Reference and Information Services in the 21st Century: An Introduction, is designed to help "all reference librarians striving to acquire or affirm the necessary skill sets," while being "organized to complement the syllabus of a prototypical library and information studies course." The book falls short in the former goal, while succeeding in the latter.
Reference and Information Services in the 21st Century: An Introduction would serve as a solid text for a library school course on reference services. All of the skills and resources necessary to the job of reference librarian are addressed in a manner appropriate for students. The chapters on "Reference 2.0" and assessing reference service are, in particular, very well done. However, the book falls short in its goal of seeking to help experienced reference librarians enhance their skill sets. While the selected lists of sources for each type of query would be useful to any librarian, the text itself covers only ground that would be familiar to a reference librarian of any experience. Also, the authors promised a companion website with updates to the book due by January 2010. As of early March 2010, there was still no content on that web page.
In short, Reference and Information Services in the 21st Century: An Introduction is a very good choice as a textbook for a library school class, but ill-suited for a librarian seeking further professional development.