Reference and local history

There are three guiding principles for reference stock selection and management:

• Equality of Access: Reference material should be accessible to everyone regardless of geographical location, disability, or background.   Increasingly, this may mean sending you the information in alternative formats eg a scanned image, or photocopy or via the Internet or it may mean delivering the item for use in your local library only.
• Availability: in some cases, books cannot be lent out from reference collections if they are in constant demand. Examples include Building Regulations, standard current reference books, current statistical or census material, or books in demand as course materials. Again this may mean delivering the information to you in alternative formats.
• Preservation: our desire to provide access to reference stock must be balanced by consideration of the rarity and physical condition of a book and whether or not it is replaceable. The Council has a responsibility to posterity to ensure that items which are important to the history and culture of the Highlands are kept safely for the future.

Reference Enquiries

When you ask a question in any Highland Library, staff will attempt to find the answer as quickly and effectively as possible. Sometimes the answer can be found easily, in one of the reference books, but sometimes the answer is not immediately available. In these cases, staff will ask you a few questions such as:

• What do you want to know? Experience shows that people very rarely ask at first for what they want, so it is usually necessary to find out a little more about exact requirements. For example somebody asking for ‘a map of South America’ may really want to know more about Amazonian rain forests, or somebody asking for ‘a book on Scots law’ may be facing a court case for speeding, a divorce, or coping with the difficulties following a death in the family. Tactfully we may try to find out a little more about what you really need so that we can help you as much and as quickly as we can.
• When do you need to know? Sometimes you will need the answer immediately, but sometimes we may have to ask you to wait for a day or two to allow us to contact another library or other source.
• Who are you? We may ask this if we might need to get back to you.
  How can we contact you?  We can email you, telephone you or fax you; just let us know.

Reference Stock

Reference books need to be as up-to-date as possible - if you find any item to be out-of-date please feel free to contact the Area Libraries Officer for your area or bring it to the attention of staff. We have a continuous programme of sending reference books for binding to preserve items of local interest.  To see a list of newly acquired reference books held at Inverness Reference, please click on In This Section.

Purchasing policy

New editions of some reference books are purchased annually for the Reference Room at Inverness Library. This resource exists to serve the whole network of Highland Libraries. We buy multiple copies of popular items and distribute them to other libraries and these are often circulated to smaller libraries after a new edition arrives.

Local Collection reference books are bought both for the Network and for relevant local libraries. The Network copy will usually go to the Reference Room at Inverness Library and local libraries will also have reference copies, marked Local Collection. In most cases there will also be lending copies of local history books or books of local interest. As some locally produced pamphlets are not sold or publicised outside a small local area, please let us know of any new local materials you are aware of. We welcome your suggestions.

New Reference Books are being published all the time and we welcome suggestions for purchase. Increasingly reference and information material is available on-line, over the Internet, and we subscribe to several resources which are available in libraries through the People’s Network computers or remotely, in your own home.  These electronic resources are free to library members.

Reference Enquiries: useful contacts

Inverness Library: Reference Room
Inverness Library
Farraline Park
Inverness
IV1 1NH
Tel: 01463 236463
Email: invernessreference.library@highland.gov.uk

Library Support Unit
The Highland Council
Highland Libraries
Library Support Unit
31A Harbour Road
Inverness
IV1 1UA
Tel: 01463 235713
Email: libraries@highland.gov.uk

Norman Newton (Senior Librarian, Information Co-ordinator)
norman.newton@highland.gov.uk
Tel: 01463 251256

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