Stratified Structure of Reference Services of the Academic Libraries in Japan

Abstract

As a part of a comprehensive study of reference services, the authors try to build a theoretical and structural model of reference services in academic libraries, and to compare it with the actual conditions in Japan. The purpose of building such a model is to show expressively the internal structures of the duties (components) of reference services, and to propose standards for the design and the management of efficient and effective services.
The supposed components (e.g., answering reference questions, building a reference collection, compiling bibiliographic tools, etc.) were chosen and enumerated from the related documents (e.g., guidelines for reference services, handbooks of library and information science, and papers in the field). They were analysed and classified from the point of interrelationship and priority in cost effectiveness, and were put into the stratified structure.
As for the type of libraries for the model building, the main libraries of Japanese universities were chosen, because the authors had already surveyed them by means of questionnaires and had data on the actual conditions of their reference services. Using the data, the relevance of the model to the actual conditions was tested statistically, especially by chi-square test. Findings of these analysis are presented in a series of tables and figures.
As a result, it was proved that the model represented generally the actual states of the reference services in Japan. At the same time, some problems in the actual services have been disclosed.