Browsing by Subject "digital reference"

Now showing 1 - 14 of 14

AskA's: Lesson Learned from K-12 Digital Reference Services
(1998) Lankes, R. David
The Internet has brought libraries to a crossroads. The nature of collection , service , and information organization is changing rapidly. There is considerable anxiety about changing roles and responsibilities in this new digital environment . While a great deal of research and development is occurring in both collection development (such as NSFs Digital Library Initiatives) and information organization (metadata), little attention has been paid to how reference and user services will function in this new digital environment. This article outlines some of the thinking in this area as it relates to K-12 digital reference services. These services answer thousands of questions every week and have addressed many issues involved in providing human-intermediated information and referral services via the Internet.
The Birth Cries of Digital Reference
(2000) Lankes, R. David
Cost, Statistics, Measures, and Standards for Digital Reference Services: A Preliminary View
(2003) Lankes, R. David; Gross, Melissa; McClure, Charles
This paper reports on work from two studies in progress related to assessing digital library reference services and developing standards that support such services. The paper suggests that two types of standards – utilization and technical – should be considered together in the costing, statistics, and measures for digital reference services. The digital reference community has the opportunity to embed quality standards and assessment data into software and infrastructure by linking technical and utilization standards early in the evolution of digital reference markets. Such an approach would greatly enhance the collection and analysis of a range of cost data related to digital reference service.
Costing Reference: Issues, Approaches, and Directions for Research
(2006) Gross, Melissa; McClure, Charles R.; Lankes, R. David
The Assessing Quality in Digital Reference project is a first step toward understanding the cost of digital reference services in libraries. This article presents three measures isolated by project participants as being most useful for their immediate needs: total cost of providing digital reference service, the cost of digital reference service as a percent of the total reference budget, and the cost of reference as a percent of the total library or organizational budget. In addition, it reviews selected outstanding issues in the ongoing question of how to determine the cost of reference services in libraries and offers direction for further study toward a general cost model for information services
Current State of Digital Reference in Primary and Secondary Education
(2003) Lankes, R. David
This paper examines the domain of digital reference services for and by the primary and secondary education community. Data is provided to demonstrate the current understanding of education question types and education users in digital reference. It is believed this data will be of wide utility for digital library builders geared toward primary and secondary users (K-12) such as the International Children's Digital Library [1] and the National Science Digital Library [2].
The Current State of Digital Reference: Validation of a General Digital Reference Model through a Survey of Digital Reference Services
(2004) Pomerantz, Jeffrey; Nicholson, Scott; Belanger, Yvonne; Lankes, R. David
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 – early 2002, and validates the general process model of asynchronous digital reference.
The Digital Reference Electronic Warehouse (DREW) Project: Creating the Infrastructure for Digital Reference Research through a Multi-Disciplinary Knowledge Base
(2007) Nicholson, Scott; Lankes, R. David
One of the valuable offerings of librarians in the digital age is the human intermediation of information needs. In physical libraries, these reference questions are answered and few artifacts remain from the transaction; therefore, the knowledge created through the work of the librarian leaves with the patron. Due to the medium of communication, digital reference transactions capture the knowledge of information professionals. There are hundreds of digital reference services generating knowledge every day; however, the lack of a schema for archiving reference transactions from multiple services makes it difficult to create a fielded, searchable knowledge base. This schema will also allow researchers to develop tools that practitioners can employ; this will create a collaborative environment for digital reference evaluation. The goal of this work is to outline the steps needed to develop this schema, present the results of a survey of digital reference services, explore some of the pitfalls in the process, and envision the future uses of this Digital Reference Electronic Warehouse (DREW).
The Digital Reference Fallacy
(2004) Lankes, R. David
This article discusses the fallacy that real-time and asynchronous digital reference software are fundamentally different. Instead the author argues that the only real difference is lag time, and that this difference does not support the separation of digital reference functions. An attempt is made to create a unified model for digital reference and digital reference functions. Lastly, the author presents some practical considerations for libraries seeking to purchase digital reference software
The Digital Reference Research Agenda
(2004) Lankes, R. David
This article presents a research agenda for the study of digital reference. The agenda stems from a research symposium held at Harvard in August 2002. The agenda defines digital reference as “the use of human intermediation to answer questions in a digital environment.” The agenda also proposes the central research question in digital reference - “How can human expertise be effectively and efficiently incorporated into information systems to answer user questions?” The definition and question are used to outline a research agenda centered on how the exploration of digital reference relates to other fields of inquiry
Digital Reference Research: Fusing Research and Practice
(2005) Lankes, R. David
Digital Reference Triage: Factors Influencing Question Routing and Assignment
(2003) Pomerantz, Jeffrey; Nicholson, Scott; Lankes, R. David
This article describes a Delphi study conducted to determine factors that affect the process of routing and assigning reference questions received electronically by digital reference services, both to experts within the service and between services. Fifteen factors were determined, by expert consensus, to be important at the conclusion of this study. These fifteen factors are divided into three groups: 1) general factors, 2) factors in routing the question to an individual, and 3) factors when routing the question to another service. These factors were ranked in order of importance and grouped according to the recipient of the question. These fifteen factors need to be taken into account when automating the triage process. This article has laid out a methodology for investigating other digital reference processes so that those processes amenable to automation may be automated, and experts’ talents and time may be best used.
Managing Data Collection for Real-Time Reference: Lessons from the AskERIC Live! Experience
(2003) Belanger, Yvonne; Lankes, R. David; Shostack, Pauline Lynch
Successful management of a real-time digital reference service requires effective and efficient data collection to provide accurate and useful information about service processes and outcomes. This article describes the data collection procedures developed by AskERIC for its real-time reference service; in particular, this article will describe how these procedures address limitations, gaps, and inaccuracies in the data as passively captured by software. Finally, particular issues and considerations for service managers about various statistical measures within the real-time environment are discussed.
The Necessity of Real-Time: Fact and Fiction in Digital Reference Systems
(2003) Lankes, R. David; Shostack, Pauline
Current discussions and trends in digital reference have emphasized the use of real-time digital reference services. Recent articles have questioned both the utility and use of asynchronous services such as email. This article uses data from the AskERIC digital reference service to demonstrate that asynchronous services are not only useful and used but may have greater utility than real-time systems.
Quality Standards for Digital Reference Consortia
(2000) Kasowitz, Abby; Bennett, Blythe; Lankes, R. David
This article identifies a working set of standards by which to assess individual digital reference services (Internet-based human-mediated information services) and to define membership within a collaborative network of digital reference services. The standards are designed for the Virtual Reference Desk AskA Consortium; a group that represents several subject-area and information referral digital reference services geared in part to the K-12 education community. However, the standards can serve as a model for digital reference consortia and cooperation in general. This article presents the standards in the context of traditional and digital reference evaluation, describes the process by which the standards were created and revised, presents the standards as defined by multiple levels of adherence, discusses common themes reflected in the standards, and applies the standards to other digital reference contexts and consortia. Plans for continual evolution of the standards are also discussed.