To find it : librarians development of reference service

The aim of this Masters thesis is to understand how librarians develop their reference service. The purpose was to find patterns in how librarians work with reference questions. As a theoretical framework we have used research in the reference field. Where do the skills of the search process come from: education or experience? Answers were sought to the following questions: - How different are the search process in practice compared to theory? - Which similarities and differences are there among the informants? - How important was the education in comparison to the knowledge about the libraries collections? - How did the changes in the school system in 1993 influence reference education and what could the consequences be to the reference knowledge among librarians? We sent out a question form and a search question which was answered by 12 librarians in university and university college libraries. We found out that the librarians used the same search process and that it is similar to our theoretical framework. Most of the informants thought that education is necessary for a basic understanding for the work and they all thought that when working in a library you develop the skills for good reference services.Uppsatsnivå: