A study of S. R. Ranganathan's theory of reference service is undertaken by using an historical methodology. It was evident from the literature review that Ranganathan had established that reference service was the most important work and served as the hub of all library practices. There were six factors that were repeatedly considered by…

Part I contains 22 papers covering all aspects of the library reference services including sources of reference materials, an evaluation of reference sources, building a reference collection, training a reference librarian, and the needs of the industrial and medical communities for reference services. All the papers are slanted toward the special…