Library and Information Science: Library Services

Reference Transactions are information consultations in which library staff recommend, interpret, evaluate, and/or use information resources to help others to meet particular information needs. Reference transactions do not include formal instruction or exchanges that provide assistance with locations, schedules, equipment, supplies, or policy statements.

The scope of Essential Sources can be described as reference sources that every librarian should know. The Essential General Reference Sources segment focuses upon the main reference sources that are most useful in answering common reference questions. The annotated sources in the section on Essential General Reference Sources are useful in a variety of ways.

The Reference and User Services Association, acting for the American Library Association in its adoption of this code, recognizes that the sharing of material between libraries is a core library service and believes it to be in the public interest to encourage such an exchange. In the interest of providing quality service, libraries have an obligation to obtain material to meet the informational needs of users when local resources do not meet those needs. Interlibrary loan (ILL), a mechanism for obtaining material, is essential to the vitality of all libraries.