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The earliest digital reference services were launched in the mid-1980s, primarily by academic and medical libraries, and provided by [[e-mail]]. These early-adopter libraries launched digital reference services for two main reasons: to extend the hours that questions could be submitted to the reference desk, and to explore the potential of campus-wide networks, which at that time was a new technology.
With the advent of the graphical [[World Wide Web]], [[libraries | Digital library]] quickly adopted webforms for question submission. Since then, the percentage of questions submitted to services via webforms has outstripped the percentage submitted via email.
In the early- to mid-1990s, digital reference services began to appear that were not affiliated with any library. These digital reference services are often referred to as "AskA" services. Examples of AskA services are the [[Internet Public Library]], [http://mathforum.org/dr.math/ Ask Dr. Math], and [http://americanart.si.edu/search/search_ajoa.cfm Ask Joan of Art].
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