IRLF 
 
 
THE REFERENCE 
 DEPARTMENT 
 
 BY 
 
 E. C. RICHARDSON 
 
 PREPRINT OP 
 
 MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 American lib r TO &6gociati<m JJufclifilnng; iSoartJ 
 
 78 E. WASHINGTON ST., CHICAGO 
 1911 
 
A. L. A. MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY 
 
 Chap. I. "American Library History," by C. K. BOLTON. 
 II. "The Library of Congress," by W. W. BISHOP. 
 
 IV. "The College and University Library," by J. I. 
 WYER, JR. 
 
 XVII. "Order and Accessions Department," by F. F. 
 HOPPER. 
 
 XXII. "Reference Department," by E. C. RICHARDSON. 
 XXVI. "Bookbinding," by A. L. BAILEY. 
 
 The above chapters are each printed in a separate pamphlet. 
 Price 10 cents each. 
 
 Projected chapters now in preparation are as follows: 
 "Loan Department"; "Branches and Other Distributing 
 Agencies"; "Pamphlets, Clippings, Maps, Music"; "Book 
 Selection"; " Classification "; "Commissions, State Aid and 
 State Agencies"; ''Work with the i Blind"; "Library Service"; 
 "State Libraries"; "Fixtures, Furniture. Fittings and Sup- 
 plies"; " Free Public Libraries "; f: Catalog"; "Shelf Depart- 
 ment"; "Museums, Art Galleries, Lectures"; "Public Docu- 
 ments"; "Library Training"; " Special Libraries "; "Adminis- 
 tration"; "Bibliography"; "Public Library and Public 
 Schools"; "Library Work with Children"; "Legislation"; 
 "Buildings." 
 
XXII 
 THE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT 
 
 E. C. RICHARDSON 
 Princeton University Library 
 
 The reference department of a library is that part of its 
 organization which has to do with the use of material within 
 the library building, as distinguished from home use. In 
 the broad sense it includes, at any given time, all material not 
 loaned out at that time. In its narrower sense, it includes 
 books made for reference or set apart for reference, either per- 
 manently or temporarily. Permanent reference books include 
 quick reference collections, restricted books, manuscripts, 
 maps, engravings, documents, bound periodicals, and what- 
 ever else is not commonly loaned out, as "standard" libraries, 
 " seminar" libraries, and special collections of all sorts when 
 restricted to library use. Temporary reference collections 
 include current periodicals, reserved collections on timely topics, 
 books reserved for essays, clubs, debates, and the like. Special 
 selections of loan books intended to serve a reference use when 
 not in circulation, open shelf collections, children's libraries 
 and standard libraries, even when their books are allowed to 
 circulate, serve a reference purpose when they are not in cir- 
 culation. 
 
 I. DEFINITION OF THE REFERENCE BOOK 
 
 In its narrower sense a reference book is one made for refer- 
 ence use as distinguished from reading use: in its broader sense 
 it is any book that is used for reference. 
 
 Books are used for two purposes, reading and reference. 
 Reading implies extended use; reference, selective use. The 
 reference book is therefore simply one used for consultation 
 
 251689 
 
6F'LikARY ECONOMY 
 
 rather tliati fo'r reading through: * It is not so much a kind of 
 book as a kind of use for any book and when the book is used 
 for that purpose it is a reference book. While some books 
 are used for reading, some for reference and many are made 
 chiefly for the one or the other use, there is a reference use 
 even for poetry and fiction and a small reading use even for 
 dictionaries, while a very large number of books are used in 
 either way equally often and well. The book made for refer- 
 ence, being arranged with explicit view to ease and rapidity 
 in finding specific facts, is the true reference book. 
 
 By the nature of the use it comes to pass that the book 
 intended for reference use in a library is withheld from circu- 
 lation. Reading use is continuous, reference use occasional. 
 In library work the former calls, on the average, for exclusive 
 use by one person for a long time, while reference use calls 
 for successive use by many persons each for a short time only; 
 the one involves the consecutive use of a few books, the other 
 the almost simultaneous use of many books. On an average 
 the reading book may, therefore, be loaned while the reference 
 book may not, and in a library the reference book becomes one 
 reserved for reference use or still more simply one used for 
 reference. 
 
 II. SELECTION OF REFERENCE BOOKS 
 
 The reserving of books from circulation for the sake of 
 reference is an art, the process varying with the users for whom 
 selection is made. Many books made for reference need not 
 be reserved from circulation old editions of encyclopaedias, 
 very special dictionaries or textbooks in demand at a given 
 time by only a single reader, and so on. On the other hand 
 standard editions of the great poets must, in many libraries, 
 be kept for reference. The range of reserves in the general 
 reference collections differs radically from that of special collec- 
 tions such as art or music, or from seminar and department 
 
THE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT 3 
 
 libraries. Books made for reference and their matter disposed 
 with a view to the finding of particular facts rather than of 
 reading through include encyclopaedias, dictionaries, year- 
 books, almanacs, indexes to periodicals and indexed periodicals, 
 directories, atlases, bibliographies, also aids and guides to 
 readers, etc. To these add also textbooks well paragraphed 
 and provided with captions, and all well-indexed books. 
 
 The law of selection of books within these classes for any 
 particular reference collection must first regard the purpose 
 of the collection, and second lateness of publication, reliability 
 and comprehensiveness. Information brought up to date and 
 that can be depended on is the first consideration, but it is the 
 out-of-the-way questions which cost the most time, and out- 
 dated, rather second-rate tools may cover many topics not 
 found in the more modern and more accurate but less compre- 
 hensive books on the same subject, and may either serve the 
 purpose or point the way to better slow-reference sources, for 
 the chief function of a quick-reference book is to light the fuse 
 to a train of research. 
 
 m. ACTIVITIES AND ADMINISTRATION 
 
 The reference use of a library concerns the finding of books 
 and the finding of facts. The finding of books, in turn, includes 
 the choice of books for reading and the choice of books for the 
 finding of facts. 
 
 The first, commonest, and most important reference use 
 of a library is to find what to read. Aid to this end belongs 
 to the reference, not to the loan department, and should, in 
 most libraries, have first attention, both in the matter of the 
 collection of reference books for the purpose and in the personal 
 help of the librarian. 
 
 The second reference use of a library is to learn what books 
 to use for finding facts. This calls for a special apparatus of 
 books for reference books bibliographies of bibliographies, 
 
4 MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY 
 
 catalogs of reference libraries and systematic guides such as 
 Kroeger's. 
 
 The third reference use of a library is for the finding of the 
 facts themselves. 
 
 These three uses require the exercise of at least four func- 
 tions of administration, supervision, personal advice, the 
 preparation of lists and the finding of facts. These functions 
 are commonly united in one reference librarian, but in a very 
 large library may be distinguished into four divisions, each 
 with its own personnel: (i) supervision, (2) consultation, 
 (3) bibliography, and (4) research. 
 
 i. The supervising division of a reference library concerns 
 (a) the supervision of books and apparatus, and (b) the super- 
 vision of readers. 
 
 (a) Supervision of books and apparatus involves the selec- 
 tion of books, the replacing of old editions and outdated works 
 by newer and better ones, the keeping of books in order upon 
 the shelves. In respect of apparatus it implies the providing 
 of proper building room for general and special reference work. 
 This includes provision of special rooms or quarters for special 
 reference libraries, for maps, engravings, current periodicals, 
 exhibition books, also rooms for photographing, rooms for the 
 use of special students who require a large number of books 
 and the like. It means the provision for and regulation of 
 ventilation, light and heat, the choice of furniture such as 
 desks and chairs, cases for exhibition books, the provision of 
 ink and paper and blotters. It involves disputed practices 
 of whether the reader shall be required to return the books to 
 the shelf or be forbidden to do so, whether ink shall be pro- 
 vided or forbidden, whether children shall be allowed to use 
 or forbidden to use certain books. 
 
 (b) The supervision of readers has to do among other things 
 with (i) enforcement of rules of conduct, silence, decorum, etc., 
 (2) personal attendance in the use of the stack or reserved 
 
THE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT 5 
 
 collections, (3) sometimes, the collation of rare manuscripts 
 or collections of engravings after use, (4) the prevention or 
 detection of theft, mutilation, thumbing, dogsearing, or other 
 disfigurement, (5) the taking of books to the reader's seat, 
 (6) the reserving of a user's material from day to day. 
 
 2. The consultation division of the reference department 
 has to do with the giving of advice as to the use of the library. 
 It may involve also systematic instruction in use but it is 
 chiefly a matter of individual question and answer. The 
 source of this function is commonly known as the "information 
 desk," but this is intended as information how to find and use 
 books, not information as to facts. It is intended not so much 
 to aid the reader even in preparing reference lists, as to teach 
 him to prepare them for himself. This division implies a 
 consulting librarian in the general reference department and 
 one in each of several special reference libraries, art, music, 
 law, medicine, legislation, and the like. In a very large library 
 the consulting librarian of the general reference department 
 needs to have one or more assistants who may be sent with an 
 inquirer to explain the catalogs and the method of finding a 
 reference. 
 
 3. The bibliographical division of the reference department 
 has to do with the preparation of lists as distinguished from 
 the personal conducting of the individual by the consulting 
 librarian. It includes in a public library the preparation of 
 lists on timely topics to attract the interest of the general reader, 
 lists for study clubs, for school essays, debates, and the like. 
 In college libraries it concerns chiefly work in essays and 
 debates, aid to the professors in selecting lists of collateral 
 reading, the preparation of temporary collections to attract 
 to general reading, and the like. 
 
 4. The research division concerns itself with the answering 
 of letters or of questions handed down by the consulting libra- 
 rian as to specific information regarding facts as distinguished 
 
6 MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY 
 
 from information regarding the sources in which these facts 
 may be found. In most American libraries this class of ques- 
 tions concerns chiefly matters of genealogy or local history 
 and the source of quotations, but it often concerns also tran- 
 scripts of manuscripts or printed authorities and many other 
 matters. Abroad, matters of collation of manuscripts, the 
 photographing of material and a verification of references 
 play a larger part. In general, save for questions which con- 
 cern the individual institution, this work is not looked on as 
 free service but is assigned to assistants and the work paid for. 
 In many libraries there is a special force which is paid partly 
 or wholly in this way. 
 
 IV. SYSTEMATIC INSTRUCTION IN THE USE OF REFERENCE BOOKS 
 
 This instruction concerns reference books referring to read- 
 ing books (books on the choice of books, books of best books, 
 etc.), reference books referring to reference books and reference 
 books referring to facts. Properly speaking, and theoretically, 
 library instruction stops with pointing out the books in which 
 reading lists, on the one hand, and facts on the other hand 
 may be found, but practically instruction may be given in the 
 methods of reading and the methods of using reference books to 
 find and record the facts, as well. 
 
 Even quick-reference books differ greatly, and only the 
 experienced user gets the best and quickest use from them. 
 Material may, for example, be arranged alphabetically or 
 systematically. Alphabetical entries in turn are arranged in 
 different books under different catch-words and these in turn 
 by different rules of alphabetization. Then, too, the tables 
 of contents and indexes differ in location and arrangement, 
 or the alphabetical indexes are classified into several special 
 indexes. The average man is quite at sea regarding most of 
 these methods, and must be not only shown the books which 
 contain the facts, but be shown how to find the facts, just as 
 
THE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT 7 
 
 he must not only be shown the library catalog and lists of 
 reference books but be shown how to find in them the books 
 that he wants. The usual and best method of instruction is 
 individual personal guidance in the library. Some reference 
 librarians find it practical and useful to take a group of school 
 children or college students, leading them about the library 
 or talking to them in a room with a table of illustrative books. 
 More systematic work, with library lectures on the art of 
 reading, the choice of books and the use of reference books, is 
 sometimes found practicable. It has been found a very useful 
 method to have the librarian give talks on these subjects in 
 the public schools, study clubs, Y. M. C. A.'s, the college class- 
 rooms, and so on. In a large city, or a large college, individual 
 and even group teaching is almost out of the question and it 
 has been found very useful in both of these cases to enlist the 
 aid of the teacher. It seems generally agreed now that instruc- 
 tion in the use of a library, especially in the art of reading, the 
 art of using indexes and textbooks, the use of alphabetical 
 captions and the like, should be taught by all teachers in all 
 grades through the use of their school libraries. The same 
 applies to the college classroom. Under this method the 
 librarian's chief concern is to teach the teacher, and perhaps 
 personally conducted groups sent by the teacher, the actual 
 use of books. The chief points of instruction in the reference 
 use of books are reading an alphabet, practice in alternative 
 catch-words, study of the method and scope of each book 
 from prefaces and chapter headings, cursory examination, 
 practice in repeated handling of each book for actual questions. 
 
 V. INTER-LIBRARY REFERENCE 
 
 In the libraries of higher research an important function 
 of the reference department is the guidance of users to sources 
 not to be found in the home library; to the library in which 
 these sources may be found and to information whether and 
 
8 MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY 
 
 from what source they may be borrowed through the home 
 library. 
 
 The chief aids for this function of the reference department 
 are on the one hand bibliographies and on the other joint lists 
 such as the Chicago, Boston, etc., lists of periodicals. The 
 printed cards of the Library of Congress, of the John Crerar 
 and Harvard libraries, and all depositories of these cards are 
 also important aids. The A. L. A. periodical cards, in con- 
 junction with the list of periodicals indexed by each of the 
 co-operating libraries, is another aid to what is rapidly develop- 
 ing into one of the most important branches of reference work. 
 
 It belongs to the reference department also to give advice 
 as to what library will be most likely to have further material 
 on the subject or be able to give further advice. The lists 
 of special collections by Lane and Siebert and the like are the 
 chief aids for this function together with an individual personal 
 knowledge of other libraries a matter of great importance 
 to the reference librarian. An important part of the training 
 of a reference librarian is thus his knowledge of other libraries. 
 Lists of special libraries such as the Commerical Museum of 
 Philadelphia, the various law, medical, and theological libraries, 
 are of considerable value. Perhaps the most promising line 
 of progress in reference work at the present time is the prepa- 
 ration of joint lists of periodicals or serials in the different 
 libraries of the same city or region. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Kroeger, Alice B. Guide to the study and use of reference books. 
 
 Ed. 2. Boston, 1908. 
 
 . Supplement, 1909-1910, by Isadora G. Mudge. Chicago, 
 
 A. L. A. Publishing board, 1911. 
 
 Covers the whole ground of this chapter bibliographically in an 
 unusually complete way. To this may be added the appropriate 
 
THE REFER'ENJOErniPAfefMti^T: A 9 
 
 chapters and their bibliographies in Brown, Bostwick, Dana, and 
 
 Graesel as follows: 
 
 Brown, James Duff. Manual of library economy. London, 1907. 
 (Book selection, pp. 141 ff. ; Reference library, pp. 362 ff.; Read- 
 ing-rooms methods, pp. 371 ff.) 
 
 Dana, J. C. A library primer. Chicago, 1910. 
 
 Reference books for a small library, Reference work, Reading 
 rooms, etc. 
 
 Bostwick, A. E. The American public library. New York, 1910. 
 Reading and reference books, Library and the child, etc. 
 
 Graesel, A. Handbuch der Bibliothekslehre. Leipzig, 1902. (Von 
 der Benutzung innerhalb des Bibliotheksgebaeudes, pp. 408-29.) 
 For bringing and keeping up to date, use the Indexes to periodi- 
 cals, the Department on Library Economy in the Library journal, 
 and the Zentralblatt fur Bibliothekswesen. The annual volumes 
 prepared from the Zentralblatt by Hortzschansky (Beihefte 29, 31, 
 32, 34, 36, 37) are most useful. Nothing can of course take the place 
 of the indexes to the various library periodicals on all topics. The 
 papers and proceedings of the College and Reference section of the 
 American library association as published in its proceedings are 
 apt to be the most considerable contribution each year to the litera- 
 ture of this topic. 
 
 In the matter of selection of books for the Reference Department 
 the lists of actual collections such as those of the John Crerar library, 
 the British Museum, and the Berlin, Paris, or Vienna libraries are 
 the best supplements to the sources mentioned in Kroeger. 
 
 An admirable and interesting presentation of the means and 
 methods for rapid-fire reference work in public libraries is found in 
 "The Psychological Moment" by Marilla Waite Freeman, Library 
 journal, February, 1911. 
 
PUBLICATIONS OF THE 
 
 AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 
 
 PUBLISHING BOARD 
 
 78 E. WASHINGTON ST., CHICAGO, ILL, 
 
 Guide to reference books. Edited by Alice B. Kroeger. Revised and 
 
 enlarged edition. Cloth, $1.50 (postage, 11 cents). 
 Literature of American history. Edited by J. N. Lamed. Cloth, 
 
 $6 (postage, 30 cents); sheep, $7.50; | mor,, $9. 
 Hints to Small Libraries. By Mary W. Plummer. Cloth, 75 cents. 
 A. L. A. Booklist. Subject index, 1905-June, 1910 (v. 1-6). Paper, 
 
 25 cents. 
 Selected list of music and books about music for public libraries. 
 
 By Louisa M. Hooper. Paper, 25 cents. 
 
 LISTS OF FOBEIGN BOOKS 
 Selected list of Hungarian books. Paper, 15 cents. 
 Selected list of German books. Paper, 50 cents. 
 List of French books. Paper, 25 cents. 
 List of Norwegian and Danish books. Paper, 25 cents. 
 French fiction. Paper, 5 cents. 
 List of Swedish books. Paper, 25 cents. 
 
 LIBRARY HANDBOOKS 
 
 Intended to help the librarians of small libraries in the various 
 details of library work. 
 x. Essentials in library administration, By Miss L. E. Stearns. 
 
 Paper, 15 cents. 
 
 2. Cataloging for small libraries. By Theresa Hitchler. Paper, 
 
 15 cents. 
 
 3. Management of traveling libraries. By Edna D. Bullock. Paper, 
 
 15 cents. 
 
 4. Aids in book selection. By Alice B. Kroeger, Paper, 15 cents. 
 
 5. Binding for small libraries. Paper, 15 cents. Suggestions pre- 
 
 pared by the A. L. A. committee on bookbinding. 
 
 6. Mending and repair of books. By Margaret W. Brown. Paper, 
 
 15 cents. 
 
 7. U.S. Government documents in small libraries. By J. I, Wyer, Jr. 
 
 Paper, 15 cents. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
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 DEC 2 9 1864 
 
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