About Reference

The purpose of the Reference Department is to assist the University community, students, faculty, and staff in using the resources of the library.

Consistent with higher education philosophy and the Fitchburg State University Library mission statement, the Reference department commits itself to instructing students in research methods and in the use of indexes, catalogs and other instruments of information retrieval.

• Questions Answered
• Collection Development
• Finding Aids
• Library Instruction
• Dialog Searching
• Reference Policies 
• Research Guides

Questions Answered

Our librarians answer thousands of questions each year. The majority of these fall into three categories.

DIRECTIONAL - Explaining the location of items or rooms in the library or on campus.

REFERENCE - Providing an answer with a specific source in hand. For example, a definition, the location of of a book in the library, or simple factual information as might be found in a dictionary or encyclopedia.

RESEARCH - Providing assistance in the completion of a specific research project, often aiding in finding multiple sources and explaining various methods of locating and evaluating information.

Collection Development

All librarians participate in ordering materials for the library's general collections as well as the reference collection. Librarians order materials for their subject specialties, which correlate with the academic departments on campus. We welcome suggestions for materials and sources that would benefit the collection.

Finding Aids

Our librarians create and maintain Research Guides, which provide an excellent starting point in all disciplines, highlighting books, journals, databases, and other resources specific to a course of study.

Library Instruction

One-session library orientation and skills classes are offered primarily through the Writing 1 and Writing 2 courses at Fitchburg State. Library instruction for course-specific research is taught upon request of faculty members.

Visit the Library Instruction webpage for more details for on-campus instruction. For more detailed information about sessions for distance learning and extended campus courses, visit our Distributed Learning Library Instruction webpage.

Dialog Searching

This service consists of funded searching for faculty, staff, and librarians and fee-based searches for others. It is used when patrons have exhausted the available online databases in their field.

Reference Service Policies

Library Patrons

Reference assistance is available without charge to all patrons. Reference questions are handled one at a time, in order of submission, including telephone queries. When the librarian is busy, assistance to students, faculty and staff takes precedence over assistance to public patrons.

Referral to other libraries is advised when materials are not housed in the Fitchburg State collections, e.g.:

• Children’s Literature/Stories to a public library.
• Travel and genre fiction to a public library.
• In-depth local history to the public library of that area, also the historical society of the community.
• In-depth legal materials to a legal library.

Restrictions on Service

Patrons are shown how to conduct research and how to use reference materials. While librarians will aid in the finding of information, in keeping with the goal of fostering research skills, it is the responsibility of the patron to assess and evaluate the materials for appropriateness of scope and purpose.

• No searching can be offered for puzzles, quizzes, contests etc.
• Reference is offered through telephone and IM, though for detailed reference questions patrons are encouraged to come in person to the library. If the reference librarian is exceptionally busy, they may encourage a patron to call back or visit to receive the requested information.
• Patrons perform their own photocopying, though assistance is offered with technical questions.
• Patrons compile their own bibliographies. The library provides access to a number of tools to aid in the preparation of bibliographies.

Reference Materials

Reference materials do not circulate except to a faculty member who obtains the approval of a reference librarian. Each item must be checked out at the circulation desk.