Reference Librarians in the Information Age:

Reference service has existed in public and academic libraries for over one hundred years, but as libraries move into an age of increasing technology, many traditional methods for providing reference service will no longer be adequate. By examinmg reference services of the past and present, reference librarians can learn from the mistakes and successes of their predecessors to better plan for the future. Reference librarians must be committed to retaining the most successful ideas from the past and giving up the least successful. This critical examination of past services must also be coupled with a visionary and risk-taking outlook for what is needed in the future if reference librarians are to remain a vital part of the information age.