CDNLAO Newsletter
No. 59, July 2007
Introduction
Reference services in a narrow sense have principally been “passive” services in response to approaches from the users’ side, such as “to answer to various questions from users at a library counter, by telephone or by fax.” On the other hand, “active” services, which include upgrading of reference materials on the open shelves, compilation of subject bibliographies and preparation of subject guides, can be called reference services in a broad sense. In “active” services, a library anticipates questions from users, and then prepares and provides useful tools in advance so that users can conduct research by themselves.
Obviously, passive services such as responding to users’ questions still occupy an important position in reference services. However, in recent years, with the rapid development of the information environment such as wider use of the Internet, active services have been playing a more important role, transmitting useful information for reference services through websites or by other means.
This article is to introduce the present state and issues to be solved of the NDL’s reference services in a broad sense including traditional “passive” services and “active” services taken together, with a review of recent trends.
Recent trends related to reference services
The development of the Internet, especially of search engines, has made it possible for us to obtain huge quantities of information instantaneously. However, at the same time, users need to judge which is the information they really need and whether the information they have acquired is reliable. Therefore navigation to adequate and reliable information is desired.
In university libraries, their advantage of holding materials has come into question because of the digitization of documents and introduction of e-journals which enable researchers and students to obtain information and documents through PCs at their own desks. In public libraries, the expertise of the staff and the value of the experience and knowledge they have accumulated are challenged in the rapid movement toward the private consignment of libraries’ management after the introduction of the designated manager system in 2003, in which a full part of public services can be entrusted to private sectors.
In such environment, libraries’ information services based on the accumulation of information resources and reference services by librarians are attracting fresh attention. In 2005, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology published “Chiiki no joho habu to shite no toshokan: kadai kaiketsu-gata no toshokan wo mezashite (Libraries as an information hub in the community: toward issue-solving type of libraries),” and proposed a new issue-solving type of services in which a library is proactive in providing information. Based on this proposal, new reference services such as business support, provision of administrative information, medical and legal information services are now developing in public libraries all over Japan.
Reference services in the NDL
(1) Question-and-answer type reference services
In FY2006, the NDL (Tokyo Main Library, Kansai-kan and the International Library of Children’s Literature) answered about 600,000 reference questions (of which more than 500,000 were for assistance in handling computers or general guidance for visitors) in written form (fax, e-mail, letter), by telephone and in person (for visitors).
NDL’s reference services in 2006 (number of answers)
| Introduction of information resources and documents | Simple fact- finding | Research for a specific material | General guide for users / others | Total | |
| Fax, e-mail, letter |
991 (12%) | 524 (6%) | 5,173 (62%) | 1,682 (20%) | 8,370 |
| Telephone | 2,227 (6%) | 1,641 (4%) | 20,404 (52%) | 14,810 (38%) | 39,082 |
| In-person | 7,897 (1%) | 2,233 (0%) | 34,120 (6%) | 503,034 (92%) | 547,284 |
Our reference services for written requests are in principle for libraries. Users first do a search in a nearby public library or the university library they belong to and if they cannot find an answer to the question, the library sends a query to the NDL by fax, e-mail or letter. This procedure is conducted in the framework of cooperation between libraries throughout Japan and the NDL. We are working hard to provide more prompt answers to written requests received via libraries by reviewing the workflow and by other means, according to our service standard published on our website: to respond to more than 90％ of reference inquiries within 20 working days. The number of requests from libraries is decreasing as information sources including library catalogs, several kinds of subject bibliographies and Guide for Search by Theme (to be described later) have been increasingly available on the Internet.
Reference services by telephone are mainly for individual users, for whom we execute a simple search and answer in a short time. It basically consists of inquiries about how to use the information retrieval services we provide such as NDL-OPAC, and user guidance about reading and photocopying a specific material.
We have also been making a lot of effort aiming at an improvement of reference services in Japanese libraries by compiling a database of reference examples to be opened extensively to the public and shared between libraries as well. The “Collaborative Reference Database Project” was launched as an experimental project in FY2002 and went into full operation in April 2005. As of March 2007, with the participation of 439 libraries, the database includes 23,436 examples of reference questions and answers.
(2)Information-transmission-based reference services
Reference-related information and knowledge which come up in the process of daily reference services, including lists of materials or information sources related to specific subjects and research know-how, have been extremely limited in the range of sharing, as they have been retained personally by each staff member, and as notes have been taken on cards. As a matter of course, they have been widely applied to daily reference service, but the accumulated knowledge and experience have been neither organized systematically nor provided widely to users.
The appearance of tools such as databases and the Internet has made it possible to widely provide this information and knowledge easily in a useful form such as online databases on homepages. Transmission via the Internet can provide information to a wide range of users regardless of time and theme. In addition, the Internet organizes and systematizes the information, and can navigate users directly to various information sources both inside and outside of a library.
These information-transmission-based reference services meet
the users’ needs in terms of electronic information as well. We
especially focus on information transmission of searching guides that
are helpful for research, showing the process of accessing to materials
and information effectively, and giving guidance on information sources
such as links. This includes the subject bibliography databases, in
which reference information such as contents and comments is added to
the bibliographic information selected in line with specific subjects.
One of these sources,
“Guide for Search by Theme”<http://www.ndl.go.jp/jp/data/theme.html>
(Japanese only), is based on the answers to the frequently-asked
questions and useful information shared by the staff in charge of
reference services in the form of paper cards available at the
counters. This serves as a contact point where users can rapidly get
precise information such as information sources including the Internet,
industry trends, bibliographic search guides, free-of-charge databases,
links, related institutions, and our collections, by searching by
subject, type of materials and keywords.
In FY2006 we added 209 new subjects to the Guide for Search by Theme, and the number of the subjects provided reached 456 as of the end of March 2007. The number of visits to the top page in FY 2006 was 208,598, and after November 2005, when the number of subjects was over 200, the increase in number was noticeable. While academic libraries provide links and public libraries provide materials lists such as reference books, our Guide for Search by Theme introduce the information sources of both materials and site, making it easier for users to reach primary information, and this leads to improved reliability and visibility as well as the advantages of the broadness of subjects and accuracy of contents.
(3) The direction of reference services from now on: For the Knowledge Service of NDL
The expansion of transmission of reference information, with the pervasiveness of circumstances in which users can access information easily via the Internet from their study rooms, has resulted in that users requiring libraries to provide more advanced and rapid services.
The NDL has cited as an objective “expansion of information on information sources” as one of the important pillars in “National Diet Library Digital Library Medium Term Plan for 2004” which indicates the digital library services that are to be achieved in the coming 5 years. In the digital library services from now on, effective navigation to the digitized materials and information resources on the Internet is as important as digitization of materials and acquisition and accumulation of digital information resources. More accurate navigation to the information which users require will be available by connecting effectively the information such as the search procedures and approach methods to information gained through reference service experiences with the electronic information resources.
For this purpose, it is necessary to create a mechanism which makes it possible to share and utilize the abundant knowledge which is stored through daily reference services and helps to find the necessary information from among various information resources, such as a vast amount of publications and electronic information, by accumulating and managing them effectively. The NDL is planning to launch the “Knowledge Service of NDL” in FY2009, which will actualize effective accumulation and prompt provision of knowledge by formulating a network community of reference librarians. For this objective, we have now been considering the reconstruction of the framework of the reference operation and the construction of an information system which will be the basis of the new service.
Copyright (C)2007 National Diet Library
