Reference Point

Reference Point is an electronic reference service provided by the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library.¹ The service was launched in April 1996 by the former National Reference Library, the predecessor of the today’s Lee Kong Chian Reference Library,² to provide reference service via telephone, fax, mail and email.³ On 11 April 2006, in order to provide greater accessibility to the service for users, Reference Point was made available via SMS (short messaging service) so that mobile phone users could use SMS to send their enquiries and receive the responses.⁴ As at 28 March 2016, the SMS service has been discontinued.⁵

Objectives
The aim of Reference Point is to provide a quality enquiry service, where staff attend to all enquiries through telephone, fax and email within a short turnaround time (usually within three working days but more time may be required for complex questions).⁶ Reference Point centralises all such enquiries and helps to meet the rising information needs and expectations of users. In line with this centralisation policy, the telephone calls of all branch and regional libraries were routed to a call centre where the enquiries are then filtered and escalated to Reference Point.⁷

Services
Reference Point is a local hotline for information.⁸ It attends to quick reference, reference, research and publication enquiries, especially pertaining to information about Singapore. It also provides simple information packaging and referral services as well as responses to requests for interlibrary loan, document delivery services and database searches.⁹



Author
Zubaidah Mohamed



References
1. Tan Gek Neo, “What’s the Difference? National vs Public,” Straits Times, 12 November 2005, 25. (From NewspaperSG)
2. Jessy Chua, “National Library Set To Dazzle,” Today, 21 April 2005, 8. (From NewspaperSG)
3. Steve Dawson, “Do You Have a Recipe for Popiah?” Straits Times, 24 July 1999, 13. (From NewspaperSG)
4. “NLB Launches SMS Service To Promote Use of Reference Material,” Channel NewsAsia, 11 April 2006. (From Factiva via NLB’s eResources website)
5. “Contact Us,” National Library Board, accessed 29 June 2016. 
6. “Frequently Asked Questions,” National Library Board, accessed 10 May 2016.
7. Julie Gwee and Neo Beng Seng, “A Library for the People: A Case Study of the National Library Board,” Civil Service College, accessed 6 May 2016.
8. C.S., “Got a Question? Ask Him,” Straits Times, 11 September 2004, 5. (From NewspaperSG)
9. National Library Board, “Frequently Asked Questions.”



The information in this article is valid as at 2016 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history on the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.