E-reference

• Authors: Amy Tracy Wells;Ardis Hanson
• Venue: Building a virtual library
• Year: 2003

Lipnow (1997) talks about traditional reference a a mediated, one-on-one service that intervenes at the information seeker's point of need. Further, she suggests that this point of need is part of the universal predicament of an information seeker-someone who wants to move forward (cognitively) but is unable to progress until he or she finds that missing piece of information. Research clearly shows that information seekers want and need that gap filled with as little interruption as possible, so they can continue where they left off (Dervin, 1998, 1989). From a library perspective, the two questions emanating from that need are first, how to ensure that clients who use a reference service get up-to-date assistance that integrates paper and electronic resources, and second, how to reach the user who has a question but no obvious place to ask it. Technology may have simultaneously ameliorated and exacerbated these questions.There are numerous local, national, and international initiatives for the provision of e-reference. These include efforts within centralized library environments, between libraries under different management structures within the same institution, libraries within the same region, as well as larger initiatives such as the IPL (Internet Public Library) Reference Center, AgNIC's (Agricultural Network Information Center) distributed service, VRD (Virtual Reference Desk), or the Library of Congress" CDRS (Collaborative Digital Reference Service), which attempt to serve any user, any where.E-Reference means many things to many people such as asynchronous or, conversely, synchronous communication, software tools such as email or an off-the-shelf CRM (Customer Relations Management package or even an in-house tool built in Perl, to policy and management goals, to cooperative and non-cooperative ventures. However, there are some trends as defined by market-share development. This chapter begins with a brief definition of e-reference and places it within the continuum of services provided by an academic virtual library. The authors then examine the functional requirements of systems, real world issues including policy and standards, market growth and issues in information literacy. Finally, they discuss future issues for e-reference services.