Digital Versus Non‐Digital Reference: Ask a Librarian Online and Offline

Citation

Fourie, I. (2005), "Digital Versus Non‐Digital Reference: Ask a Librarian Online and Offline", The Electronic Library, Vol. 23 No. 6, pp. 713-714. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470510635827

Digital Versus Non‐Digital Reference: Ask a Librarian Online and Offline is a handy guide for reference librarians, especially those interested in chat reference services. Under the capable editorship of Jessamyn West a number of experts share their experiences in implementing digital reference services, chat reference services, commercial AskA services, as well as their reflections on how digital reference services compare with traditional services. Jessamyn West is the proprietor of library.net and is considered by Wired magazine to be the “hippest ex‐librarian on the web”.

The book covers a variety of library types and is divided into three parts dealing with traditional versus non‐traditional reference services, a few case studies, and aspects requiring further thought. The main message is: “we've been here before” (p. vii). This refers to the fact that librarians constantly need to learn new skills: “digital reference is one more language we are all attaining fluency in” (p. xvii).

In the first chapter, Kathleen Kern considers experiences from telephone reference work, including the policy, staffing and technology for telephone reference services. Susan Braxton and Maureen Bronsdale deal with e‐mail reference services and Doreen Sullivan with the characteristics of e‐mail reference services in selected public libraries. Abigail Plumb discusses the experiences of the Internet Public Library at the University of Michigan School of Information, while Katherina Salzmann considers the experiences of archivists and remote users.

The second part of the book includes a number of case studies, which focus on the implementation of digital services as well as the actual use of digital reference tools and systems. Jenny Baum and Kate Lyons discuss commercial AskA services in the US and abroad, while Carol van Houten discusses the New Jersey virtual reference service referred to as Q and A NJ.

LAWLINE, a collaborative virtual reference service in a special library consortium is discussed by Scott Matheson. Edana McCaffery Cichanowicz and Nan Chen share their experiences in planning a multilingual chat reference service in a suburban public library system. In the last two chapters, Mita Sen‐Roy explores the social life of digital reference, while Bruce Jensen explores a virtual reference librarian's perspectives on non‐intrusive research.

With the exception of one chapter, all chapters include lists of references, some of which are rather extensive. The index, however, is rather disappointing. Under the entry “Victoria, Australia”, the reader is for example referred to “e‐mail reference services”, while the entry for “virtual reference” refers to an extended list of “ask a librarian” entries.

Digital Versus Non‐Digital Reference: Ask a Librarian Online and Offline is considered as good value for money for reference librarians looking for a bit of stimulation and shared experiences.