REFERENCE WORK:
The purpose of reference work is to allow information to flow efficiently from information sources to those who are looking for it. In the day to day activities in the libraries, the librarian has to rely on reference books of the library, which you would have seen's kept separately in the library and is generally not issued out of the library. All of us are very much familiar with the reference books of which the most popular ones are the dictionaries, and encyclopaedias In fact many of us have such books at home and use these quite frequently. Since the beginning of libraries, the librarians have been extending informal help to individual users in the use of library collection. The origin of the reference service can be traced from late 19th century in academic and public libraries and it has been to a large extent influenced by various social and economic developments in the society. The underlying rationale for reference service has been based on four aspects, namely, to develop the role of the library as an educational institution, to assist academic community, to help users select best documents from the vast universe of books and to justify the existence of the library to the persons/people who provide financial support. The reference work often referred to as reference service in libraries, has come a long way in the twentieth century. It has created its scope from mere assistance to users to complete utilization of subject specialists, development of many books and techniques for reference and use of computers to satisfy the information needs of scientists, researchers and others. All these have become possible due to a sound theoretical framework in the reference work, which indicates three distinct approaches for giving reference service. They are:
(a) conservative approach,
(b) liberal approach, and
(c) moderate approaches.