Reference Queries,Experience, and secondary Reference Books

A significant problem in reference service at the present time is the shortage of reference librarians. The work of answering reference queries places great demands on such professionals. Success in answering reference questions is mainly based on the level of the librarian's knowledge and experience. The traditional method of answering queries emphasizes experience and mental "detective work" based on sources familiar to the librarian from previous searches. This is extremely difficult for the novice librarian, who usual1 lacks a history of exposure to the literature upon which to draw. The following paper presents a method for addressing queries by means of secondary reference books, referred to as the SRB method. It describes the process of answering queries explains the nature of SRBs, and introduces a method an techn~que for answering queries by consulting SRBs.