Implementing Digital Reference Services

The advent of digital and virtual technology has meant radical implications and opportunities for reference services, and a changing reference culture is now beginning to emerge. This text is a collection of papers from the Third Annual Virtual Reality Desk (VRD) Digital Reference Conference which has been brought together to form a comprehensive survey of current practice. The papers focus on the theoretical and practical issues of digital reference in libraries and information services, with special emphasis on the theme of quality standards and evaluation. Illustrated by a wide range of case studies, the papers bring together a wealth of shared experience by experts and successful practitioners in the field. Part One contains case studies for digital reference services, Part Two deals with the management of digital reference, Part Three deals with real-time digital reference services, Part Four looks at collaborative reference initiatives, Part Five covers research in digital reference and Part Six evaluates digital reference.
The topics covered include: virtual reference - what it is and what it may be; rethinking privacy for the virtual library; providing chat reference service - a survey of current practice; the road to real-time digital reference - pilot projects; emerging digital reference standards; moving from virtual to co-operative reference service models; understanding the information needs of adult learners; information-seeking behaviour of online users; assess quality in digital reference services.