This revised and updated sixth edition continues the book's rich tradition, covering all phases of reference and information services with less emphasis on print and more emphasis on strategies and scenarios. The first half of the book provides an overview of reference services and techniques for service provision, including the reference interview, ethics, instruction, evaluation and assessment, and services to diverse populations including children. This part of the book establishes a foundation of knowledge on reference service and frames each topic with ethical and social justice perspectives. The second part of the book offers an overview of the information life cycle and dissemination of information, followed by an in-depth examination of information sources by type-including dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, and abstracts-as well as by broad subject areas including government, statistics and data, health, and legal information. This second part introduces the tools and resources that reference professionals use to provide the services described in the first half of the text. Activity boxes engage readers and invite them to reflect on what they are learning and to practice skills through real-life exercises. Conscious integration of critical theory and social justice perspectives offers critical reflection on the standards and practices of the field and encourages readers to consider alternate perspectives.

More an art than a science, the reference interview requires not only knowing a specific set of skills, but also how to apply those skills in an ever-changing world. Good reference interviews accomplish three goals: establishing contact with the user, determining what the user's information need actually is, and checking to make sure that the answer actually meets that need completely. Built around timeless service principles including Ranganathan's Five Laws, The Reference Interview Today: Negotiating and Answering Questions Face to Face, on the Phone, and Virtually is a practical field guide to conducting reference interviews in every modality: face-to-face, phone, chat, text, virtual world. Seamlessly combining both time-honored principles and multiple technologies, this practical book demonstrates how librarians can be as relevant and necessary in the digital age as in the print world.

Learn and perfect the skills needed to conduct satisfying reference interviews in the modern technological environment with this easy-to-use guide. In today's technology-driven world, reference librarians must serve users who come into the building as well as remote users who ask via various digital means. With virtual reference and social networking tools now commonplace, reference questions have become more complex and interdisciplinary. The Reference Interview Today will help reference librarians decide which tools and strategies will best serve their diverse group of patrons--in person and in cyberspace. This text covers the skills needed for traditional face-to-face reference and how they can be applied in 2.0 media. Best practices for culturally diverse, disabled, and "difficult" patrons; strategies for public and academic libraries; and virtual technologies are described.