What’s in a Word: Coming to Terms with Reference, Part Two

Abstract

The reference librarian aims to know the reference collection like the back of his or her hand. This knowledge of knowledge can be characterized as encyclopedic, in that it enables the reference librarian to comprehend the unity that exists within the branches of knowledge—the subject categories as outlined in the Library of Congress (LC) classification and represented in the reference collection. Comprehending this unity further enables the reference librarian to make those intelligent leaps, uncanny connections, and creative combinations between subject categories, whether closely or distantly related or even entirely unrelated. This metaknowledge and the fluency with the collection it supports define at its most fundamental level what reference is and what reference does. Despite its ease, speed, and convenience, the algorithm is no replacement for the mind of the reference librarian. Critical acceptance of this fact is in evidence when the simple, spontaneous one-on-one encounter at the reference desk rather than the preplanned, required session in information literacy is understood as the primary locus of learning in the library. Reference librarianship with its modest accoutrements—the reference desk, the reference interview, the reference collection—is still most suitable to provide the kind of guidance every thinking student needs to rightly read and engage the authoritative works that make up the main collection.

© Anthony Verdesca

KEYWORDS:

• Information literacy
• reference
• reading comprehension

Notes

© Anthony Verdesca