We thank the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for its sponsorship of the Research Support Services project on Civil and Environmental Engineering. Ithaka S+R provides research and strategic guidance to help the academic and cultural communities serve the public good and navigate economic, demographic, and technological change. Ithaka S+R is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization that works to advance and preserve knowledge and to improve teaching and learning through the use of digital technologies. Artstor, JSTOR, and Portico are also part of ITHAKA.
This article explores the opportunities that real-time digital reference service can offer to a variety of library settings from the independent public library to the large multicampus university or the multi-national corporation. There are many occasions when a real-time digital reference service will be the optimal solution for a portion of a library's reference service. The authors' goal is to offer our original ideas, and examples from the literature, that will stimulate thought about real-time digital reference services that could be offered by your libraries. The numerous ideas and examples should provide the reader with workable methods for extending the reach of reference service to under-served populations.
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