Understanding Reference Transactions : Transforming an Art into a Science

The goal of this book is to improve reference service in libraries and information centers, by improving the accuracy of answering capabilities.

The authors provide a detailed analysis of the question-answering process and methods of evaluating the completeness, usefulness, user satisfaction, and accuracy of the information provided.

This is an important contribution to library studies, and it will be a useful textbook for teaching references courses in library schools.

Powerful research models help explain what is happening in the reference transaction.

It encompasses a comprehensive review of the research literature.

It offers a unique systems analysis of the reference transaction and includes a detailed appendix of the concepts, operational definitions, and research variables used to measure outcomes as well as statistical results from all known prior studies.