It is unfortunate that the picture to the left is of such poor quality. If it were a better picture it would convey that the book shown, The Statesman’s Yearbook 2007 is glossy and chunky, very thick, and very much a “reference” kind of book. This post is NOT a review of that book.
Recently, after reading about reciprocal borrowing agreements, somewhere deep within the PCLS web site, I went ahead and signed up for library cards with both the Tacoma Public Library and the King County Public Library. It was an extremely easy process. I just went to their respective websites, and entered my name, address and a few other details, and about a week later both cards arrived in the mail, with a letter explaining I would have to appear in person to activate the cards. Which is how it is that I happened to be wandering through the Fern Hill branch of the Tacoma Public Library one Saturday morning awhile back. I know how strange that sounds. I can just hear folks saying “you work at the library every day, then on your day off you go to visit _another_ library”.
And the answer is, yes, I do. And I see how and why folks would ask that. Books, writing and libraries are lifelong passions for me. and I am genuinely grateful that I am allowed to get reciprocal cards, and make use of neighboring city libraries. And going off to visit a library I’ve never been to before seems like a wonderful way to spend a day off to me. Like a day at a literary theme park. However, I don’t scan and browse unfamiliar library shelves quite like you do, I’d suspect. What I am looking for a books published no later than 2008 that I am not personally familiar with already. I doubt most patrons realize or think about it, but anyone who has worked at more than one library already knows that ” Every Library Is Different.” While every public library in your area no doubt will contain many of the same books, you will inevitably find that each library and each branch of each library, ends up with a collection that is completely unique and has some items you are not going to find in neighboring libraries. So I am looking for things that seem “interesting or unusual” and at 310 I spotted what I first thought must have been a shelving mistake. “Isn’t this a Reference book?”, I asked myself.
Answering _that_ question is the subject of this post.
I suppose I should admit, right off, that I honestly don’t know what differentiates a reference book from a non-reference book. But it appears to me that books that get classified as “reference” either contain very broad or very deep levels of information, enable reference librarians to answer the questions they receive, and are usually too expensive to be purchased in sufficient quantity for them to be circulating and still available when needed. And I am painfully well aware of what a clunky and imprecise “definition” this is. (Sometimes I just desperately would like to go get that MLS degree just so I would know this stuff.)
I do know from my own experience working at the library that many annually issued books are classified as “reference” the year they come out, and older volumes are allowed to become circulating once the newer version is received. For instance, if you are a writer and want to consult the current year’s Writer’s Market, in most libraries you will find it in the reference department and it will be non-circulating. Last years and perhaps the year prior’s Writer’s Market books do circulate, and can be checked out. So even before I took my find from the stacks to three different reference librarians to ask all my questions, I had pretty much figured out that this was probably an annually updated reference book which the library circulated older copies of, once the new ones had arrived.
The first of these conclusions was very easily verified by visiting the book’s web site. The 2007 Statesman’s is the 143rd annual edition of this book, which attempts to provide up to date factual information about the politics, cultures and economies of every country on the planet. And I _think_ the fact that the book I was showing him was indeed a former reference book that had been allowed to circulate once the new version came in is what the Tacoma Public Librarian was _trying_ to tell me. But honestly, the man seemed bored to death, seemed little interested in me or my question and mainly anxious to make me go away. Which I did.
The reference librarian at King County’s Federal Way branch was much more helpful. For one thing she seemed bright and alert, and carefully listened to all of my questions and tried hard to give me the answers I sought. She took the trouble to get out from behind her desk and take me to the 310′s in the reference section, and hand me a copy of the 2008 Statesman’s. She definitely provided me with more and better information than the the bored old man at Tacoma’s downtown branch. My only disappointment in the service I received there is that she had another patron on the phone and a third waiting in person and while she gave me her full attention and best efforts, she was simply too busy to spend with me as much time as I might have liked.
And then finally, I took the book from Tacoma to the library where I work, and sat down in front of the reference desk at Lakewood library, and presented my find and asked my questions of our head reference librarian. He did not at any time take me to the reference stacks, but pulled from right behind his desk a copy of the 2005 Statesman’s, and told me that it was the most recent edition of the book we owned and that it is a “desk” reference book that the librarians keep right behind the desk so they can refer to it quickly. He turned his computer screen towards me and showed me two different free publicly accessible databases which he said contain the full scope and depth of information found in the Statesman’s book, free online. He told me that at $275, he did not feel it was worth continuing to buy this particular resource for our reference department, since patrons can so easily be guided to using the free online resources to get the same information. He then answered a not quite related question I had about Inter-Library Loans, and why libraries buy some books and not others. And after about 20 minutes of fascinating conversation, another patron came along, and I felt obliged to relinquish dear Keith to his next lucky patron.
I am really still not sure what differentiates a “reference” book from circulating books. But I do think I have come to fully understand why that reference book was on the circulating shelves in the library where I picked it up. And I am more convinced than ever that I work in one of the best libraries in the world.
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This is an interesting and well written article, but left me hanging. What are the, “two different free publicly accessible databases which [Keith] said contain the full scope and depth of information found in the Statesman’s book, free online”? Do I need to call Keith personally to learn the answer?
sorry about that, Maria. I got so wrapped up in the library and classification questions that it never occurred to me to include that info.
Please refer to the CIA World Fact Book at
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
for information about countries all over the world. According to Keith this is the most accurate and current information generally available.