APPROACHES IN THE STUDIES OF REFERENCE PR OCESS AND ITS INTEGRATION -FOCUSING ON THE STUDIES OF REFERENCE INTERVIEWS

The word 'reference process' is used to refer to the entire process of reference transaction. Included in the process, but not always, is a conversation called 'reference interview.' In this article, the studie s of reference process are reviewed, focusing on reference interviews reviewed. The studies can be divided into three groups. The first grou p deals with practical knowledge extracted from librarians' experience s ('the empirical studies'). The second group looks at the process fro m an interactional point of view ('the studies from the interactional point of view'). The third group of studies deals with the knowledge u sed by librarians during the process, and tries to build cognitive mod els ('the studies from the cognitive point of view'). Through critical ly reviewing the studies in each group, this article argues that in or der to deal with some of the issues involved in the reference process, it is necessary to integrate these three different approaches. Furthe rmore, several areas which might benefit from research into 'reference process' are also discussed, i.e. the theoretical and practical found ation of reference service, the development of interface of informatio n retrival systems, theories of information seeking, and theories of s ocial interaction.