Reference Process -- Readings

You may call it, Reference Process or Reference Transaction or Reference Work in the library environment!!!
Whatever it is called by the librarians (traditional, modern, virtual, etc.), there is chain process, that starts with the user need, need analysis, need negotiation, consulting appropriate sources, customizing search strategy, search, retrieval, evaluation of search results, modification if required, and delivery or suggesting alternative sources...

"Nearly forty years ago now, Shera (1964) not only foresaw the use of computing to take some of the menial labor out of library reference work, but he also proposed a method for achieving that goal. Shera wrote that “the really great promise of automation is to be sought in… the opportunity it affords to analyze the reference process and re-define reference service” (p. 203). He saw this redefinition as removing the “fetch and carry” aspects, and the potential to raise the intellectual level of reference work. To achieve this end, Shera proposed an agenda for action: first, analyze the processes involved in reference service, and how questions are handled by humans in those processes, and second, create algorithms to represent these processes. Forty years later, Shera’s agenda still provides a sound course of action." Jeffrey Pomerantz, Question Types in Digital Reference: An Evaluation of Question Taxonomies. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY.-- Chapter One

Interesting anecdotes about Reference Transactions by Swiss Army Librarian


On the same shelf:

A Model of the Reference and Information Service Process

2011 - Crimea 2011 - Workshop New Trends in Reference Services - Sudak - 7 juin 2011

Ranganathan Online: Do digital libraries violate the Third Law (of S R Ranganathan, 3.Every book, its reader)?

Understanding Reference Transactions: Transforming an Art into a Science (Academic Press, 2002) (1,000 citations supplemented)

Reference Interview Stages -- National Network of Libraries of Medicine

How to Create a Bibliography

Reference Process Interview Flowchart

How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography Cornell University

MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources (Web Publications) -- Purdue OWL

eight of the 13 steps - Reference Process

Understanding the Reference Transaction: A Systems Analysis Perspective

The Current State of Digital Reference: Validation of a General Digital Reference Model through a Survey of Digital Reference Services

Roles in Digital Reference

Course Readings at University of Texas, Austin

Agosto, Denise, Lily Rozaklis, Craig MacDonald, and Eileen G. Abels, “A Model of the Reference and Information Service Process,” Reference & User Services Quarterly 50 (3) (Spring 2011): 235-244.

Fichter, Darlene and Jeff Wisniewski, “Put the `Service’ in Self-Service,” Online 32 (1) (January/February 2008): 55-57.

Murphy, Sarah Anne, “The Reference Narrative,” Reference & User Services Quarterly 44 (3) (Spring 2005): 247-252.

Neville, Tina M., et. al., “Reference Classification—Is It Time to Make Some Changes?” Reference & User Services Quarterly 48 (4) (Summer 2009): 372-383.

Pomerantz, Jeffrey, Scott Nicholson, and R. David Lankes, ”Digital Reference Triage: Factors influencing Question Routing and Assignment,” The Library Quarterly 73 (2) (April 2003): 103-120.

Tyckoson, David A., “What’s Right With Reference,” American Libraries 30 (5) (May 1999): 57-63.

Westbrook, Lynn, “Virtual Reference Training: The Second Generation,” College & Research Libraries 67 (3) (May 2006): 249-259. (source: INF 382D: Readings)