Digital reference: An overview

Reference Librarian

Volumn 38, Issue 79-80, 2003, Pages 1-17

  Katz, Bill ^a  

^a WADSWORTH CENTER   (United States)

Author keywords

Aska services; Digital reference services; Real time reference services

Indexed keywords

EID: 85010572875     PISSN: 02763877     EISSN: 15411117     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1300/J120v38n79_01     Document Type: Article

References (18)

1. Carol Tenopir, "The Virtual Reference Services in a Real World," Library Journal, July 1, 2001, p. 38.
2. Nancy Maxwell, "Establishing and maintaining live online reference services." Library Technology Reports, July-August, 2002. See p. 7-8 for a short dictionary of terminology used.
3. "Welcome to the KnowItNow Website" Cleveland Public Library (www.knowitnow24x7.net/learnmore.html), page 2 of 5.
4. Joseph Janes, "Digital reference: reference librarians' experiences and attitudes," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 53, No. 7, 2002, p. 561. This conclusion is hardly new. It has been a given for decades, it is just as true for print as for digital reference service.
5. Richard Dougherty, "Reference Around the Clock: Is it in Your Future?" American Libraries, May, 2002, pp. 44-46.
6. Barbara Quest, "QuestionPoint marks new era in virtual reference," NewsBreak (www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb020610-1.htm), June 10, 2002.
7. Steve McKinzie and Jonathan Lauer, "Digital Reference" Against the Grain, September 2002, p. 36. The authors point out other problems from cost to lack of efficiency.
8. Leslie Shaver and Nikki Enright, "The Day of the Electronic Library," Information Outlook, August 2002, p. 30.
9. "Facets of Quality for digital reference services," Version 4, October 2000. Virtual Reference Desk (www.vrd.org/facets-10-00.shtml).
10. "Assessing Quality in Digital Reference" Draft, January 12, 2001. (http://quartz.syr.edu/quality/Overview.htm).
11. Joseph Janes, "Ask-an expert service" Digital Reference Desk, October 16-17, 2000. (www.vrd.org/conferences/VRD2000/proceedings/rolfe-hill-intro.shtml).
12. Matt Marsteller and Paul Neuhaus, "The chat reference experience at Carnegie Mellon University," June, 2001, p. 2.
13. This simple, direct approach is fine, but the system has five pages of explanation about how to search-five pages which most people will skip because of massive details. A lesson here for libraries. People want an answer, not a manual on how to find an answer.
14. Gobinda Chowdhury, "Digital libraries and reference services: present and future," Journal of Documentation, No. 3, 2002, p. 265.
15. As the aska-expert-Web sites tend to come and go rapidly, one way to keep up is to query a search engine. For example, Google (which itself has such a service) lists dozens under "aska sites"; and fewer under "reference-ask an expert-for a fee." It is best, at least in the beginning, to stay with the substantial, proven sites which are mentioned in this text.
16. InfoRocket (www.inforocket.com) began this with another approach. Here users post questions and experts bid to answer the queries. Users pay only for satisfactory answers.
17. Google Answers Researcher Training Manual" (http://answers.google.com/answers/researchertraining.html). This is a 10 page plus instruction manual for experts with what is required to become a Google researcher. A good deal of the information on citation style, "do's and don'ts" will be useful to librarians, and particularly to students. See, too, the section on "Answers Help and Tips.
18. Joann Wasik, "Information for sale: commercial digital reference and aska services," Virtual Reference Desk (www.vrd.org/AskA/commAskA.shtml). Similarities and differences between commercial and nonprofit are explained; see an annotated list of major commercial sites.