The Influence of Sheehy and The Guide To Reference Books
In a time before nearly every library in the United States possessed access to the Internet and electronic databases, meta-reference books like GRB were a vitally important tool for the reference librarian. When you didn't know where to look GRB gave you not just a starting point but a system of indexes listing materials on the subject you needed, mini-reviews describing the content, and some contextual suggestions to help you decide what specific materials were really required. Organized into categories designed for easy navigation, Sheehy's GRB was designed for use in the heat of the moment at a busy reference desk. But its use wasn't limited to assisting patrons with those difficult questions. GRB was also used in "training reference staff in the repertory of works with which they should be familiar, inventorying and developing reference collections…and serving as a gateway to the wider repertory of the reference literature" (Kieft, 331). That one person specially selects the titles listed in GRB lended a great sense of authority to Sheehy. Librarians placed significant confidence in Sheehy as editor of the guide, making him an influential tastemaker within the library industry. If a reference source was indexed in GRB, it was trusted.
The dramatic influence of Sheehy and his two editions of GRB were partly due to timing. In the 1970s with "more than 70 accredited library schools…in the United States and Canada" library education was at its zenith as far as sheer numbers studying and entering the profession (Rubin, 453). GRB, and Sheehy, were in the midst of that environment, providing an essential tool used coast to coast for more than a decade. It's no overstatement to say Sheehy influenced nearly every librarian educated in the 1970s and 1980s, whether they know it or not.
Read more about this topic: Eugene P. Sheehy
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