The Library as an Information Source This era has been called the "info

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

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ary and information science. Also, there was a significant correlation between employing a librarian certified by the Medical Library Association and the accuracy of answers provided by the library. Although some referrals were to unspecified libraries or individuals, the majority were to specific sources for which the reference librarian provided a name, address and/or telephone number. When these "helpful referrals" were counted with accurate answers as correct responses, they account for 76.8 percent of the answers. Four libraries answered all queries accurately. In a follow-up survey, five libraries (9.8 percent) stated that accurate answers were not provided because they did not own the appropriate source. Staff related problems were given as reasons by 17.6 percent of the libraries, while 25.5 percent indicated that library policy prohibited providing answers to the public. Section Summary. The review of the literature on reference library effectiveness in special libraries indicated that librarians who possess special knowledge may be more effective than librarians who do not possess special knowledge. There were also indications that over the phone reference interviews may be associated with more accurate
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 4846
Approximate Pages = 19 (250 words per page)