Mission and operation of the Reference Service of the American University Library

Therefore, the existence and operation of a university library in the contemporary era cannot be conceived outside of the computerization and digitization process, and a collection that does not include documents on this innovative type of support is a nonsense. That is why the permanent training of librarians in the area of information and documentation technologies, communication and information in real time, accurately, are determining elements in the contemporary process of modernization and continuous evolution of libraries in general and university and specialized libraries in particular. If the reference librarian doesn't fulfill his duty, the library fails in its mission. The reference librarian is the key to the success of the services rendered by the library. The library services must revolve around information users. Since the university and academic libraries provide the informational support to a homogeneous, well-defined public, the introduction of new information technologies in libraries led to the need to diversify the range of services provided, beyond traditional library services and products. Reference librarians have practically become IT specialists rather than book handlers or "collection keepers", good connoisseurs of one or more languages of international circulation. The future of university libraries, given that they are no longer the only information managers, depends on how they will manage to adapt their services and collections to user requirements. To this end, I have briefly addressed in this paper-work, the way reference services are organized and function within university library systems from USA.