I. Nozomi, APPROACHES IN THE STUDIES OF REFERENCE PR OCESS AND ITS INTEGRATION -FOCUSING ON THE STUDIES OF REFERENCE INTERVIEWS, Library and Information Science, (30), 1992, pp. 43-58
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.