The way we work now: A survey of reference service arrangement in Federal Depository Libraries

As the Government Printing Office completes its transition to an electronic distribution system for government information, reference services within the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) are changing aswell. In addition to meeting new user needs and using new resources to do so, many government information librarians find themselves working in new environments within their libraries. Throughout the 1990s, many FDLP institutions reorganized reference services in order to provide government information assistance at the library's main reference service point. This article reports the results of a survey of FDLP institutions identifying the factors contributing to the reorganization of services, the process and success of reorganizing within these libraries, and the pros and cons of these service arrangements.