m the collection.
It was hypothesized that these difficulties may be related uniquely to the public library. In other words, academic and other kinds of libraries may not experience these problems.
In an earlier study of public library reference services as they relate to legal reference questions, Dewdney, Chan, Sue-Chan, Ross and Sue (1988), found similar results. It was recommended that the problem be remediated through the use of several strategies. These included: a greater degree of systematic research on the part of reference librarians as well as problem-solving among library associations, educators, publishers, government and the legal professions.
Do patrons of public libraries view the quality of service provided by reference librarians differently than do patrons who are professional librarians? This question was examined by Mitchell and Harris (1987) who showed videotapes of reference interviews to regular patrons and professional public librarians. The presented interviews were constructed to vary in the level of nonverbal warmth shown by the librarian and in terms of the process used to instruct the user in the use of reference strategies and tools.
Results of the study were said to show that patrons who were librarians were harsher judges than regular patrons but that both groups were affected positively by level of warmth shown toward the user; that is, both groups tended to judge those librarians they perceived as high on warmth as also maximally competent. Interestingly, it was also found that female librarians were harsher judges of librarian competence than were male librarians or male patrons.
In an effort to improve the quality of reference services, a study was undertaken by King (1990) at the request of the Orem (Utah) Public Library administration, to identify the library's strengths and weaknesses, and to measure how close they were to achieving their target goal of 100 percent eff...