Digital Divide: How Can Digital Libraries Bridge the Gap?
ICADL '02 Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Asian Digital Libraries: Digital Libraries: People, Knowledge, and Technology
Information Processing and Management: an International Journal
Information and reference services in the digital library
Information Services and Use
Predictors of answer quality in online Q&A sites
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
mimir: a market-based real-time question and answer service
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Knowledge search and people with high epistemic curiosity
Computers in Human Behavior
Why users of yahoo!: answers do not answer questions
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Comparing Google to ask-a-librarian service for answering factual and topical questions
ECDL'09 Proceedings of the 13th European conference on Research and advanced technology for digital libraries
Causal discovery in social media using quasi-experimental designs
Proceedings of the First Workshop on Social Media Analytics
Social Q&A and virtual reference—comparing apples and oranges with the help of experts and users
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Continuous improvement of knowledge management systems using Six Sigma methodology
Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
This article discusses the history and emergence of nonlibrarycommercial and noncommercial information services on the World WideWeb. These services are referred to as "expert services", while theterm "digital reference" is reserved for library-related on-lineinformation services. Following suggestions in library andinformation literature regarding quality standards for digitalreference, researchers make clear the importance of developing apracticable methodology for critical examination of expertservices, and consideration of their relevance to library and otherprofessional information services. A methodology for research inthis area and initial data are described. Two hundred fortyquestions were asked of 20 expert service sites. Findings includeperformance measures such as response rate, response time, andverifiable answers. Sites responded to 70% of all questions, andgave verifiable answers to 69% of factual questions. Performancewas generally highest for factual type questions. Because expertservices are likely to continue to fill a niche for factualquestions in the digital reference environment, implications forfurther research and the development of digital reference servicesmay be appropriately turned to source questions. This is contraryto current practice and the emergence of digital reference servicesreported in related literature thus far.