Discussion Group on Reference Work Report

Summary of Special Libraries

• Most of the special libraries have about 10-20 persons and mainly the libraries are organised in two parts, one with acquisitions and cataloguing, the other with services to the public. Typical is that almost everyone except the library director shares the work at the information desk. Some libraries have co-ordinators or team leaders who have responsibility to organise the work

• All libraries have ordinary reference service, questions and answers about everything concerning the area of special libraries. Part of the libraries have fee based information service, too. Reference work is the important and significant part of library work. Due to experience some are better than the others. Many libraries have been working on TQM projects concerning the reference work.