E-mail Reference in a Distributed Learning Environment

Croft, Rosie; Eichenlaub, Naomi

doi:10.1300/j111v45n01_07

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 12 publications

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“…Email reference service is guided by a "Best Practices" document described by Croft and Eichenlaub (2006). Emailed requests for reference help are sent to a shared address of reflib@royalroads.ca.…”

Section: The Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Web-Scale Search and Virtual Reference Service: How Summon Is Impacting Reference Question Complexity and Reference Service Delivery

Meredith

2013

Internet Reference Services Quarterly

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Web scale discovery tools like Summon™ are becoming the norm at academic libraries across North America. How much do these tools simplify discovery? What changes do they bring to the provision of reference service? At Royal Roads University, where most students complete graduate degrees through distance study, I applied the READ scale to reference questions received by email in the year before and the two years after we adopted Summon™. Comparing the questions over time, and analyzing reference statistics, I reflect on changes brought on by discovery layers and what they mean for the future.

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Section: The Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Web-Scale Search and Virtual Reference Service: How Summon Is Impacting Reference Question Complexity and Reference Service Delivery

Meredith

2013

Internet Reference Services Quarterly

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Language style matching as a measure of librarian/patron engagement in email reference transactions

Agee

2019

The Journal of Academic Librarianship

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Virtual reference service evaluation: Adherence to RUSA behavioral guidelines and IFLA digital reference guidelines

Shachaf

Horowitz

2008

Library & Information Science Research

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This study evaluates the level of adherence to professional guidelines by virtual (e-mail) reference services. These professional guidelines are set up as standards to assure service quality; however, studies of virtual reference effectiveness rarely utilize these standards to measure reference success. This study evaluates and compares the level of adherence to two sets of professional guidelines that have been published by the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) and the American Library Association (ALA) Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). Analysis of 324 transactions from 54 libraries showed: 1) low levels of adherence to both sets of guidelines; 2) varied levels of adherence based on request types and user names on both sets of guidelines; 3) variation in institutional rank when different sets of guidelines were utilized; 4) no correlation between user satisfaction and adherence to either set of guidelines. The implications of this study for future research and practice lie not only in its provision of a systematic way to analyze transactions in light of the ideal professional standards, but also in providing an empirical benchmark for virtual reference services evaluation.

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E-mail Reference in a Distributed Learning Environment

Cited by 8 publications

References 12 publications

Web-Scale Search and Virtual Reference Service: How Summon Is Impacting Reference Question Complexity and Reference Service Delivery

Web-Scale Search and Virtual Reference Service: How Summon Is Impacting Reference Question Complexity and Reference Service Delivery

Language style matching as a measure of librarian/patron engagement in email reference transactions

Virtual reference service evaluation: Adherence to RUSA behavioral guidelines and IFLA digital reference guidelines

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