This era has been called the "information age," because of the increasingly easy access people have to information of all sorts (Eshleman, Cashion & Basirico, 1994). One source of this information is the library. The purpose of the review of literature presented here is to explore the effectiveness of the library as an information source.
Specifically, the review will examine empirical research looking at the effectiveness of library reference services for different kinds of libraries, e.g. public libraries, special libraries, academic libraries, etc. Conclusions are drawn as to the general level of effective reference service delivery. These conclusions are then discussed in relation to literature about elevating the effectiveness levels of reference services.
Library Reference Services: Effectiveness Studies
Dewdney, Marshall, Tiamiyu and Tiamiyu (1991) reported that a good deal of reference material sought by the public relates to legal and health information and that public libraries often experience difficulties in providing source material in these areas. In an effort to examine the relative effectiveness of reference library services in these areas, the authors interviewed librarians working at public libraries.
It was determined that legal and health information comprised 5 to 10 percent of reference requests and that librarians had difficulties providing this information a good deal of the time. As to differences in level of difficulty related to the area of information being sought, Dewdney, Marshall, Tiamiyu and Tiamiyu (1991) reported that:
(1) There was more difficulty providing legal information than there was providing health information;
(2) Librarians were more unsure of whether their answers were correct for legal references than for health references; and (3) There was a greater tendency for health references to be lost from the collection than for legal references to be lost fro...