Digital reference: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:44, 18 November 2023

Revision as of 22:55, 12 December 2023

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*Accept imperfection in conversations without spending time to go back and make corrections. Most words are recognizable through context.

*Become familiar with and use accepted IM abbreviations such as LOL (Laugh Out Loud).

*Don't panic. While speed is important it is more important to not feel rushed.

At times, IM becomes challenging because of lack of non-verbal cues such as eye contact, and the perceived time pressure. Moreover, formulating the question online without the give and take of nonverbal cues and face to face conversation presents an added obstacle. In addition, to provide effective reference service through IM, it is important to meet higher level of information literacy standards. These standards include evaluating the information and its source, synthesizing the information to create new ideas or products, and understanding the societal, legal, and economic issues surrounding its use.<ref>Desai, Christina M. & Graves, Stephanie J. "Instruction via Instant Messaging reference: what’s happening?", The Electronic Library 24 (2) ( 2006): 174-189.</ref>

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# Virtual reference queries are sometimes followed-up with telephone, fax, in-person and regular mail interactions, even though these modes of communication are not considered virtual."<ref name="MARS">{{cite journal |author=MARS Digital Reference Guidelines Ad Hoc Committee |year=2004 |title=Guidelines for Implementing and Maintaining Virtual Reference Services |journal=Reference and User Services Quarterly |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=9–14 |url=http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rusa/resources/guidelines/virtrefguidelines.cfm}}</ref>

In January 2011 [[QuestionPoint]] and the ALA were in talks about offering a National Ask A Librarian service across the whole United States of America.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://questionpoint.blogs.com/questionpoint_247_referen/2011/01/a-national-virtual-reference-service-for-the-us.html | title=A national virtual reference service for the U.S?}}</ref>

==Other countries==

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==External links==

* [httphttps://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Online_Reference Online Reference Section of the Library Success Wiki]

* [http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaprotools/referenceguide/definitionsreference.htm Reference and User Services Association's Definitions of a Reference Transaction]

* [http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Online_Reference Online Reference Section of the Library Success Wiki]

* [http://liswiki.org/wiki/Chat_reference_libraries Chat reference libraries] at the Library and Information Science (LIS) Wiki - list of libraries providing chat reference services

* [httphttps://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Library_Success:_A_Best_Practices_Wiki Library Success Best Practice Wiki] - provides a list of recommended IM chat client software

* [httphttps://www.ala.org/alatools/professionalresources/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet19.cfmvirtual-reference-selected-annotated-bibliography Virtual Reference: A Selected Annotated Bibliography], ALA Library Factsheet 19. Last updated: November 2013.

===Software vendors===

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===Providers===

;Egypt

* [http://www.questionmart.org QuestionMART], published by Cybrarians: the Arabic Portal for Librarianship and Information.

;United States

* [[Ask a Librarian on duty]], Florida state's virtual reference service, provides live chat with co-browsing and email functions.

* [https://www.librarieshawaii.org/connect/staff/ask-a-librarian/ Ask a Librarian], Hawaii's statewide email reference service.

* [http://www.answerland.org/ Answerland], Oregon's statewide online chat and email reference service.

* [http://www.researchhelpnow.org Research Help Now], Michigan Virtual Reference Collaborative Service.

;Canada

* [http://www.askon.ca Ask Ontario] is a collaborative virtual reference service for Ontario's college and public libraries, coordinated by [http://www.ocls.ca Ontario Colleges Library Service].

* [http://spotdocs.scholarsportal.info/display/sp/Ask Ask a Librarian] is a collaborative virtual reference service for Ontario's university libraries, coordinated by the [http://spotdocs.scholarsportal.info/display/sp/Home Scholars Portal operations team].

;United Kingdom

* [httphttps://librarywww5.open.ac.uk/library/ Open University Library] LivePerson

* [http://www.questionpoint.org/crs/servlet/org.oclc.home.TFSRedirect?virtcategory=10836 Enquire] is the UK's national 24/7 online reference service, serving over 80 English and Scottish public libraries.

* [http://library.open.ac.uk Open University Library] LivePerson

* [http://www.tees.ac.uk/lis/chat/ University of Teesside Library & Information Services] - IM Reference

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100925091720/http://nls.uk/info/readingrooms/askalibrarian.html Ask A Librarian (NLS)] provided by the National Library of Scotland

* [httphttps://www.askscotland.org.uk/ Ask Scotland], Scotland's online reference service staffed by librarians in Scotland.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120118194016/http://www.nls.uk/using-the-library/ask-a-librarian National Library of Scotland's 'Ask a Librarian' service]

* [httphttps://librarylibraries.wales.org/askcymru/enask-a-librarian/ Ask Cymrua Librarian], Welsh/English language virtual reference service

;Spain