Telephone Reference

The Telephone Reference Unit of the Hawaii State Library can provide you with quick answers to questions which can be answered by using a dictionary, encyclopedia, etc.

• Oahu: 586-3621
• Neighbor Islands: 1-800-390-3611

If the Unit does not have the reference sources to answer the question, staff will refer the caller to a subject section at the Hawaii State Library.
Staff members may ask you a number of questions as part of the reference interview to make sure that they fully understand what you are looking for. Here are some suggestions to make the interview most productive:

• Be specific: Ask for The Incident at Roswell rather than the books on UFOs. Ask for the books on cane toads rather than the animal books.

• If staff members are unfamiliar with some of the terms you are using, be willing to define them or use alternate terms. Show them some of the documents or materials which you have already located and provide the context of your search request.

• Tell the staff member where you have already checked: PAC, an online magazine database, the circulating automotive manual collection, etc.

• Start with your local library. Please do not phone a large library and ask staff to retrieve books from the stacks and only then ask whether they are available at your local library. Call or visit your local library first.

• If the material is not available there, the staff will help you find out where copies are located via PAC and will place an online hold for you so that the material will be sent to your local library for pickup.

 

 

The Hawaii State Public Library System also subscribes to electronic databases that provide access to thousands of articles from a wide variety of journals, encyclopedias and other sources.
Click here for a list of useful databases.