Digital versus non-digital reference : ask a librarian online and offline
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Digital versus non-digital reference : ask a librarian online and offline
Haworth Information Press, 2004
Available at 4 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
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  United States of America
Note
"Co-published simultaneously as The reference librarian, number 85, 2004."
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Compare and contrast library reference models and more consumer-oriented models!
Digital versus Non-Digital Reference: Ask A Librarian Online and Offline analyzes the quality of commercial Ask A Librarian (AskA) and tutorial services and how they compare to traditional library services. Edited by Jessamyn Westproprietor of librarian.net and the hippest ex-librarian on the Web according to Wired magazinethe book looks at library models and more consumer-oriented models, examining a variety of services that range from Ask Jeeves (R) and Google Answers to your own reference desk and Web e-mail reference forms. Academic librarians and information specialists share their experiencesgood and badin starting, assessing, or ending AskA services and in working with collaborative reference tools and outsourcing reference services, and discuss the highs and lows of dealing with individual online services.
Digital versus Non-Digital Reference: Ask A Librarian Online and Offline chronicles the experiences and interactions of librarians with digital reference, including case studies, how-to guides, and philosophical essays. The book's contributors discuss their concerns about using the Internet as not only a reference tool but as a reference medium that most libraries find inevitable to some degree. Topics include the political ramifications of offsite or outsourced reference, the truth behind the assertion that it's all available online, cultural and/or language barriers to text-based reference services, and patrons' experiences with reference tools, from a librarian's perspective.
Digital versus Non-Digital Reference: Ask A Librarian Online and Offline addresses:
policy, staffing and technology for telephone reference services
e-mail reference in public libraries
the University of Michigan's Internet Public Library
archivists and remote users in the digital age
success and failure with commercial AskA programs
the history of Q and A NJ, New Jersey's virtual reference service
multilingual chat reference systems
the ongoing debate over the value of digital reference
the case for nonintrusive reference
Digital versus Non-Digital Reference: Ask A Librarian Online and Offline is an invaluable resource for practitioners and academics on the appropriate assessment, technologies, and methods for successfully creating and operating human-mediated, Internet-based information services.
Table of Contents
Preface (Jessamyn West)
SECTION ONE: THE OLD versus THE NEW
Have(n't) We Been Here Before? Lessons from Telephone Reference (M. Kathleen Kern)
E-Mail Reference as Substitute for Library Receptionist (Susan M. Braxton and Maureen Brunsdale)
The Internet Public Library as a Teaching Tool for Shockingly Traditional Reference Skills (Abigail Leah Plumb)
Contact Us: Archivists and Remote Users in the Digital Age (Katharine A. Salzmann)
Characteristics of E-Mail Reference Services in Selected Public Libraries, Victoria, Australia (Doreen Sullivan)
SECTION TWO: HOW WE DO IT HERE
Predicting the Success of Commercial AskA Services in the United States and Abroad (Jenny Baum and Kate Lyons)
Wired New Jersey: Q and A NJ (Carol Van Houten)
Library LAWLINE: Collaborative Virtual Reference in a Special Library Consortium (Scott Matheson)
Planning for Multilingual Chat Reference in a Suburban Public Library System (Edana McCaffery Cichanowicz and Nan Chen)
SECTION THREE: A FEW THINGS TO THINK ABOUT
The Social Life of Digital Reference: What the Technology Affords (Mita Sen-Roy)
The Case for Non-Intrusive Research: A Virtual Reference Librarian's Perspective (Bruce Jensen)
Index
Reference Notes Included
by "Nielsen BookData"