Virtual Reference

ServicesPresented by:

Iqra Mubeen

Roll No. 04

M.Phil PU

Reference Services

“Reference Service as direct, personal assistance

to readers seeking information. ”

“Reference services are the services which

refers users to other services.”

( The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science)

Reference Service Process

UserReference

SourcesReference

Librarian

Virtual Reference Services

"Virtual reference is reference service initiated electronically, often in real-time, where users employ computers or other Internet technology to communicate with librarians, without being physically present.“

(MARS Ad Hoc Committee on Virtual Reference Guidelines (2003, May). Draft Guidelines 5/2003.)

Objective of Virtual

Reference ServicesO To provide individual assistance and instruction

O To provide and maintain an appropriate collection of reference resources, both print and electronic

O To assist users with locating the best sources of information

O To help in marketing reference and resources

O To serve as a public relations representative

O To educate users concerning resources and research techniques in order to help them become information literate.

History

O Not common in libraries until late 1800s.

O These services initially began in public

libraries.

O At first librarians were hesitant to offer

reference services.

O Did not have a large enough staff

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O Samuel Swett Green 1876 ( concept of

reference librarian).

O Four goals of reference librarian.

Teaching patrons

Answering patrons' questions

Helping patrons

Promoting the library to the greater

community.

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O Beginning in 1883 with the Boston Public

Library through E-mail and web form.

O In 1989, started education for reference

services

O The later decades of 19th century.

O Incorporate information communication

technologies in reference services.

O Reference librarian

Elements of Virtual Reference

Service

According to Linda Berube, a digital reference service incorporates the following four basic elements:

O The User

O The interface (web form; e- mail; chat; video etc.)

O Electronic resources (including electronic or CD –based resources; web) resources; local digitized material etc.) as well as print resources

O The information professional

Benefits

Psychological barrier (shy users)

Useful for the users

Removed physical boundaries

Reference librarian find more time to think ,

chalk and plan out a strategy and finally search

and give the answer.

No restrictions of working time

This mode of receiving and answering

questions is cost-effective.

Two Types of Virtual

Reference ServicesAsynchronous Virtual reference:

O Patron submits a question and the librarian responds at a later time

Example: Email, Web Form.

Synchronous Virtual reference:O Patron and librarian communicate in real

time.

Example: Chat, Voice over IP, Video Conferencing, SMS, IM.

Asynchronous Virtual

reference services

OE-mail reference service:

This is a simple, cheapest and cost

effective service in which transaction involves

back and forth exchange of information . User

sends the query in the form of a message and

receives an answer at a later time. User can ask a

question even when the library is closed.

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Following are the some of the e-mail services provided to the users:

O Inforocket

O Askme

O All Experts

O Question Point

O Britannica

O Infoplease

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OReference via Web form:

Ask a Librarian website which provide

a structured web form where user must have to

respond to specific queries. The web form has to

be accessed from library home page. This web

form is useful for reference librarian as well as

users as it provide structured format for

questions.

Synchronous Virtual

reference Services

OInstant Messaging:

Chat and Instant messaging solutions

have been used in digital reference with a large

degree of success. This software is widely

available across platforms, very easy to learn,

and cheap (normally free). As customers ask

questions windows will pop up on the librarian’s

screen.

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Popular IM services are:

O MSN Messenger

O AOL Instant Messenger

O Yahoo Messenger

O Google Talk

O NET Messenger Service

O ICQ

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OVideo Conferencing:

Video Conferencing is introduced as a remedy to the communication problems inherent in text based services.

O Visual elements

O Similar to face to face interview

O Distance learning

O Off-campus access

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ODigital Reference Robots:

An artificial intelligence is used to

response the questions when the reference

librarian is not available, is known as Digital

Robots. The most well-known of this type of

service is Ask Jeeves.

Collaborative Reference

Services

O Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS):

This is a free reference service project of Library of Congress and more than 100 partner libraries form various countries. It is a world wide network of libraries in which OCLC builds and maintains a database which include three main components:

O Member Profiles

O Request Manager

O Knowledge Base

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OVirtual Reference Desk:

This project is sponsored by US Department of Education. The VRD does not actually answer questions, but provides resources and links to experts that offer these services. It allows co-browsing, webpage sending, text message, slide shows, chat transferring.

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O 24/7 Reference Service:

A pilot network established in

California, Los Angeles and Orange County

areas to provide real time reference services

directly to the library patrons over the

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It can be used to:

O Communicate with users real time chat.

O Customize the software to integrate with

participant library’s website

O Send files, images, power point presentations

to patron’s computer

O Network with others by transferring complex

to a local or remote expert

Commercial Reference

ServicesThese services are either free or fee-based. They

answer users‟ questions and provide research

guidance. Some of them are computer-

generated expert services (example: AskJeeves)

and the other are human-mediated (example:

Google Answers, AllExperts).

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Three categories of commercial reference are

available:

O The user ask a question in natural language

and computer system respond.

O The user is linked to a professional searcher.

O The software links a question to an appropriate

expert.

Common Software

Paid Optional Fee Free

QuestionPoint Facebook ChiliFresh

LibraryH3IP Twitter Zoho Chat

LibChat Trillian Digsby

Mosio Skype Pidgin

RefChatter Google Talk

Second Life

Implementation of Digital

Reference ServiceO Reference Policy

O Planning

O Staffing

O Training

O Interface Design

O Publicity and Promotion

O Collaboration

Evaluation of Reference

ServicesTo evaluate means to assess the quality means to

judge the standard of the service that should be

provided to the users.

According to Lankes (2002), these components

consider when evaluate reference services:

O Outcome Measures

O Process Measures

O Economic Measures

O User Satisfaction

Conclusion

With the advent of internet, a number of non-

library and commercial library and information

centers are have started providing digital

reference services, while some are free and

others need payment. A good number of

reference sources are available on the internet.

Thus, in the future users will be more dependent

on the online sources and services.

References

O Chandwani, A. (2010). An overview of digital reference

services. Modern Practice in Library and Information Servoce,

Nagpur.

O Ranasinghe, W. M. T. D. (2012). New trends of library reference

services. Prof. Jayasiri Lankage Felicitation Volume, 189-197.

O Kimmel, S., & Heise, J. (2003). Virtual reference services: issues and

trends. CRC Press.

O Kochtanek, T. R., & Matthews, J. R. (2004). Library Information

Systems.

O McClure, C. R., Lankes, R. D., Gross, M., & Choltco-Devlin, B.

(2002). Statistics, Measures, and Quality Standards for Assessing

Digital Reference Library Services: Guidelines and Procedures.