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For a long time the value of the reference interview has stood unquestioned. More recently, with technological developments streamlining some of the tasks which once comprised the interview, some researchers are beginning to question the validity of the reference interview, and the investment that a reference librarian represents<ref>Ryan, S., (2008). "Reference Transactions Analysis: The Cost-effectiveness of Staffing a Traditional Academic Reference Desk". ''The Journal of Academic Librarianship'', 34 (5), p. 389-399.</ref>. Others argue that reference services should broaden their target audience. As people increasingly use the internet to make major, life-affecting decisions, so they also require the services of professionals who are able to provide help in this environment<ref>Janes, J., (2003). "What is reference for?". ''Reference Services Review'', 31 (1), p. 22-25.</ref>. If this proves to be the case, it will become more vital that the reference interview is conducted professionally and successfully. In the age of [[information overload]], a successful reference interview may empower users to confidently make such decisions in their lives.
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1. Herbert White (1992) says that librarians need to emphasize their strengths. As computers increasingly take over clerical tasks that computers are good at, librarians should focus attention on aspects of service involving human communication that computers can't do well, Let computers get involved in document identification, document delivery, overdue notices, interlibrary loans and cataloguing, White argues, and let librarians take a proactive role in information intermediation, making the reference interview even more important.
2. In an unobtrusive study of reference service in Suffolk County public libraries on Long Island, Thomas Childers (1 980) instructed surrogate users to pose "escalator" questions, starting initially with a broad request so that librarians would have to use probes to discover the specific questions the users really wanted answered. No matter how general the initial question was, in 67 percent of the cases library staff members asked no questions to clarify what information was required. The result was that these staff members got to the last step-the real question only 20 percent of the time and hardly ever provided an accurate answer. By contrast, the third who did that did use probes to arrive at the specific question provided an accurate answer 62 percent of the time.
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3. Accuracy is highly prized by librarians, but it is not the only, or even the most important, element that users look for: Users want information packaged in a certain format; they want it within a
specified period of time; they want it in a certain amount; and above all they want it not to take more than a certain amount of effort to get it. Depending on their purpose, users may be quite satisfied with ballpark answers and won't require anything more exact. Part of conducting the Reference interview successfully is to find out how finely-grained the helpful answer needs to be. Matthew Saxton and John Richardson (2002) found that public library users were highly satisfied <ref>{{cite book|last=Ross|first=S. R|title=Why bother with a reference interview?|year=2009|publisher=London, Facet|___location=London|pages=1-37}}</ref>with the service despite lack of accuracy.0 Fifteen percent were highly satisfied even when they didn't find everything they needed. Three percent were highly satisfied even when the response they received was later judged to be inaccurate. Three percent were highly satisfied even when they didn't find anything useful. These findings provide more evidence to suggest that accuracy is not the only indicator for satisfaction.
It can be divided into two categories :-
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