A Look Back at Twenty-Five Years Behind the Desk

This is an overview of my experiences in twenty-five years of working as a reference librarian in the University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign. It includes a general discussion of reference librarianship, a description of my situation at Illinois, some changes that have occurred over the years, and some interesting aspects of the job. Included are a list of things that academic reference librarians should know, a discourse on the use of the computer in reference work, and a description of reference correspondence. There are two anecdotes; one an account of the “Salutation Army Band” and the other the case of the genealogist bikers.