Reference & User Services Quarterly, 47(1): pp. 44-54.This article presents a study of source citing in
telephone reference service at the twenty-five largest
public library systems in the United States and
Canada. The results showed that in eighty-six out
of the 125 total
reference transactions analyzed
(68.8 percent of the cases),
respondents gave no sources
for their answers. The article
also discusses a number of
additional issues uncovered
during the study that are not
related to source citing but
that have important itnplications
for reference services.
The authors conclude that
best reference practices are
not being followed in many
instances of public library
telephone reference, and they
close with a number of simple
suggestions for improving
telephone, face-to-face, and
digital reference services
