IN ORDER TO EXAMINE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FORMAL LIBRARY EDUCATION AND EFFECTIVENESS IN ANSWERING REFERENCE QUESTIONS, FIELD STUDIES WERE CONDUCTED IN WHICH 9 PAIRS OF REFERENCE STAFF MEMBERS IN MEDIUM-SIZED PUBLIC LIBRARIES WERE ASKED A SET OF TEST REFERENCE QUESTIONS AND OBSERVED WHILE THEY ANSWERED THEM. MAJOR CONCLUSIONS WERE THAT--(1) THE STUDY HYPOTHESIS, WHICH PREDICTS THAT PROFESSIONALLY TRAINED LIBRARIANS WILL BE ABLE TO ANSWER A LARGER PROPORTION OF INFORMATION REQUESTS AND IN LESS TIME THAN UNTRAINED LIBRARIANS, IS SUPPORTED BY THE STUDY DATA, (2) BOTH TRAINED AND UNTRAINED LIBRARIANS TENDED TO ACCEPT THE FIRST ANSWER FOUND, (3) THE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES WERE ON THE VARIABLE OF ANSWERING SPEED, ALTHOUGH THEY WERE NOT GREAT, (4) TO A LIMITED EXTEND, THE FINDINGS SUPPORT THE PRINCIPLE THAT REFERENCE WORK SHOULD BE PERFORMED ONLY BY TRAINED LIBRARIANS, (5) FINDINGS ALSO SHOW THAT LIBRARIANS WITHOUT TRAINING CAN ANSWER ACCURATELY AND QUICKLY A WIDE RANGE OF FACTUAL REFERENCE QUESTIONS, (6) OTHER DUTIES THAT ALLOWED INCREASED FAMILIARITY WITH THE INFORMATION CONTENTS OF THE LIBRARY COLLECTIONS WERE VARIABLES THAT AFFECTED REFERENCE EFFICIENCY, AND (7) THE KNOWLEDGE ON WHICH INCREASED EFFICIENCY IN ANSWERING QUESTIONS WAS BASED IN FAMILIARITY WITH THE LIBRARY COLLECTION. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH CONCLUDE THE REPORT, AND A 32 ITEM BIBLIOGRAPHY, DATA TABLES, THE TEST QUESTIONS, AND OBSERVATION SCHEDULES ARE APPENDED. THIS REPORT IS AN ABRIDGEMENT OF A UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PH.D. DISSERTATION WITH THE SAME TITLE. (JB)