Digital Reference Service in the New Millennium: Planning, Management, and Evaluation

Citation

Anh Tran, L. (2001), "Digital Reference Service in the New Millennium: Planning, Management, and Evaluation", Online Information Review, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 131-141. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2001.25.2.131.3

During the last decade electronic reference materials, including CD‐ROMs, databases, Internet and online services, have been offered by libraries in developed countries. Such materials are powerful tools that assist users in finding information quickly and, one hopes, accurately. We are now moving beyond this initial electronic environment to one in which existing information is being digitised, and “digital references” are becoming essential to users.

Digital Reference Service in the New Millennium includes main papers presented at the Reference in the New Millennium Conference organised by the Virtual Reference Desk <www.vrd.org> in 1999, a project of the United States Department of Education. The conference, and subsequent collection of papers, are intended to promote the best current critical thinking about digital reference services for librarians and information managers. The readers of this book will find clear explanations of what digital reference services are and how to implement such services in libraries. Main content provides both suitable background knowledge and practical skills in defining and implementing digital reference services in the new millennium.

According to this set of papers, digital reference services can be implemented by the following steps (although the parts themselves do not have these names):

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  defining;

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  creating;

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  managing;

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  evaluating;

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  integrating.

Part 1 introduces the concepts and characteristics that define digital reference services. These services can be defined as “mediated interface” between users and a collection of information via the networked environment. The digital reference service provides users with answers via the Internet. “Mediation” can be conducted by reference librarians or other information professionals based on a collection of information including online catalogues, electronic databases and Internet resources. The discussions of traits and trends in digital reference services focus on the technical aspects, key issues in access, and technology changes in the design of automated systems, and the future of reference librarians.

Creating digital reference services and networks is described in Part 2. This emphasises the collaboration between libraries and information services, such as interlibrary loan and resource sharing. This part, probably the least adequate in the collection, presents the required standard‐setting process for digital reference services in a collaborative network.

Managing digital reference services (Part 3) discusses the key issues of growth, intellectual property rights and system management in academic, government and private digital reference operations. More importantly, the authors discuss the evolution of digital reference services in relation to staffing, network distribution, technology infrastructure and information processing.

The section on evaluation (Part 4) discusses methods for assessing two different digital reference services – one from an academic library and one from a national museum library. Digital reference services present new issues in terms of identifying response quality, user expectations and satisfaction, the applications of research methods, and target audiences. The authors realise that there are quite a few studies on digital reference evaluation, and they suggest that this topic requires consolidation in future studies. The standards and criteria for designing digital reference services in Part 3 might be appropriate for the evaluation of an existing digital reference service.

The final part, on integration, describes the integration of reference service and technology though three existing digital reference services in specific libraries: public libraries in Southern California, the University of North Texas Library, and the University of Calgary Library. The authors discuss special software features, policy needs, new aspects of service and future plans for digital reference service in these institutions. The work concludes with a bibliography of articles and other resources related to digital reference services, indexes and several useful appendices.

This is an outstanding publication on digital reference service, edited by appropriately experienced individuals: Lankes is director of the Information Institute of Syracuse; Collins is librarian of Harvard Graduate School of Education; and Kasowitz is Coordinator of the Virtual Reference Desk Project. The editors have succeeded in providing valuable insights based on first‐hand experience in the field of digital reference librarianship. The work is an essential acquisition at present, but act quickly, because the field is changing so rapidly that it will soon be superseded.