The Librarian's Library

Abstract

The breadth and depth of subjects and the size of user population of a major university library demand a well-organized reference service. To manage such diverse disciplines and clientele, librarians rely on each other for shortcuts recorded and saved in a staff-access vertical file. A team approach of sharing useful reference sources helps all reference librarians improve their service to library users. If reference staff can efficiently store and organize fugitive material that can be shared by all staff members, they can use that material to meet immediate ready reference needs, and later develop sophisticated information-access tools such as pathfinders and knowledge bases.