The Influence of Reference Practices on the Client-Librarian Relationship

Abstract

This paper raises questions about the influence of present reference practice on library user perceptions of the librarian as an information intermediary and on user ability to distinguish between librarians and other library staff.It discusses these questions within the context of the client-professional relationship, using data from a study of the users of three university libraries in the Midwest.The author concludes that present reference practice hinders the development of a true client-professional relationship.n a recent editorial in College & Research Libraries, writing in the context of evaluation of reference performance, Charles Martell raised a number of important questions; one of them was "How does the environment in which we work discourage ... [the] assessment [of reference performance]?" 1 Questions like this, which call for an examination of the basic reference model, have seldom been asked by librarians and researchers and certainly have not been answered by them. 2 One study that raises a similar question, "What effect does the environment of reference service have on the reference interview?"was done by Mary Jo Lynch.She sketched the differences between our professional model and other models:Other professionals do not usually operate in such an atmosphere.Clients commonly make appointments to see them and even when appointments are not made the professional works in a private or semiprivate place and admits clients one at a time.Reference librarians, by contrast, wait in a public place for any client that may come along ... .The implications of this situation must be taken into account in any consideration of the reference interview.3

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