Coming of Age in Reference Services: A Case History of the Washington State University Libraries focuses on the triumphs, trials, ideas, and difficulties of the Holland Library and how these experiences can help other professionals enhance services for patrons. The articles, written by reference librarians at the library, discuss topics such as departmental history and culture, training reference professionals, and user education programs to give you insight into how other librarians solve problems or implement changes. From Coming of Age in Reference Services, you’ll receive advice from experienced professionals that can help you create change in your library and help you adapt to the many technological advances related to librarianship.

Coming of Age in Reference Services allows you to gain first-hand experience that will guide you through problems or issues that may occur in your library. Addressing the uses and intricacies of electronic information, this book offers you information that will help you with a variety of other topics, including:

• training and retraining in reference skills and subject knowledge, interpersonal abilities, and thinking skills in order to improve services for the 21st century
• defining “Generation X,” being a member of this generation, and their growing need for information and learning opportunities
• exploring how long reorganization plans take to be implemented and how the library environment can enhance services for users by discussing the history of Holland Library Public Services
• focusing on freshman taking English 101 to better teach them how to find information through cultivating better relationships with academic departments, creating web modules to reach more students, and understanding departmental cultures
• integrating techniques for finding books and using encyclopedias into the University’s World Civilization course to encourage critical thinking
• discussing the impression of American Academic Libraries through the experiences of a Library Fellow from Lithuania
  
  Coming of Age in Reference Services leads you through the transformation of the Holland Library, allowing you to learn about the decisions, planning, and ingenuity involved in establishing a modern and more efficient information center. Containing appendices and a chronological timetable documenting the library’s history, Coming of Age in References Services offers you knowledge from experience concerning library reorganization and the ever-changing world of a successful reference librarian.