In Febrary 1980, “A proposal for research information system in future” by the Scientific Research Council, Ministry of Education was appeared, and it emphasized the necessity of establishing the university library network in Japan. However, when the library cooperation is carryed out in network, individual library must consider to analyse its library functions, to improve its library operations upon daily basis, and to perform the goals and objectives as the university libraries. In this paper, author refer to the services to user in the Columbia University Libraries from 1958 to 1975, and also the progress, policy and activities of the RLG.

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　On the first number of the Library Journal in 1876, Sumuel S. Green insisted the necessity of reference services. Thereafter many opinions and observations were issued about them in which only practical affairs were discussed.
　There are only few original theories of reference services J. I. Wyer's Reference Work, 1930, R. S. Ranganathan's Reference Work, 1940, P. Butler's The Reference Function of the Library, 1943, and J.H. Shera's Sociological Foundations of Librarianship, 1970.
　Wyer discussed reference service in the public library coresponding to conservative theory, in the special library to liberal, and in the college library to moderate one. S. Rothstein changed the theoretical terms to the minium, maximum and middling reseectively, moreover he insisted the maximum theory to the best and corect and rejected the minimum theory.
　J. H. Shera, who achieved librarianship with information science, has built the theory up the library for an agency of communication, and the reference service as the connection of social fabrics, also a diagram showing the process of reference functions.
　Following the theory of communication, we locate reference questions and answer in the pattern of personal communication, inasmuch the contents deserve the medium special interesting communication. Libraries should prepare referece collections, tools and rooms to customers for the purpose of their easy access and solution. Librarians should help them who could not find out informations needed.
　Oberving the reference behavior of the librarian from the point of cultural sociological view，he or she do not belong to the ideological side, but to the utopian, ideal and neutral side.

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