THE AUTHORIZED PRACTICE OF LEGAL REFERENCE SERVICE

Reference librarians allow concerns about giving legal advice and bein g charged with the unauthorized practice of law when answering legal r eference questions to deter them from their fundamental purpose-the fi nding of information. Mr. Mosley argues that reference librarians will give better legal information service if they simply avoid performing lawyerly functions instead of focusing on whether they are giving leg al advice. The provision of legal reference service should be constrai ned only by the nature of the literature, not by a concept imposed on reference librarians by members of another profession.