Discuss the questions with your supervisor or other staff members to learn how things work in your library.

Patron's source

     Once you know your patron's question and initial source of information, you would frequently begin looking for information in the reference collection. In the following exercise and throughout this module you will be working with the library catalog and four basic reference tools, available in most libraries, to help you become acquainted with subject headings and index terms.

Select your four reference books: 1) an encyclopedia such as World Book, 2) an almanac such as Information Please Almanac or World Almanac & Book of Facts, 3) a large dictionary, and 4) an atlas such as Goode's World Atlas to use for the following exercise. Use online versions if that is the process in your library. For each of the resources look for information about Ohio. For each of the resources look for information about Ohio.

1. How many different places can you find Ohio information in each of the four resources? Use the indexes or table of contents to determine this.
2. Which resources have the most information about Ohio?
3. In addition to the four resources, where else could you find information about Ohio in your library? For example: pamphlet files, genealogy collections, history collections, map files, videos, audiocassettes, Internet, library web site, adult collection, children's collection, fiction, non-fiction, biography, special stuff kept in a worn out folder at the reference desk, etc.

Throughout this module you will be working more with these books, so keep your answers and the books handy.

Subjects & terms

1. Use your online catalog to see how many subject headings there are for Ohio. Example: Ohio--Encyclopedias or Almanacs--Ohio.

2. Find out where all those mysterious subject headings come from? Look for Ohio subject headings in a copy of the Sears List of Subject Headings if your library is arranged by Dewey, or look for Cross Reference Index: A Subject Heading Guide published by Bowker or The Library of Congress Subject Headings. Catalogers assign the subject headings to the catalog records and understanding more about the headings will help your reference work. If you really, really want to know, talk to a cataloger!

Indexing

Using the four reference books from the exercise on the Reference Sources page, do the following:

1. Examine the subject headings or index terms used in the books.
2. Are the books arranged by subject heading and is this reflected in the Table of Contents?
3. Do they have indexes?
4. Are the indexes easy to understand and use?
5. How similar or different are the index terms or subject headings among the books, i.e. do they use the same terms for the same topics?
6. Do you think that the terms used would be the terms your patrons would expect to find?

Accuracy

Using the four reference books (or others you located) from the exercise on the Reference Sources page, do the following:

1. In each of the sources, look up information on world population and on the population of Ohio. Be sure and check the index or table of contents of each source to locate all information that may pertain to population.
2. Is the information the same in the different sources, i.e. does the content of the information conflict, not just the amount of information.
3. Can you get all the information from just one of the sources if the patron wants to know about the issue of over-population of the world?
4. Look at the publication date to determine how old the information is. Find out if there are newer editions available that might have more current information.
5. What is the result for your patron if you use old information?
6. What is the result for your patron if you use only one source of information and it is not the most complete source?

Asking experts

1. Which of the four resources you've been working with has information on the population of your town, your county, or the state?

2. Is there someone in your library or in your community who would have this information?.

Info & Referral

1. Does your library have a list, directory, or database of groups or agencies in your community to use for Information and Referral?

Keeping track

1. Study the form that your library uses to keep track of reference questions.

2. Are there areas on the form for describing the question resulting from the reference interview, listing sources checked, noting when patron was informed, referral status, and citation of the source where answer was found?

3. Does your library keep track of reference questions all the time or at certain times of the year? What are the statistics used for?
   

ORE on the Web, Ohio Library Council, 2008.
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