Managing Reference Today

Kay Cassell is presently an Assistant Teaching Professor at the School of Communication and Information, Department of Library and Information Science, at Rutgers University. Her areas of teaching and research include reference services and collection development. Dr. Cassell has been the director of several public libraries and an academic library as well as working as a reference librarian. She was the Associate Director for Collections and Services of the Branch Libraries of the New York Public Library. She served in the Peace Corps in Morocco and was the Director of the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines. She is active in the American Library Association and served as president of RUSA (Reference and User Services Association). Dr. Cassell has also been the editor of the quarterly journal, Collection Building.

This book discusses some alternatives for library administrators and reference staff to consider while figuring out how to best allocate limited resources to achieve the most effective service for their patrons. Here Dr. Cassell, Department of Library and Information Science at Rutgers University, has chapters on the education and training of reference librarians, new ways of offering reference services and utilizing staff, and how the very nature of reference sources influences library operations. She emphasizes the human aspect of the whole issue: how electronic resources can require more individual help, that librarians are mediators and information providers, how we need good communication skills, and the importance of building relationships, collaboration, and partnerships, both within and outside of the institution.... The author provides chapter endnotes to document her sources and helpful charts to summarize the important points of big issues. This very-reasonably-priced book is easy to read and understand and is suitable for circulating collections, for reference classes in library school, and for practitioners wanting to catch up on current thinking.