In the course in which I learned my reference craft in the 1970s, each class was devoted to a particular type of source: encyclopaedias, bibliographies, etc. The class began with examples of the sources piled on the desk in front of the instructor, who was diminutive in stature. A hand would emerge above the pile holding a key source, a little like Excalibur appearing to King Arthur, and a disembodied voice would discuss the uses, strengths and weaknesses of the source. By the end of the class, the pile would have migrated to one side, and we'd be able to ask questions in full view of our instructor.
The challenge for a modern reference text is to break away from this model of emphasis on the traditional sources. To some extent Cassell and Hiremath have achieved this.
The text starts with the fundamentals: the nature of reference and information service, the reference interview, and basic search techniques. The next section (about 40 per cent of the text) deals with the reference sources. In an attempt to break away from the traditional model, these chapters follow a model of “answering questions about […]”. This is only partly successful, since it turns out that most of the question types correspond to a traditional class of reference sources; for example “answering questions about anything and everything” involves Encyclopaedias. Each of these chapters starts with examples of types of question dealt with by the sources covered in the chapter. Although this gives a good idea of utility of the sources, in many cases (as my more astute students point out!) the questions can be answered as effectively by a well-crafted Google search. However Cassell and Hiremath give a good overview of the purpose of the sources, how to use and evaluate them, the main examples, and how they are changing in the digital environment.
There are several chapters on “special topics” including using the (free) internet for reference work. There are also useful chapters, by well qualified external authors, on readers' advisory services, children and young adults services, information literacy, and ethics. The final section deals with development and management: selection of materials, managing and evaluating services, and the future of Reference service, including the impact of Web 2.0. The content is up to date – reading lists and references highlight current literature – and there is an accompanying website for updates to the text.
There is a Kindle version of the third edition, which I and several students purchased. This is cheaper, and of course you cannot complain about the delivery time (even with modern courier services, this is a factor in places like New Zealand). However the format raises questions about the effort put into the conversion: the index is hard to use due to the loss of indenting (and in any case the page references do not correspond to the Kindle version); and tables have been rendered as text, removing much of their meaning.
I have used Cassell and Hiremath for several years in a postgraduate core course on reference work, and find it relevant and useful. It is the text for many similar courses, the main competitor being Bopp and Smith (Reference and Information Services, an Introduction, Libraries Unlimited, 2011). Confusingly, both of the texts now have the same title! Compared to Bopp and Smith, Cassell and Hiremath is more consistent and focussed, since it is mostly written by the two authors; Bopp and Smith have different authors for each chapter, which leads to a degree of duplication as each author feels the need to cover the fundamentals.
Cassell and Hiremath have written a text that is a logical choice for a course in reference and information work that follows the traditional model. Previous editions included “in the twenty-first century” in the title. The challenge for teaching reference work in the twenty-first century is that the work of real life reference librarians has changed from the traditional model – information literacy and user education assume a much greater importance, and the impact of the internet means that simply “answering questions’ is less important. Even here it may be more important to learn how to use internet search engines effectively and evaluate the information found, than to be familiar with a wide range of semi-obsolete sources that have their origin in the print world. A substantial change is taking place in how reference and information work is taught, and it is likely that new standard texts will be required. In the meantime, Cassell and Hiremath are making a useful contribution.
