Call to Action: Set Your Reference Collections Free

Over the last 18 years, in my work with libraries all over the country and close to home as a Trustee, like many of you, I have witnessed first hand the shrinking of book based reference collections as some of our larger resources migrated to online versions.

With these changes, staff have been going through their reference stacks and clearing them out.

But here is something that I haven't seen happening in tandem with the shift to shrinking physical reference collections-- a change to allowing the book based reference titles that remain to be circulated.

There are many books that are "reference" related. For example, all of those lists of. what to read/listen/watch before you die type titles. Those types of books are best kept in a reference collection, rather than in their subject area so people can find them and they can be grouped together. But why can't they also circulate?

Reference used to mean the title had to stay in the building for people to use at anytime that they could be needed. Back then the vital information found in reference titles at the library was the ONLY place people could get it. Now, they can access that information with their library card from home via the website, or get it off the internet like the huge amount of government produced information now available online for free.

There is still a good case to be made for reference collections at libraries, it is just that the focus has shifted to more reference for leisure; knowledge for fun. With that shift, we need to stop being jailers of that collection. Those books are not yours to protect, they are your community's to use and read. Let them be free.

Susan Maguire gets it. In the latest issue of Booklist Magazine, she lists the Top 10 reference titles to circulate here.

Look at her list. Then use it not only to see if you own those titles, but also as a guide to the type of titles you could have in your own circulating reference collection.

Of course, some reference titles should still remain in the building, such as dictionaries and encyclopedias, and other key print titles that may need to be used at any time.

But, things have changed. Situations are different. We can rethink print "reference" collections beyond just the titles we have in those collections. We need to rethink the whole concept of reference and divorce it from the notion that it is defined by not leaving the building.

These circulating reference titles are ones that many patrons would love to read at home, and even check out more than once. But we are too stuck in our old ways and won't let them. These are not titles people want or need to read in the building.

They are also titles that would be lost in the stacks, but if we pulled them out into our smaller reference areas AND allowed them to go home with people, do you know what would happen?

Well, I can tell you first and foremost what would NOT happen. You won't go to library jail. I joke but people always tell me, "But Becky, that is not what reference means. It means it stays put."

Actually, it doesn't mean that. "Reference" means people use it to learn something or fact check something and/or that it is more fact or list based than prose style. We have made it mean it stays in the building. Guess who can make it change then? Us. It can circulate and no one will be harmed in the process.

In fact, quite the opposite to harmed, many people will be so happy that the books can go home with them that you earn new fans. You will make people happy that a book they would love to read, but probably wouldn't spend the money to buy, is there waiting for them to take home and spend some time with.

So today, for my Call to Action, get out there are free you reference collections. We have already changed them so much, it is time they have evolved into something completely different. It is time we make our reference collections more patron friendly and allow some of the titles to leave the building.  We made the rules to not circulate them in the first place, so we can change them to allow for circulation. We will be more relevant and friendly to our patrons in the process too.

For past Call to Action posts, click here.