خدمت مرجع به عنوان حوزه‌ای واکنشی: بررسی روندهای جهانی و موضوعات داغ

Purpose: Reference services, as one of the most fundamental and interactive library services, have consistently been shaped by technological and social transformations. Despite the substantial body of research on thematic trends in this field, two major challenges—an overreliance on predefined trends and methodological ambiguity—have hindered the development of a Fairly comprehensive and dynamic understanding of its evolution. The present study aims to systematically identify and analyze the major thematic trends, research fronts, influential works, emerging topics, and historical turning points in reference services through a scientometric approach without temporal or topical restrictions. Furthermore, the study seeks to address the fundamental question of whether developments in this field are driven primarily by internal innovation or by reactions to environmental changes.
Method: This study employed document co-citation network analysis using CiteSpace software. The dataset consisted of 3,481 records indexed in the Scopus database between 1947 and 2024, retrieved using the keywords “reference service” and “reference services.” Data analysis was conducted using keyword co-occurrence analysis (to identify thematic trends), degree centrality (to determine research fronts), and citation burst detection (to identify influential works and emerging topics). The quality of the network was confirmed by Modularity Q (0.83) and Silhouette S (0.92), indicating high internal consistency and well-defined cluster structures.
Findings: The findings revealed that the knowledge structure of reference services consists of ten high-quality thematic clusters, among which “library instruction,” “information services,” and “reference staffing” were the most prominent. Alongside these enduring themes, emerging clusters such as “artificial intelligence,” with a particular focus on chatbots and especially ChatGPT, and “COVID-19” reflect the field’s rapid response to environmental changes. The analysis of research fronts demonstrated that studies related to digital reference services, particularly those focused on “chat,” exhibited the highest centrality. Citation burst analysis showed that influential works were predominantly concentrated in the area of virtual reference services, with relatively short attention cycles (three to five years), indicating the rapid evolution of research fronts. The analysis of emerging topics identified four chronological phases: (1) traditional librarianship issues until the early 1990s; (2) the emergence of digital and web-based services until approximately 2014; (3) a growing emphasis on user studies and younger generations until 2020; and (4) the dominance of topics such as artificial intelligence and COVID-19 from 2021 onward. Historical turning points also emerged mainly after 1995, shifting from concerns with answer accuracy toward human interaction, evaluation of digital services, and ultimately innovative technologies.
Conclusion: The results reveal a dual pattern within the field of reference services: on the one hand, the persistence of fundamental and unresolved issues such as user instruction, service quality evaluation, and the role of librarians; and on the other hand, the rapid evolution of topics under the influence of external factors such as technological advancements and global events. This pattern suggests that reference services are largely reactive rather than innovation-driven. At the same time, concepts such as “quality evaluation” and “alternative librarian roles” emerged as shared themes across multiple clusters. Overall, although the core mission of reference services—providing effective and instructional assistance to users—has remained stable, its evolution appears highly dependent on environmental drivers. Therefore, moving toward a more proactive rather than reactive role requires researchers and practitioners to adopt predictive analyses and comparative approaches in order to play a more active role in shaping the future of the information ecosystem.