Reference Queries

Pallavi Sakharam Belkar

REFERENCE SECTION :

Every well-organized, large or medium library is organized into a number of sections or departments. One of the sections is called Reference Section.

In a small library, there may be no separate reference section.

A reference section is that section which provides reference service.

REFERENCE LIBRARIAN :

The person who provides reference service is called a Reference Librarian.

A reference librarian gets an opportunity to meet people from different strata of society.

His/ Her job is to bring the user in contact with the right information / book.

REFERENCE SERVICE :

According to Rangnathan right contact means, “ contact between the right reader and the right book at the right time and in the right personal way”.

He has named this method as “ Reference Service”.

Reference service means, “ process of establishing contact between a reader and his documents in a personal way”.

Reference Services

Short Range Reference

Service / Ready Reference Service

Long Range Reference

Service

1. Short Range Reference Service / Ready Reference Service -

Definition :

According to Ranganathan, “ Ready Reference Service is reference service finished in a very short time in a moment if possible”. The concept of ready reference service is based on duration of time. Such queries do not get much time so they are known as “ Short Range Reference Services”.

Examples :

i) What is the height of mount Everest ?ii) What is the date of birth of Mahatma Gandhi ?

The above questions are such that the answers to these can be found readily within a short time. Therefore, these fall within the scope of ready reference service.

Ready reference service is more or less fact finding service. Normally, sources of information used for fact finding consist of reference books of different types.

Ready Reference Sources :

Encyclopedias Dictionaries Yearbooks Biographical Dictionaries, Geographical Dictionaries, Etc.

It is not always necessary to provide information from reference sources. In case the reference librarian knows something personally. For example : Somebody may be looking for the address of a college. May be, the reference librarian remembers the address.

2. Long Range Reference Service -

Definition :

Long Range reference service on the basis of time involved, sources of information used and the nature of information sought. Research levels questions which requires extended searches, several hours in time like day, minutes or months or longer period of continuous basis for search. Due to long period of search time. It is known as “ Long Range Reference Service”.

Long Reference Sources :

Ready Reference Sources Periodicals Newspapers Non-book materials Theses and dissertations Reports, Etc.

A Reference librarian tries to gather information on demand or in anticipation on the basis of questions brought to the reference desk.A Reference librarian should keep in touch with scholars and institutions, so that relevant information, which is not available in the library can be gathered from them.

It should be clear that ready reference and long range reference services are essential in a library.

Because of these services user will get answers related to small query or long query.