This paper describes a study conducted to determine the paths digital reference services take through a general process model of asynchronous digital reference. A survey based on the general process model was conducted; each decision point in this model provided the basis for at least one question. Common, uncommon, and wished-for practices are identified, as well as correlations between characteristics of services and the practices employed by those services. Identification of such trends has implications for the development of software tools for digital reference. This study presents a snapshot of the state of the art in digital reference as of late 2001 â early 2002, and validates the general process model of asynchronous digital reference.

Research is divided about the potential of e-service to bridge communication gaps, particularly to diverse user groups. According to the existing body of literature, eservice may either increase or decrease the quality of service received. This study analyzes the level of service received by different genders and ethnic groups when academic and public librarians answer 676 online reference queries. Quality of e-service was evaluated along three dimensions: timely response, reliability, and courtesy. This study found no significant differences among different user groups along any of these dimensions, supporting the argument that the virtual environment facilitates equitable service and may overcome some challenges of diverse user groups.

NCknows is a collaborative statewide chat-based reference service, launched in North Carolina in February 2004. The authors were contracted by the State Library of North Carolina as program evaluators for the NCknows project. This article reports on one component of the overarching evaluation effort: an analysis of the transcripts of NCknows chat sessions. This analysis was performed as a peer review, where NCknows librarians critiqued transcripts from the service. This study has three main findings: (1) The quality of reference service being provided by NCknows is high overall. (2) NCknows librarians are more engaged with users than are 24/7 staff members, but they are no more skilled in research or use of information sources. (3) Public librarians provide superior service, but academic librarians provide superior referrals. The implications of these findings for staffing chat reference services are discussed, with respect to librarians' credentials and the participating libraries' service philosophies.

Research is divided about the potential of e-service to bridge communication gaps, particularly to diverse user groups. According to the existing body of literature, eservice may either increase or decrease the quality of service received. This study analyzes the level of service received by different genders and ethnic groups when academic and public librarians answer 676 online reference queries. Quality of e-service was evaluated along three dimensions: timely response, reliability, and courtesy. This study found no significant differences among different user groups along any of these dimensions, supporting the argument that the virtual environment facilitates equitable service and may overcome some challenges of diverse user groups.

The stereotype of the reference transaction is more or less unchanged since Samuel Swett Greenâ s day, as involving precisely one librarian and one user. There are many common situations in which the reference transaction is not a one-to-one interaction, and this article will explore those situations. Additionally, this article argues that as network technology is increasingly utilized in reference work, situations in which the reference transaction is not a one-to-one interaction are becoming more common. Indeed, this article argues that as network technology is increasingly utilized in reference work, reference work will become fundamentally a collaborative effort, to the benefit of both individual reference services and reference work in general.

The questions of whether chat reference service is beneficial enough to users to justify the costs of offering it, and how valuable it is to users in fulfilling their information needs, have been primary concerns for librarians providing the service, for library administrators managing the service, and for funding agencies paying for it. The present study combines a traditional evaluation of the user's satisfaction with the reference encounter, with details of the user's information use and the user's motivation for using the chat reference service. This evaluation study assesses the effectiveness of chat reference service in meeting users' information needs.

Studies that examined virtual reference and its potential for collaboration have by and large represented experiences in western English-speaking countries. This article reports the results of a three-nation (Israel, Japan, and Lebanon) comparative analysis to bridge this research gap. Similarities and differences between these countries highlight elements that international collaborative initiatives should consider when implementing global virtual reference services.

This article describes a think-aloud study conducted to identify factors that influence the decisions made by digital reference "triagers" when performing triage on questions received by digital reference services. This study follows and expands on a Delphi study that identified factors that triagers agreed on after the fact of their performance of triage by identifying factors that triagers take into consideration during their performance of question triage. Thirty-eight factors that influence triage decisions were identified, in eight categories. Eight of these factors are intrinsic to the question itself; the remaining thirty factors are extrinsic to the question, situating it in a context for the user and the service. These factors must be taken into consideration by any future system for automated triage.

Four surveys of users of the AskERIC email reference service were conducted, during the years 1998, 2000, 2001, and 2002. These surveys presented a snapshot of the AskERIC user population and user satisfaction at a single point in time. This paper reanalyzes the findings from these surveys utilizing repeated survey techniques. This paper presents the evolution of some of the demographics of AskERICâ s user population over time, as well as the evolution of AskERIC user behavior. As perhaps the oldest AskA service in existence, this analysis of AskERIC data sheds light on the evolution of all AskA services, and of email-based reference services in general.

Librarians have long been concerned with connecting researchers with information, typically (but by no means exclusively) by means of face-to-face contact at a reference desk. With the advent of the Internet and the proliferation of online resources and services, librarians have used Web-based resources to add an asynchronic dimension to traditional synchronic reference services. One of the new Web-based technologies that has been discussed by librarians in the past few years is the wiki. Librarians have been using wikis for a variety of purposes, including research guides, knowledge-bases, and library Web sites, though they are flexible enough to work in most situations where collaboration or quick Web editing are desired. Wikis are an attractive tool for reference services because they are a relatively simple and inexpensive way to improve information flows among librarians and between librarians and their campus community.