Fundamentals of Reference

Reference Evaluation 105

There are a variety of methods that may be used to assess or evaluate a
reference collection. Christopher W. Nolan discusses them in a chapter in his
book on reference collections. He writes
that “any reference collection must be regu-
larly evaluated to ensure that it is still per-
forming its reference functions successfully.
Several evaluation methods, both formal
and informal, can be used to ascertain its
quality.”^5 Informal methods might involve
obtaining feedback from those who use
the reference collection, whether they are
library patrons or members of the reference staff. For example, Nolan points
out that “patrons frequently speak with reference staff about what they have
found that works well, what they would like to find but could not locate, and
what they found that did not suit their needs.”^6 He also notes that

reference staff are also users of the collection, and their feedback

is very useful in evaluating the collection. Every time a librarian

attempts to solve a user query provides an opportunity to observe

whether the reference collection offers a solution. Over time, staff

will usually develop a feeling that certain sources work well for

reference service and others rarely seem to be needed.^7

However, Nolan offers a caveat about the use of feedback in evaluating a
reference collection:

Note that feedback from library users and staff about the sources

that they found helpful tends to give the most information about

sources that were used and very little about sources that were not

consulted. Managers of reference collections can learn from this

feedback that some sources are valuable and should be kept in the

collection, but there is almost no way of knowing whether many,

or even most, of the items on the shelf (or available on work sta-

tions) are ever used by anyone. Use studies... attempt to fill this

gap in knowledge.^8

Jo Bell Whitlach, Evaluating

Reference Service: A Practical

Guide (Chicago: American

Library Association, 2000), is

a comprehensive guide to the

literature of reference evaluation.