Automating your ready‐reference file

Many libraries, public, academic, or special, no matter how technologically advanced, maintain a finger‐marked, dog‐eared file at the reference desk. This file, usually on 3x5‐inch cards, contains answers to questions that have proved difficult. Such a file is necessary in any library that has ever had, or ever expects to have, any turnover in reference personnel. Even good, seasoned librarians may not have perfect recall for the minutia of a vexing question answered months or years ago, perhaps by someone else. Determining the number of access points in a manual reference aids file is a dilemma. One could make a cross‐reference for every way any person could possibly seek the information or one could write a single card and trust collective memory to remember how it was filed. Multiple cards increase the possibility of finding the information, but clog the file. The single card approach, as has been observed, “provided only one point of access, which frequently could not be identified in a stress situation.” Also, newer librarians, weaned on computers and impatient with manual files, tend to avoid the card file, which they view as an unworkable relic. The manual reference aids file at the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) Library contained about 800 tidbits of elusive information such as subject headings used for archaeological site reports, a list of the Supreme Court cases kept in the reserve book room, facts of local history, a reminder of which issue of Fortune lists the annual Fortune 500, where to find Nielsen ratings, and more.