RESOURCE CENTRE MANUAL
HEALTHLINK WORLDWIDE
7.8 Referral services
Referral means suggesting where a user can find information that is not
available in the resource centre. Referral services are among the most important
services offered by a resource centre.
No resource centre can hold all the materials available on all the subjects of
interest to their users. It is important to know about other sources of
information, so that users can be referred to them if necessary.
Other sources of information may include members of a network (see Section
8.3: Networks and networking), or other resource centres, either in the same
country or elsewhere, that provide enquiries services (see Section 7.11) or
document supply services (see Section 7.7).
It is possible to find out about other resource centres and information services
by:
• scanning or reading newsletters on the subject areas that the resource centre
covers
• networking with staff in other resource centres – those in the same country
specialising in any subject area, and those specialising in similar subjects,
either in the same country or elsewhere
• joining e-mail discussion groups, such as ASIALIB (see Section 6.9.4)
• searching the World Wide Web (see Section 6.7).
16 SECTION 7: INFORMATION SERVICES