International reference service: Requiem or revival

Znt. Libr. Rev. (1975) 7, 427-443

International Reference Service: Requiem or Revival?

E. BEYERLY*

In this paper I propose-as a self-styled affiliate of the urithin-puts (Fran- tiers, p. 385)-to discuss not so much the fundamental changes that have been affecting the reference function of the library, but to describe the actual functioning of a rather special international reference service which is part and parcel of the UNESCO Library.1 In attempting this expose I was only too aware of the axe I had to grind; yet how is the oft bemoaned lack of reference theory2 to be remedied if not by some candid reporting of reference practice ?s In doing just this I shall undoubtedly incur the scorn of my colleagues opposed to empirical principles and in- ductive methods. However, rather than disconsolately await a philosophical consensus4 concerning the “oughts” of reference service, I shall dwell on the “is” of the UNESCO reference work. All the more so as the library/documentation/information literature abounds in references to control and retrieval and/or dissemination of information, when in actual fact

* UNESCO Library, Place de Fontenoy, Paris 7e, France. 1 Applying the usual categories of “public”, “school”, “academic”, “national” and

“special” (cf. chapter V in F. N. Withers), the UNESCO Library would most closely qualify as a cross between a special and academic type library, combining as it does (primarily) a broad social science subject proftle with an international setting and service (cf. also footnote l on p. 439.

s The view of B. S. Wynar (1967). Reference theory: situation hopeless but not impossible. Call. tY RATS. Lib. 28, 341, is apparently going to be historically seconded by the study undertaken in 1971 by the Strozier Library of the Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla., entitled Information Explosion : a Retrospective Study of Znfmtion Explosions: a Retrospective Study of Znfonnation Philosophy and in the Literatures of Traditional Refmence.

s I presume to be in illustrious company between A. V. Lawson, (1970). Reference service in university libraries: two case studies. New York, Columbia University, (Ph.D. thesis) and R. W. Stephenson, Reference facilities and services of the Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress, Sp. Lib. (1974). 65, 227-33.

4 It helps to be reminded by S. Siiova in Burnett, p. 83, that if library science appears to be considered closer to the social rather than to the natural sciences, a recent trend in the social sciences away from the “belief that counting and measuring detine the line of distinction between science and loose talk” (Simsova’s reference to B. Malinowski) will necessarily also affect the library imperatives.

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there is little discussion of the dissemination part beyond the limited mechanical retrieval aspect thereof.1

Discussing assumptions underlying one’s professional outlook may seem a gratuitous pastime, yet indispensable if one’s reference services are to be considered at all meaningful.2 I for my part assume that: (a) the spread of the twentieth-century contagion labelled “communication’s will increase rather than decrease the tendency for asking (reference) questions; (b) even if the reference librarians are threatened to be squashed “between the anvil of resources and the hammer of demands” (Fussler cited in MacAnally, 1973, p. 110) they will prove adaptable species if short of “mechanical marvels” (Shera, Knowing books, p. 214) ever ready to dig for, if not always to come up with relevant answers; (c) given both the fragmentation of knowledge and the increasing cost of control-traditional and computerized-of recorded knowledge, it seems likely that the reference librarian’s stock will be on the rise, especially as budget officers become aware of the intellectual versatility and relative inexpensiveness-compared to the machine-programmed dialogueJ--of that “human converter of the potential energy of books

1 Y. El-Ayouty (1971). The dissemination, use and impact of knowledge relevant to UNITAR. Social Science Information October, 55-72, defines dissemination as a part of the “maximisation of the impact of research”. But neither El-Ayouty nor IFLA in its background document ZFLA and the Role of Libraries. (1974). The Hague, 37 pages, prepared for the UNESCO Conference on Intergovernmental Planning of National Documentation, Library and Archives Infrastructures, Paris September, 1974, explicitly connect reference service with dissemination of knowledge; although both texts contain the stock phrase of “storage and retrieval” the distinction between retrieval of “information” versus retrieval of the “document” is not always obvious.

*The general library (identity) crisis as it has been perceived from the mid-1960s on seems to revolve precisely around the rarely examined assumptions underlying library activities. Thus M. C. Brown (1965) in “A look at the future through bifocals”. Libr. Res. Tech. Serv. 9, 262, found it odd that most librarians worried about the “how” but rarely about the “why” and “whither” of their work. Where H. Dubester in Linderman, p. 95 found too much focus on means rather than on goals, R. Blasinghame ( 1972) in Lib?. 3. (May l), p. 167 1, made no bones about librarians operating without objectives and “when called upon to produce a policy statement, they produce either cliches or statements of objectives designed to cover the entire field rather than any particular institution”.

s Not only is there a whole sector in UNESCO devoted to “communication”, comprising the free flow of information, libraries, mass communication, but the entire International Telecommunication Union and the European Broadcasting Union concern communication in its various technical and regional aspects.

4 A. M. Rees in Linderman, p. 64. It is usually easier to justify the existence rather than the cost of a service; what is not always so easy is to cost-account for all alternate services. In this instance without wishing to espouse the anti-cost Zen approach (Kountz, p. 463) I be- lieve that a very careful cost analysis of both the potential computerized and the existing human reference service must be made before a conversion to automated reference work is contemplated; while I do not quarrel with the findings that it costs an institution 3 to 4 times a given (reference) librarian’s salary to employ that person [A. Armstrong, (1972). A cost- determining formula for library staff. Libr. Am. Rec. 74,8586], I wonder if such fmdings are not equally true in terms of library computer costs. And once such cost correlations have been

INTERNATIONAL REFERENCE SERVICE 429

mouldering on shelves into the kinetic energy of use by readers” (Ranganathan, 1940, p. 34).

Before describing the UNESCO reference service on the basis of the aforementioned assumptions, an historical aside may be in order. In view of the fact that the national and international libraries are increasingly subject to mechanization, it may not be amiss to remember the conclusions of the 1955 Rothstein study on the historical development of reference service in the U.S.A. There has always existed a con- servativei trend towards collecting and preserving the records of man- kind, generally with the attendant need for elaborate-alphabetical and/ or classified-catalogues to these records; it is only since World War II that a shift from collecting to selecting and/or interpreting2 of resources has occurred. What appears generally to have been forgotten is that: if reference librarians were needed to interpret the access to the collection during an era of seemingly controllable resources, the role of the reference librarians during the reign of information explosion is that of indispensable mediators between heaps of resources and masses of

established is it not time to ask oneself the question: does the choice involve deciding between two t&m of techniques and their costs-or is the option one between objectives and techniques; i.e. should not the users’ need for information-rather than just for the records containing it- rank higher in the hierarchy of currently propounded library values than the concern with costs alone? Keeping in mind that nothing is free in this world, the price of past experience should also not be neglected. And at present, and particularly in small libraries (50 OOO- 80 000 volumes), reference experience has shown that machine-readable access to the collection is not ipso facto synonymous with satisfying readers’ requests, either for the record or the information therein. My personal experience in the UNESCO Library seems counter to the findings in the MIT Library whose readers preferred a cut in bibliographic and information service to a cut in the numerical increase of the collection [J. Raffel and R. Shisko report, cited in A. Schumacher (1973) Develofmentfdans . . . , London, Seminar Press, p. 891; but then the habits of multinational UNESCO programme specialists are not necessarily identi- cal with a special set of American professors and students.

1 American library literature tends to impute such an outlook chiefly to present-day European libraries forgetting that in the nineteenth-century American libraries--still busy learning from their European counterparts--also were imbued with ideals of collecting and conserving and less interested in use and service [cf. S. Rothstein (1955). 27r.e Develojnmt of Referme Services, passim]. It is worth noting that the eminent twentieth-century European librarian H. Libaers (1973) in Books, libraries and librarians-European and American style. J. Libr. Hist. 8,18-22, returns to some advantages of the twentieth century-passive, tradition- bound, European librariamhip over the twentieth century “more aggressive” and/or ex- perimental Am&can library ways.

s Increasing knowledge parallelled with the need to examine such knowledge has resulted in an increased disability to “identify knowledge in useable, discrete units” (K. E. Beasely in Reynolds, p. 10) ; this in turn has led to a more “limited” concept of librarianship, illustrated among others by (a) a selective approach to the previous all-embracing collecting of information and an emphasis upon (b) “the act of human interrogation and its response” (J. Shera, Libraries and the Organization of Knowka’ge, p. 164).

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users. Without wishing to question the very real contribution of computerized processing of information to librarianship, it seems equally certain that the emerging “reference-bibliographer” (Gration and Young, 1974) is not only here to stay, but possibly to become the soft-ware to the existing computerized hard-ware. As an illustration of just what kind of duties reference librarians in an international organization in the last quarter of the twentieth century must perform, let us turn to UNESCO’s reference service.

To understand the role of this reference service (a) its place in the organizational and programme set-up of UNESCO as a specialized agency within the UN system, and (b) its relation to European, primarily French, library practice must be kept in mind.

Within the international context, again two aspects must be reckoned with namely: (a) the twentieth-century philosophical implications of the changing theories of knowledge (tending towards holism, configuration) in general, and the impact of such changes on UNESCO’s preoccupa- tionr with problems of-rather than projects in-peace, human rights, ecology, communication, etc. in particular and (b) the effects of Unesco’s operationally conceived programmes, whether in the “field” or at “headquarters”.

In operational terms this means that the UNESCO Department of Documentation, Library, Archives (abbreviated as DBA) plans and im- plements UNESCO’s programme in this field throughout the world; while the UNESCO Library, administratively a part of DBA, serves the headquarters’ sta$, first and foremost. As an example of this strategy/ tactics division it may be helpful to distinguish between the Conference on Intergovernmental Planning of National Documentation, Library and Archives Infrastructures (Paris, September 1974) elaborated by the aforementioned UNESCO Department, and the various national dele- gates to this conference likely to visit the UNESCO Library’s reference room for some background information they may need in the various meetings. As a further example of the distinction between UNESCO’s DBA “programme” and the “library” proper, one might cite the various publications in library science initiated by the programmes and these same works found for consultation in the UNESCO Library.

1 “Development” in terms of strategic objectives, and “inter-disciplinary” in terms of tactical techniques, are two of the contemporary labels most often applied to international organizations. Added to this perception from the outside [cf. J. P. Sewell’s chapter on UNESCO in R. W. Cox (1973) Anatomy of I&mace. p. 145. New Haven, Yale University Press] within UNESCO, a distinction between inter-sectoral activities and inter-disciplinary problems is also increasingly made (cf. UNESCO 18 C/5, xxviii-xxix).

2 World Guide to Library Sc~ols and Training Courses in Documentation (1972). Paris, UNESCO, (English and French editions); Bibliographical Services throughout the world. Paris, UNESCO, 1951-53 (the last 5 year period covered was 1965-69, published in 1972), compiled by P.


Once this inter-sectoral (“communication sector”) difference within this international agency is assimilated, there remains the daily aware- ness that the UNESCO reference service must also function within a specific national landscape. That is to say, if certain “theoretical” library notions are subscribed to by the UNESCO programme, it is likely that the everyday contact of the UNESCO Library staff with French readers or weekly inter-library loans in Paris libraries-con- servation rather than service-minded-will somewhat temper the ideal programme objectives.

LOCATION

Astride the international and national vagaries there then exists the reference service of the UNESCO Library. It is located on the ground floor of the main UNESCO building, Place de Fontenoy, the creation (1958) of Breuer, Nervi and Zehrfuss who saw to it that even the reading room would be a showpiece. The 13 x 24 m reading room-including a glass-railed mezzanine for the consultation of current newspapers and magazines-is entirely surrounded by large windows; through these, during the odd moments of respite from readers and rumination, one may glory in the chimney-studded roofs outlined against the ever- changing hues of the Paris sky. There is space for 35 readers at seven tables plus seven reference carrells. The light, the space and the elegant, honey-colored pitch-pine furniture-a gift of the Swedish government- conspire for just the sort of atmosphere thought to promote UNESCO’s ideal of life-long education. All readers have open access to the 300 linear metres of shelves housing about 9000 reference worksr, but only

Avicenne (between the 5-year cumulations it is kept up to date by supplements in the periodical Bibliography, Docummtation, Terminology Paris, UNESCO, 1961-) ; Vocabularium bibliothecarii. Paris, UNESCO, 1953- English/French/German edition, with subsequent supplements in different languages, of which the 1971 Hungarian supplement is the latest; UJC!3SCO Bulletin

for Libraries. Paris, UNESCO, 1947- bi-monthly, English, French, Spanish and Russian editions, to mention some of the best known library publications bearing the UNESCO im- print.

1 There are 60 shelf-units, each with five rows of 1 metre shelves, each 1 linear metre hold- ing about 30 volumes (allowing space for an additional five to eight volumes); one of the peculiarities of the UNESCO reference service is that the consultation of reference works in the reading room only cannot be rigidly enforced with the UNESCO staff owing to a diversity of national/professional attitudes on the matter-hence about 50% of the reference collection exists in duplicate volumes (or about 4000 volumes, mainly of dictionaries, directories and Who’s Whos; it should also be kept in mind that of the 9000 volumes kept in the reference

room about 1500 volumes represent 15 titles of encyclopedias). Work is in progress to update and subsequently describe the UNESCO reference collection, somewhat on the pattern of either Harvard University Library. Reference collection shelved in the Reading Room and Acqaisition Dept . . . (1970). Cambridge, Mass., 130 pp. (Widener Library, She&list, 33), or SoveJlaniepo spravoho-6ibliograJiEeskoj rabote; sbornik materialov (1962) Mcskva, &rim, describing among others, the reference collections in the Moscow and Leningrad libraries.

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UNESCO staff members may consult (a) the 300-odd titles of national and subject bibliographies housed in the first basement (150 ms), representing 925 linear metres or about 10000 volumes in all, and (b) help themselves to the books on the shelves of the main collection in the second basement (Zooms), representing 1500 linear metres or about 60000 volumes.1 The periodicals collection also housed in the second basement occupies 355 ms, with over 1900 linear metres of shelves housing around 2300 periodical titles, representing about 40000 pieces handled annually; because of the limited space and even more limited binding funds, the periodicals collection is largely unbound and as a precautionary measure, there is no access to readers. About 90% of the collection-reference, main, ‘periodicals-is catalogued and classified according to UDC, while the non-catalogued material is arranged by types most suitable for quick reference service.

COLLECTION

When the UNESCO Library was created in 1946 (continuing a small collection of the International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation) it was conceived as a working collection for the benefit of the Secretariat, the Permanent Delegations and the Executive Board. If in 1947 the Library had 3000 volumes and 250 periodical titles, in 1972 (or 25 years later) some 60000 volumes and 2300 periodicals constituted the collection.

On the whole, this collection must be viewed mainly from two aspects : in terms of subject, it reflects the UNESCO objectives as these are expressed in the programmes-and if the main collection is perhaps somewhat uneven in certain fields, these are generally compensated by the unusual subject dictionaries and handbooks in the reference collection. In terms of use, the UNESCO staff primarily needs “ready reference” (dictionaries, directories, encyclopedias, handbooks, etc., located in the reference room); the non-UNESCO readers, on the other hand, make heavy use not only of the reference collection-including its assorted bibliographies, indexing and abstracting journals-but also of the main

1 Inventories are expensive, hence neither the exact number of volumes and/or titles have been corredy assessed of late. Given a peculiarity of the UNESCO Library-not unknown in some of the other international libraries-mainly, that lending to staff is rarely, if ever, enforced by a rigorous recall policy, this means that of the estimated 60 066 volumes representing the main (subject) collection, about 25% or about 15 000 volumes are not on the shelves in the Library stacks but rather in assorted offices of UNESCO staff members. Possibly the epithet “special” is being earned by the UNESCO Library here, meaning that a day-to-day compromise between the absolutes of a “professional lending standard” and the relativity of “national/cultural/etlmic” habits” must be made.


collection, particularly of the numerous English-language studies in the social sciences. A paying photocopying machine (Rand Xerox 3100) is available to readers outside UNESCO. The main collection may be considered to consist of two parts: (a) the actively consulted recent publications in the various disciplines for the use in UNESCO’s current programmes and (b) the lesser used and/or duplicate copies in what amounts to a “central depository”1 of publications mainly of past and/or continuing UNESCO programmes.

In addition to the subject and use aspects of the collection, its small uncatalogued parts might be considered as trpes supplementing the general use of the library. Thus, in addition to the catalogued main collection, there are 12 linear metres of (uncatalogued) annual reports arranged by broad subjects and countries; 6 linear metres of publishers’ and private) institutions; and, mainly for the use of the Translation Division, a selection of 104 linear metres of publications by the UN and specialized agencies are kept arranged by sales numbers. Among the uncatalogued material supplementing the reference collection, mention should be made of 28 drawers of Vertical File pamphlets, brochures, arranged by broad subjects and countries; 6 linear metres of publishers’ catalogues arranged by countries; 15 linear metres of British standards; six drawers of some 300 loose-leaf maps, arranged by continents, geo- graphic areas and countries.

As the library collects only that which is commonly called a publication this means that documents (which in the case of international organizations carry symbols) and technical reports are generally ex- cluded. However, the UNESCO Archives in its legal depository2 func-

1 Because of special programme requirements, the UNESCO Library operates on the principle of a divided budget; hence UNESCO departments, divisions and sections select and pay for many of the works required for the programmer. These works, more or less auto- matically-at least during the acute phase of programme implementation-are housed in the various documentation centres such as Mass Communication (2000 volumes), Educational Planning (2200 volumes), Translation (900 volumes), Statistics (609 volumes) to mention only the more important “branch” sections of the central Library! Thus there may be a copy of Black Africa; a Com@arativc Ha&book (1972). New York, in the Library as well as in the Documentation Centre for Culture; but, on the other hand, the only copy of R. S. Le May (1954). 7’he C&are of Soufhwf Asia, London, will be on the Library shelves, while the only copy ofJ. D umaaedier (1974). Sociologic em@ique du &sir, Paris, will, because of its recency, be housed in the Documentation Centre for Culture.

a Access to UNESCO publications and documents is had via the following guides: (R&o- spcctive Coverage) Bibliography of Publications Issued by UNXCO or w&r its Ausfies; the First Twent&$ve rears: 19461971. (1973). 383 pp. Paris, UNESCO. The 5475 items concern (a)

UNESCO official publications (arranged by provenance) and (b) publications, including periodical titles, arranged according to UDC for the different subjects. (Current, On-going Coverage) List of UNESCO Documents and Publications, 1972- bi-monthly issues arranged in two parts: by master file numbers and cumulative subject indexes; plus annual cumulative lists, arranged by author/title, with subject, title and series indexes. Beginning with 1975 the cumulative lists will also analyse the contents of certain UNESCO documents and periodicals.

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tion collects, indexes and stores all UNESCO publications and documents, the arrangement being by provenance-this in turn means a UNESCO publication is found on the library shelves according to its subject (UDC), while the same item is housed in the archives in the order of the issuing department, division or section.

It should be noted that within the Bureau of Relations with Member States and International Organizations and Programmes (abbreviated as RMO), there is a documentation centre for the acquisition and dis- tribution of UN publications and documents, in English and French. The UNESCO Library receives its UN publications from the latter centre. In passing, mention should be made of the Centre d’lnformation de I’0.X U. which makes available information on UN publications and documents, in French only, to the French public. This centre, like the UNESCO-UN documentation centre, is housed in the rue Miollis building of UNESCO but there is no administrative connection between the two centres.

In many ways the UNESCO Library is a treasure trove. For example, there is an extensive collection of (catalogued) annual reports from national ministries of education and non-official educational institutions, as well as congress proceedings in the field of education; statistical material of national and international provenance abounds; the bulk of Piaget’s writings is represented; there are fascinating art works for different periods and areas; we have periodicals like the English Journal, Champaign, 111. ; Science and Culture, Calcutta; Middle East Forum, Beirut; or newspapers like Ren min Jia-Pao, Peking; Los Andes, Mendoza, rarely found in French libraries; the visiting documentalists are quickly en- gulfed in the sea of library literature; and studies on the planning and evaluating of arid zone research, earthquake engineering or effects of solar radiation are much sought after. Add to this extensive, eclectic and exotic array reference works such as: a biographical dictionary of Venezuelan artists; the French Million encyclopedia and numerous area handbooks of the American University, Washington, D.C.; encyclopedias of philosophy; of education; of Islam; not to speak of such

It might be noted that the computerized indexing of publications allots an average of three to four descriptors per item, continuing the tradition of three to four subject headings per con- ventionally catalogued item. In conventional cataloguing two steps were involved: one looked up the UDC number in the English or French subject index and then proceeded to the classified catalogue; in the computerized subject list-with descriptors only in English-there is one alphabetical order of the descriptors with the individual items listed under the descriptor. But this advantage of the computer list’s one-operation approach is o&et by the traditional subject index providing very useful subject sub-divisions forestalling, as it were, the computer’s potential on-line operation. For a description of T?M Computerized Documentation Service of UXESCO see the document UNITAR/EUR/SEM.l/WP.I1/18.


national works as the Brazilian, Dutch or Soviet-second and third editions only-encycolpedias, to mention only some. Should the aforementioned “general reference background” material leave the customers yearning for some linguistic learning they have a choice of studying the Hausa-English vocabulary, the French-Burmese dictionary, the Chinese-Latin lexicon or the Hispanisms in Taglog! Or, if language- cum-subject approaches are wanted monolingual gems like the German social science dictionary, the Ukrainian legal dictionary, Chinese mili- tary terms or the Moroccan mathematical lexicon can be proferred and supplemented by such bi- and multilingual marvels as the English- Portuguese dictionary of technology, the Russian-English dictionary of information science, the Elsevier interlingual machine-tool dictionary or the illustrated dictionary of plant names in Latin, Arabic, Armenian, English, German, Italian and Turkish. And if the researchers must pro- ceed beyond primary-source reference works, works like the Albanian, Colombian, Malagasy, Turkish, etc. national bibliographies, and/or subject bibliographies of cartography, environment, Islamic studies, music or Romanian science, etc. may be resorted to.

The different collection policies: (a) the library versus the archives (some versus all UNESCO products); (b) the library versus the RMO UN documentation centre (UN publications versus UN documents); (c) within the Library itself (monographs versus periodicals, reference versus main collection, catalogued versus uncatalogued materials) may seem like so many stop-signs were it not for the reference librarians acting as traffic cops. In other words, the library collection is only fully inte- grated into the UNESCO environment if the reference librarians assume a co-ordinating role.

ACCESS TO THE COLLECTION

Such co-ordination fortunately is made easier by that oft-maligned, fallible yet indispensable access to the collection-the catalogue. This reference tool located in the reading room represents the central bibliographical approach to the catalogued collection. In January 1973, this catalogue, until then in card form, was superseded by computerized lists. The card catalogue consists of: 180 drawers (about 150000 cards) representing the author/title approach, in one alphabetical order; 20 drawers (about 16 000 cards) representing separate English and French subject indexes-including subject _ sub-divisions; 80 drawers (about 64 000 cards) of the classified (UDC) catalogue, plus 25 drawers (about 20 000 cards) of the special geographical catalogue. There is also a Union Catalogue of the holdings of the UNESCO education

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documentation centres (Bangkok, Dakar, Geneva, Santiago) con- sisting of 12 drawers (about 8000 cards), and there are Kardexes for most of the catalogued annual reports.

As UNESCO, like other international organizations, is a prolific pro- ducer of publications and documents, it was natural that to control this production computerization was resorted to. And it was equally evident that in addition to about 6000 UNESCO-produced annual items (publications and documents) the library’s yearly acquisition of about 4000 publications (half purchase, half gifts) would be processed by the computer. Hence, there are the following computer lists: (a) the bi- monthly UNESCO List of Documents and Publications (cf. footnote 16), properly representing UNESCO-produced material housed in the archives, on the other hand, (b) the UNESCO Library Acquisition List, 1946 (computerized since 1973), a monthly author/title and subject arrangement of selected new additions to the Library, (c) separate author, title, subject and UDC lists, the monthly cumulations of each list leading up to one annual cumulation, with projected five-year cumulations to fol- low; these lists represent the growing overall collection of the UNESCO Library, including both UNESCO and non-UNESCO publications (but no documents).

Having described in some detail the location and overall content of the collection and the various descriptive, bibliographic approaches thereto, I can now turn to the raison d’h-e for all this cost of acquiring and upkeep of materials, namely: users and reference services.

REFERENCE SERVICES

The UNESCO reference services, as these are practised by two reference librarians-assisted by one circulation clerk, one stack attendant and one part-time reference clerk-in the main reading roomr, consist of: (a) helping users, (b) developing the collection, and recently, (c) supervising a select number of library trainees.

That is to say, the library is first and foremost at the service of the UNESCO headquarters staff (2 117 in 1973), but since early 1973 an annual average of about 1500 non-UNESCO readers-chiefly researchers, doctoral students, international civil servants, information specialists, etc.-also use the reference room. A daily average of 60-80 visitors- 25% non-UNESCO-includes about 20 “serious” readers who ask

1 In addition to the main reading room in the UNESCO Library, Pl. de Fontenoy-open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.-Monday through Friday-there are smaller reading rooms in the documentation centres of Mass Communication, Statistics, Educational Planning and Social Sciences, to mention only some centres, and to which readers outside UNESCO are admitted only at given times (cf. also footnote 1 on p. 433).


about 25 reference questions (only those requiring a minimum of 15 minutes search are counted as such); as part of the daily services, an average of 30 titles are lent-to UNESCO staff only-plus about 50 titles consulted in the reading room only. So far no pertinence/relevance correlation (Shera, Knowing books, p. 217) between reference questions asked and information supplied has been undertaken.

On the whole, the types of reference questions asked fall into two categories: (a) the “quick” reference, such as: where to buy Portuguese books in Paris? what is CAFRAD ? which Dedijer (C,S,V or A) is the scientist? who is the president of the Club of Rome? what has a pro- spective UNESCO consultant published and/or where can he be con- tacted? and (b) “information on”-be it of the definition, bibliography or interpretation kind-such as : how are works of art lent for travelling exhibits to be properly insured? impressions of a “recent” trip to the Soviet Union by French sociologists; what has been written on the third world and the energy crisis ? texts on health education for secondary schools; which definition of the “middle level personnel” as a general concept would be most suitable for a specific technical education training programme? It is almost invariably the UNESCO secretariat member who needs at short notice a list of votes taken in the UN concerning official language use, or requires the English text of a Member State’s con- stitution : by contrast, a visiting professor from Asia will delight in poring over mountains of available works on cultural assimilation, while a team of Latin American students preparing a project on urban renewal in developing countries will keep coming back for bibliographical information; and if one did not from time to time assume a suitable watchdog attitude, most of the Paris student population would invade the premises because of the library’s unusual resources and ready access thereto.

It is precisely this dichotomy between the UNESCO staff’s need for information available in reference handbooks and the non-UNESCO readers’ interest in extensive documentation of a given subject that calls for help of the reference librarian. For neither the card catalogue nor its recent successor, the computerized lists, will produce the actual information, needed, moreover, quickly-and found rapidly only if a thorough familiarity with the extensive and varied reference tools is brought to task.

(1) Helping the readers, at present, amounts mostly to guidance in general1 and in the use of the card catalogue, the computerized lists and

1 When a body like the International Federation of Documentation devotes a whole conference to the users of documentation and their training (cf. FZD PubliGations No. 472, 1971 and No. 486, 1974) such day-to-day reference activities suddenly assume a certain importance. The one-time worry of reference librarians is gradually becoming the concern of information specialists as well!

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special abstracting and/or indexing journals in particular; the steady stream of questions-in person and by phone-addressed to the reference librarians (each of whom spends not less than 20 hours per week at the reference desk) do not allow for more than interpreting the card catalogue or performing the on-line searches for the presently off-line computerized lists-e.g., finding the pertinent reference for teaching geography in secondary schools in Africa! But neither the practical experience with one’s reference collection, the attendant bibliographical and the main collection will suffice if one has had no time, and worse, insufficient academic training, to be one step-at least-ahead of one’s readers’ potential questions. Having descriptions ready of METRO, NELINET, etc. was to have anticipated UNESCO DBA’s interest in library networks; or being prepared to dig for suitable analogies when convenient headings like “futurology “, “cultural relativism” or “socio- logy of model formation” did not appear in book titles, let alone in subject headings, descriptors and/or permuted index lists, meant the best possible way to assist one’s readers-hazards any reference librarian worth a pinch of salt must face! But the international variant1 of this “phantasmic species” (Gration and Young, 1974) must also be ready to switch back and forth between the two official working languages of English and French-and it helps if one has a smattering of Spanish, Russian or Arabic, the conference languages in UNESCO-in order not only to be sure that a West African UNESCO staff member looking up the French subject index for “information dans les sciences” (UDC 659.25) did not really want “science de l’information” (UDC 651.25), but that a North American economic historian, speaking in halting French, not be sent away to another library because neither the card catalogue nor the computerized lists dealt with the concept of “uncertainty”.s Add to this linguistically based professional proficiency the need for constant adaptation to a variety of ethnocentric susceptibilities -varying from an English-speaking visitor’s surprise that the “librairie” is next door to the library, to the pained perception of a member state’s delegate that the library is as yet inadequately stocked with the latest

1 For a description of attributes see H. Libaers’ (1966) report at the 1st symposium of the Association of International Libraries, Geneva, 12-14 May, 1966, reported in the UNESCO Bull. Lib. 20, 322-323.

s Even with a language in common, it takes “communication” to determine whether the philosophical or economic aspects of the concepts are wanted; if the economic element of “uncertainty” is what the reader is after, unless a perfectly pertinent work can be instantly produced, searching for some relevant information through the Library catalogues or indexing journals may have to be by way of the general heading “risk”. Only after the reference librarian’s brain will have connected “uncertainty” with “risk’~, can the computer be in- structed to make a search under “risk’‘-and if there are no on-line facilities, “selection-out” of the irrelevant records (noise) may also have to be performed by the reference librarian.


reference materials for his country-and it should be obvious that at the present stage of the information feedback the (international) reference librarian is fairly useful to the readers.

Having hopefully dispelled some of the wide-spread notions that the creature behind the reference desk either just trots out books or guards the premises, I shall now attempt to describe what the UNESCO reference librarians do in the 20 hours when they are not actively engaged in “human” and “computer” servicing.

(2) The instructional/interpreting tasks may be said to be supplemented by selection/weeding duties, to wit: (a) choosing items for re- tention from works received in the library as gifts, as well as from bibliographical sources for potential ~U~CLYZ.WS, on one hand, and (b) to keep the collection alive but within bounds, discarding items deemed of no permanent value to the library. In view of the increasing output-still plagued by imperfect if mechanized control-+f publications and documents by international organizations (Dimitrov), one of the reference librarians spends at least one hour a day processing the publications (but not documents) of international organizations, i.e. deciding which items should be retained (annually out of about 2200 items roughly 1000 items are kept) and which of the retained items rate full cataloging. Between themselves, the two reference librarians scan about 45 journals, both of subject and purely bibliographical content, as a result of which about 800 items are suggested1 and as a rule accepted, for purchase; in addition, they glean from among the numerous gifts some 3000 items. This means that of an average, annual acquisition of around 8500 items-representing a 6% annual rate of growths the reference librarians thus actively bear about 45% of the responsibility for the collection’s profile, the rest of the selection, plus financing, responsibility being vested in UNESCO’s programme specialists (cf. footnote 1 on p. 433).

It may be added in passing that in an effort to inform readers about the new additions and old treasures in the library (a) a monthly exhibit outside the reading room, and (b) weekly exhibits within the library are

1 The economic versus the intellectual quality of acquisition-along with a score of other quantitative versus qualitative problems-has been dividing librarians for some time [cf. K. McCullogh (1972). Approval plans: vendor responsibility and library research: a literature survey and discussion. Coil. 63 Res. Lib. 33, 368-811. In a relatively small library lie UNESCO’s it is economically and administratively more advantageous to select and purchase, rather than to subscribe to so-called custom-made selection lists. It might be added that if computerization of the order section is feasible, selection by computer at present is improbable in the UNESCO Library.

s Over the last 25 years the collection has grown at an average annual rate of 13% per year (cf. F. Heinritz (1974). Rate growth for library collections. Coil. d Res. Lib. 35, 954) ; such growth underscores the need for constant and consistent selection and weeding policies in order that the continued growth-albeit by a decreasing rate-be qualitative rather than linear.

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set up by the reference librarians. The monthly exhibits are in effect bibliographies, available so far in card form only, chiefly illustrating the various present and past UNESCO programmes.

If the selection activity of the reference librarians primarily concerns the up-dating and expansion of the reference collection, the weeding procedures embrace both the reference and the main collections. It is at this point that the reference librarians take over from their programme specialist colleagues; the latter outline the direction of the collection within their subject competence, but they rarely, if ever, are exercised over (a) their field’s contiguity upon other disciplines and (b) the overall state and continuity of the library collection as a whole. It is in this re- spect that the reference librarian’s combined experience, training, scholarship and a sixth sense of future trivia and transcendentals can and do, perhaps not always successfully, shape the criteria for the UNESCO Library to serve both as (a) a contemporary collection of works useful to the specialists in functional literacy, science policy, copyright, etc., and (b) an example in the twenty-first century of what were some of the outstanding and/or debated works in the preceding half century.

Ranganathan’s fifth law aside, our weeding practices constantly revolve around questions like: although the UNESCO Library has an exceptionally rich collection of national bibliographies, there willsoon be a space problem if we don’t decide to limit the storage of some weekly bibliographical materials, and this leads to a sub-question : if the library kept, say only the last five years of such rapidly growing bibliographies, would the previous years be of intrinsic use in the projected French central depository and inter-library loan centre (Centre Beaubourg), an adjunct to the Bibliotheque Nationale? Will all works of an author, including translations, be of equal value in the ongoing educational de- bate over the next 25 years? And while there is no doubt about the present and future pertinence of Climate and House design, 197 1, should the fact of its being a UN publication militate against expensive indexing but for temporary uncatalogued storage or, instead, promote the acquisition of international publications only when needed? These questions raised in the context of “weeding” obviously have larger implications.

Given the fact that French libraries, including the venerable Biblio- theque Nationale, are gradually coming to recognize the benefits of inter-library loan service-the conservationconcept is slowly yielding to the concept of service-the reference librarian has a chance of dissuading the programme specialist from purchasing a work that can be borrowed within Paris; these loans become more meaningful when the element of reciprocity is introduced, that is when about once a month an average of 50 boxes-works from the reference and main collection deemed still to


have a certain “repository” value- all in all representing about a ton of material-are being picked up either by the Bibliothqeue Nationale or other libraries in and around Paris. Recalling the works earmarked for discarding, keeping records and packaging the books for pick-ups represents a combined 50 hours per week by the clerks in the reference section.

The UNESCO Library’s connection with (mainly) Paris libraries is manifest, so far, more in the realm of rare telephone reference questions, increasing inter-library loans and extensive gifts rather than in co- operative acquisition schemes; its international co-operation, i.e. con- tacts with libraries of other international organizations is as yet in flux. It would help if within a jointly formulated policy1 the extent and type of “depository” function of the co-operating international libraries could be agreed upon, and then applied and observed over a determined time-span; on the whole, each international organization has generally been more explicit with criteria governing the safekeeping of its publications and documents in national rather than international libraries. If the various international computerized systems-AGRIS, INDIS, INIS, UNDEX, etc.-have been able to develop compatibility (in terms of bibliographical control), surely it won’t be impossible to extend this compatibility (in terms of physical control) to the realm of international depository collections as well.

(3) UNESCO’s DBA Division for the Development of Documenta- tion, Libraries and Archives Services arranges, mainly as part of its fellowship programme, for individual librarians to get in-service training in different libraries throughout the world. About two years ago, as a practical experiment, the UNESCO library began taking on short-term (one to three months) library trainees. In this way, Ameri- can, Lebanese, Thai, Zaire, etc. nationals-generally recent graduates of library schools and/or documentation training courses-have had a chance both to learn and to work in the UNESCO Library. If in the beginning the trainees are a bit puzzled by the assorted reference activities, in the end both the trainees and the reference staff benefit from each other.

Concluding my description of the UNESCO reference services, I want to stress particularly two aspects thereof: (a) working with readers and trainees, the reference staff brings people, knowledge and information techniques together, and in this way discharges what may be called

1 Such as has been expressed by G. K. Thompson Approaching a common inter-agency information system for library management and document retrieval. UNITAR/EUR/SEM. l/ WP 11/14; however, there are sceptics who question the validity of a “library in the sky” prototype for co-operation [cf. Co-operation: a mini-symposium. Lib. 3. (1972, May 15) 97, No. 9, especially R. Blasinghame’s views].

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duties of the present; (b) in applying the “doctrine of relative signifi- cance”l, thereby keeping the collection alive and well, the reference staff is, for better or for worse, future-bound. In either case, such service appears a practical example of Unesco’s definition of “documentation”.2 To what extent this service falls into the heroic, classic or fatal phases of librarianship (Simsova in Burnett), I shall leave to the discretion of my readers. But I do hope that objective future evaluations will show this particular international reference service as le superju le plus neces- saire, especially within the context of UNESCO’s objective of life-long education.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barton, M. N. and Watson, E. F. (1950). General Reference Staff Manual. 230 pp. Baltimore, Md.: Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Blasinghame, R. (1972). Libraries in a changing society. Libr. 3., May 1, p. 1667; also May 15, p. 1771; also in Frontiers in librarianshij (see below), p. 385.

Burnett, A. D., Gupta, R. K. and Simsova, S. (1973). Studies in Comparative Librarian- ship, 95 pp. London : Library Association (Published on behalf of IFLA) .

Dimitrov, Th. D. (camp.) (1972). D ocumentation of the UN and Other Intergovernmental Organizations: Information and Functional Purposes, Processing and Utilization; a Biblio- graphu, 111 pp. Geneva. (International Symposium on Documentation of the UN and other intergovernmental organizations, Geneva, 2 1-23 August 1972. UNITAR/ EUR/SEM IWP III/l 5) ; an enlarged edition of this work appeared both in London and Chicago in 1973; intergovernmental organization documentation. International Associations (1974). 26, 349.

Fenton, F. H. (1962). Reference Library &a&, 68 pp. : London: Library Association. Frontiers in Librarianrhip; Proceedings of the Change Institute, 1969. (1972), 440 pp.

Westport, Corm. : Greenwood Publ. Co. Goggin, M. K. (issue editor) (1964). Current trends in reference service. Libr. Trends

12,472 pp. Gration, S. U. and Young, A. P. (1974). R e erence-bibliographer in the college lib- f

rary. Coil. hfes. Libr. 35, 28.

1 Formulated by W. Morehouse (1972) in the foreword to Guide to ReferencesSourceson Africa, Asia, Lutin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Aftica, Russia and East Europe: Selected and Annotated. Williamsport, Penna.; but where this doctrine has in the past been used mainly to “select out” some subjects and given geographical areas, the UNESCO reference librarians try to select with the Organization’s “international understanding” and “inter- disciplinarity” in mind.

s UNESCO 18 C/5, p. xxvii “We should rise to a conception of documentation that em- braces in its entirety the processing and communication . . . of. . . information . . .: considered in this way, the multitude of media, techniques and structures it brings into play, may be defined as a service that is at the same time general and diversified for the promotion of education, science, culture, communication . . . the substance of the Organization’s programme.”

8 Of the type as the Southern Connecticut Council, 2827 Old Dixwell Ave., Hamden, COM., has undertaken in 1972, entitled Refmeme Use Survey with the objective to restructure the reference service in its library.


Grjaznov, N. I. (1970). Ra.zrabotka t$ovogo processa bibliote&zogo obslu&vanija, s pri- meneniem srea!stv mehani.&i i avtomatizacii, 47 pp. Moskva: VINITI.

Kountz, J. C. (1972). Library cost analysis. Libr.3. Feb. 1, p. 459. Linderman, W. B. (Ed). ( 1967). Present Status and Future Prospects of ReferemejInformation

Seraic~c. Proceedings of the Conference held at the School of Library Service, Columbia University, March JO-April 1, New York. 195 pp. Chicago: American Library Association.

McAnally, A. M. and Downs, R. B. (1973). The changing role of directors of university libraries. Coil. Res. Libr. 34, 103.

Ranganathan, S. R. ( 1948). Reference Service and Bibliography. 2 Vols. Madras : Madras Library Association.

Reynolds, M. M. (1972). Reader in Library Co-operation, 398 pp. Washington, D.C. : Microcard Ed.

Rothstein, S. (1955). The Development of Reference Services through Academic Traditions, Public Library Practice and Special Librarianship, 124 pp. Chicago: Association of College and Reference Libraries.

Rothstein, S. (1964). The measurement and evaluation of reference services. Libr. Trends 12, 456.

Shera, J. (1962). Libraries and the Organization of Knowledge, 224 pp. London: Crosby Lockwood.

Shera, J. (1973). Knowing Books and Men; Knowing Computers, too, 363 pp. Littleton: Col., Libraries Unlimited.

Spicer, C. T. (1972). Measuring reference service; a look at Cornell University libraries reference question recording system. Bookmark. 31, 79.

UNESCO, General Conference. 18th session, Paris, 1974. Draft Programme and Budget for 1975-1976 (UNESCO, 18/ C/5) 376 pp.

Withers, F. N. (1970). Standards for Librav Service, 228 pp. Paris: UNESCO. (COM/ WS/151, October 1970).