本文探討人文學的意義，性質與學科範圍；人文學者的學術研究與資訊需求；以及西洋人文學重要參考資料簡介等。 　　本文指出，西洋人文學參考服務之未來趨勢為：發展線上檢索系統、整合圖書資源、教育與訓練人文學圖書館員，以及邁向網路化虛擬圖書館時代。吾人期望在此情況下，圖書館學及資訊科學系所及圖書館二方面皆能培育與訓練優秀的人文學圖書館員，俾便為圖書館讀者提供良好的西洋人文學參考資料服務。

　　　　　The paper is to discuss the meaning, the nature, and the subject fields of the Humanities; to study the information needs of the Humanists; and to introduce some important reference sources in the Humanities. The paper indicates the future trends of reference services in the Humanities are as follows: to develop on-line searching, to collect various kinds library materials, to educate and train specialized librarians on Humanities, as well as to march towards virtual library era in networking environment. Under such circumstances, we hope that both the library school and the library could educate and train librarian effective and efficient enough to provide the readers with excellent services in the future.