, whether on a ary,” “Congressional Directory,” legislative circular case made to revolve on a pivot, or manual of the state and the directory of on a rectangular case, with volumes covering the city.25 both sides, or in a central alcove forming a portion of the shelves of the main library, Published in the same year, Wyer’s reference all those books of reference and volumes textbook echoed the same list for the collection of incessantly needed by students in pursuit books to be placed at the reference desk.26 of their various inquiries.19 The utility of ready reference collections con- tinued to be promoted when Shores wrote in Although this could be a description of a ready ref- 1941: erence collection, Spofford was urging libraries to make such a collection accessible to the public. But as in the past, certain classes of reference The type of collection we now call ready ref- sources are receiving particular attention, erence was referred to—though not by using this because of their frequent and characteristic term—in various articles throughout the late nine- use for answering questions. Chief among teenth and early twentieth century. In 1894, Foster these collections of sources are the so-called wrote about answering questions at an information “quick reference” tools usually placed be- desk with “some one of those indispensable tools hind the reference desk or in proximity which such a desk should have within reach.”20 to the information booth. These consist of Describing a telephone reference service, Parham yearbooks, directories, statistical and finan- noted, “Many references as well as the Abridged cial services, civil services manuals, receipt Poole may be kept at the loan desk to answer ques- books, and, of course, a copy of the World tions quickly.”21 In 1915, Bishop recommended a Almanac.27 reference librarian keep the most frequently used tools In the same year, Gifford described the Cleve- land Public Library’s telephone service desk, which near at hand where they can be reached included a collection of approximately fifteen with little motion.

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