Training Nonprofessionals for Reference Service.

Abstract

As part of an effort to provide more com plete and varied information to users, college and university libraries throughout the United States are increasingly staffing some public service points with nonprofessional personnel. In a survey reported by L. M. Boyer and W. C. Thiemer in 1975, 69 percent of 141 re porting university libraries staffed reference desks with nonprofessionals.1 Yet most librar ies employing nonprofessionals in information service do not train them for this work; more than 80 percent of the libraries in Boyer's and Thiemer's study who use nonprofessionals at public service desks provide no formal in-ser vice training in reference work for the staff.2 At San Diego State University, the Depart ment of Reference and Instructional Services has employed high-level nonprofessionals at a Reference Assistant's Desk since 1974. Ref erence assistants complement the work of the reference librarians on duty by performing these tasks:

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