Implementing Digital Reference Services: Setting Standards and Making It Real

Citation

Srisa‐ard, S. (2004), "Implementing Digital Reference Services: Setting Standards and Making It Real", Online Information Review, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 167-167. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520410531754

Information and communication technologies play important roles in providing access to information in digital libraries. Library customers today are able to perform their interactions and use the services by themselves anytime and from anywhere through the Internet. Digital reference service is now a standard feature of library operations. We librarians have to keep up with new technology and strategies to ensure our relevance to new generations of library users.

The 19 chapters in Implementing Digital Reference Services: Setting Standards and Making It Real provides both theory and practical insights needed for effective digital reference in libraries and information services, with special emphasis on the theme of quality standards and evaluation. The landscape of digital reference services presented in this book is based on the Third Annual Virtual Reference Desk (VRD) conference, practical experiences, research findings, and current thinking in the digital reference community. The editors have structured the book in a way that can help librarians plan for, implement, and assess how reference services are delivered in the digital age. In doing so they present a comprehensive survey of current best practice, and bring together knowledge and experiences from successful practitioners in the field.

This book is very useful for library administrators, librarians, researchers who are new to digital reference services and those experienced ones who are learning how to do things better in the digital reference landscape. It is helpful for librarians to plan for, implement, and assess how reference services are delivered in the digital age. It is very useful to read about current best practice from around the world. It is recommended to any librarian intending to start a virtual reference service.