Summary

Phelps, Rose B.

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/1461 Copy

Description

Title

Summary

Author(s)

Phelps, Rose B.

Issue Date

1957

Keyword(s)

Reference services (Libraries)

Abstract

"The institute speakers, and the ensuing discussions, looked at reference work from four different approaches: the nature and spirit of reference service; its extension through effective public relations; its strengthening through greater knowledge of the materials and users; and its improvement through better organization and better selected and trained personnel. As for the first, there was general acknowledgment of the role of the library as an information center, in which the reference service concept as developed in the United States plays a principal part. The reference librarian is recognized as the interpreter of the library's collections. To do this well calls for special talent and skill. In the community constellation of institutions, organizations, and associations, the function of the library is to serve as a center of information. In any community there are many different ""publics"" with many different informational needs and demands. The individual library user probably belongs to several groups, e.g., he is a citizen, a father of a family, a businessman, and an amateur musician. His need for information may vary from details of a purely factual type as a date or address, to a question which requires the use of the library's whole resources on a certain subject and the borrowing of material not in the library. Among the publics which can be identified in any sizable community are groups concerned with its government, business, industry, labor, and transportation."

Publisher

Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Series/Report Name or Number

Allerton Park Institute (4th : 1957)

ISSN

0536-4604

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1461

Copyright and License Information

Copyright owned by Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois 1957.

Owning Collections