Customer Reviews

Introduction to Reference Work, Vol. 1: Basic Information Services, 8th Edition

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've been a librarian for - jeees -- 32 years and looking at this current, eighth edition, cannot believe that Katz hasn't spent some of his royalties to edit this book down to a manageable number of essential resources and had the text redesigned to be more visually interesting and vibrant to help convey some of the fun that being a reference librarian is all about. The presentation is poorly presented, boring, tedious and zzzzzzzzzzz ... Oh, I'm sorry, I was looking through the text again. I must have dozed off, where was I?

Oh yes, as I was saying -- Reference work is fun! Don't let this book turn you off. If you enjoy talking to people, are curious and always find yourself asking: Who? What? When? Where? How? You're either a born reporter or a reference librarian and just didn't know it! Reference work is a holy profession, full of bright, cheerful and caring intellectual people; don't let this book get you down!

Katz is highly respected in the profession and knows reference resources inside and out. Unfortunately, for you, the reader, he has not done a good job to persuade McGraw-Hill to produce a very reader-friendly book.

Just when you think you know all about reference resources, you are bound to learn something new in this book. For a beginner or an experienced person if you are looking for ways to reach different references , this book is great! I think it is worth every cent I paid for it... now looking to buy the second Volume.

This book is terrible. I bought it for a class and by the end of the semester I was completely disgusted with it. It is full of errors: misspelled words, improper examples, inconsistencies in style and usage, and the like. It's hard to believe that this is the book's 8th edition! If you can ignore all of this then maybe you'll find some of the information useful. I'm not sure about its companion volume, I didn't bother reading it. All I know is that when I pay $120 for two thin books I expect far better quality than this.

This book was required material in my reference course. As other reviewers have said, the book needs a good editor or proofreader. I had to read some passages several times because of confusion caused by strange grammar mistakes and typos. Also, I feel that the book is over-priced for what you get. It reads more like a poorly written thesis than an actual textbook. Much of the information on electronic resources is outdated. Two things saved this book from a one-star review. First, it did include a somewhat helpful section on conducting a reference interview. Second, the information on evaluating resources was fairly helpful. I was able to skim through a lot of the book because little of the information provided was new to me.

VOL I review
I am not in library school, but I am following along the curriculum of some library schools. This was one of the books required for reference courses in a number of universities so I picked it up to expand my knowledge.

The first two chapters are awful, the author seemed to take a 'librarian knows all' stance. I think you can skim through these chapters since they are not page turners.

In my opinion this "textbook" is not really a textbook per se. It is intended to teach you some new information, but in reality this book is really meant to be used as a reference book. It lists a lot of databases, what they are good for, where to find them, and how much they cost. I did not hang on every word of the text, I skimmed through it, because I am not rainman, I won't be able to remember all these facts from memory.

Using this book as a reference book, I expanded my knowledge of databases, I gained greater appreciation of the databases that my local and college libraries have, and I experimented more with them since I knew a little more about them.

Treat this book as a desk guide, and not a textbook, and you'll be fine.

The book gets 3 stars because: it is a bit out of date (8th edition), it is a bit self righteous, and because it is misleading. The book should be called something like "A Reference Librarian's guide to Reference Resources"



VOL II review
This book barely squeaks by with a 2 star rating.

The pros:
It has some valuable information on reference processes that people should be familiar with if you've never worked at a reference desk, or at a service desk where you deal with the public, or have never conducted detailed research for your own projects (the last 3-4 chapters)

The Cons:
1. Horrific writing, this book needs a good editor and co-author.

2. The technological aspect is woefully out of date to the point that it's useless. This websites mentioned may no longer exist, and it doesn't take into account a lot of Web 2.0 applications, Google Books, Google Scholar, and other valuable resources.

3. Chapter 11 (not part of the 8th edition, but it is downloadable from the publisher's site) is very badly written and even though it's "recent" it still reads like it was written for middle-schoolers


Conclusion:
Don't buy this book, just get it at your library and read through it. It has some good points, but most of it is pretty bad. Definitely not a Master's level textbook (or reference book for that matter)

As one pursuing a master's degree in Library Science, I was required to buy this book for my reference course. I have found it to be poorly written and organized and of little practical use. Someone out there must be able to know enough about reference techniques to write a more coherent and interesting text on the subject.

One of the dullest, driest reference books I have ever been forced to read (vols. 1 and 2). When you hear "it reads like a doctoral thesis," this is what they mean.

Poor, poor students. All that money ($140 for both volumes) for such mental torture.

This was used as a college textbook in my class, and to be blunt, I and several other classmates were shocked at the poor quality.

Spelling mistakes, poor grammar, etc. abound. If ever a book needed a good editor, this is the one!

It escapes with 2 stars instead of 1 because the patient reader and beginner Library Science student may be able to glean some helpful advice from the text. At the very least, it seems the late William A. Katz knew a thing or two about the subject of reference work. I have to believe there are MANY better resources on this subject however. If not, then someone needs to start writing, there's money to be made!

(Review edited for spelling)