Virtual Reference Services: Issues and Trends

Citation

Lea, P. (2005), "Virtual Reference Services: Issues and Trends", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 39 No. 1, pp. 76-77. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330330510578840

Virtual, digital, real‐time, instant messaging or chat has been established and growing in the US and Australia for a number of years. It is taking hold in the UK, but at a much slower pace and less extensively with such services as Ask a Librarian (see www.ask‐a‐librarian.org.uk/), the more recent Ask Cymru (see www.ask‐a‐librarian.org.uk/ask_cymru/index.html) and the forthcoming People's Network Online Enquiry Service.

This monograph, simultaneously published as a Haworth Press serial, Internet Reference Services Quarterly, Vol. 8 No. 1/2, 2003, reviews the general principles and practices of virtual reference services, mainly through a series of case studies of various American public and academic libraries, the library of the Boeing Corporation and the service provided to the patrons of the ERIC database.

An editorial sets the scene with the historical background to virtual reference services and provides a brief analysis of the emerging themes. The case is made for chat services, emphasising their advantages such as preserving the anonymity of the enquirer reluctant to approach the traditional reference desk but also, realistically reflecting concerns about their implementation, including losing the advantage gained by conducting a professionally undertaken face‐to‐face reference interview by a skilled librarian.

The first paper by Anne Grodzins Lipow makes the important point that virtual reference should provide an opportunity to re‐examine the basic principles of reference work. She also implies, whilst somewhat critical of some aspects of current reference services, that losing the advantage gained by a professionally conducted reference interview might not necessarily be a positive development. This latter point is rarely discussed in the succeeding papers, as is the fact that good reference work is only as good as the person providing it. There is no doubt that there is much room for improvement when the dismally low success rate (50‐55 per cent) of complete and accurate answers provided to enquiries is considered, but whether technology, rather than training, can improve this situation remains to be seen.

The remaining papers in the book concentrate on describing a number of services in the US. Their fast expansion reflects well on the forward thinking of the American library profession which is exploiting well the developing technology and software design. There are many administrative and managerial lessons which can be learned from the experiences of the contributors. The overall lessons gained from the work are to exploit the technology, proceed with caution, but not to forget the basics. Virtual reference, in combination with an improvement of the basic skills, offers an opportunity to move this indispensible service to new levels of quality. The technical features of this work are adequate. A reasonably comprehensive index is provided and most chapters include a bibliography or a combination of bibliography and notes.

Overall, whilst some of the papers may be of marginal interest to UK readers, there is much to be learned from many of the others for anyone already involved in, or thinking about, implementing such a service.