Cole, G. W. Branches and Deliveries. U.S. Educ. Rept., 1892-1893, vol. i., p. 709.
Eastman, L. A. Branch Libraries and Other Distributing Agencies. A.L.A. Man. of Lib. Econ., Preprint of chapter xv., 1911.
Hutchins, F. A. Travelling Libraries, 1902. (A.L.A. Tract, No. 3.)
For articles see Cannons, D 13, Branch Planning; F 1, Methods; L 67, Books; F 2, Delivery Stations; F 4, etc., Travelling Libraries.
DIVISION XII
THE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT
CHAPTER XXVII
GENERAL REFERENCE LIBRARY METHOD
407. Character and Scope of the Department.
407. Character and Scope of the Department.—The reference library is the communal study, bureau of information, and muniment house, when it is developed to its full possibilities. A definition of reference work turns upon a definition of a reference book to a large extent, and it is not easy to give more than an approximate one. A reference book is one which is consulted to obtain some particular fact or matter from it and not one that is read through as a whole. All works in dictionary, encyclopædic, chronological, periodical and similar forms are of this character. But any book which may be consulted in the way indicated is also legitimately a reference book. Further, all literary and graphic material which may so be consulted, whether in MSS., printed, photographic or other form, is rightly a part of such a library. The encyclopædic work is therefore the basal stock of the department; and standard treatises on every branch of literature, whether in actual reference form or not; the definitive editions of the classics, as for example the Variorum Shakespeare, must be included. Transient or permanent small reference material, such as pamphlets, magazine articles, broadsides, news-clippings, trade catalogues, illustrations, maps, etc., should all find a place in it; in fact, much of the most valued information work is done with the aid of such small material; important facts are frequently found in seemingly insignificant material; and the work of bringing it in relation to other similar material is one of the first-class services of the reference library.