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Deals with the two major programs of the 2002 Annual Conference of the American Library Association in the U.S. Number of librarians who were invited to write white papers in advance of the conference; Opinion of reference librarian Catherine Ross regarding the value of reference interview and how it affects the reference process when it does not take place; Views of reference librarian David Tyckoson on reference interview.

This exploratory study of unsolicited thank you messages from e-mail digital reference users analyzed the information provided in these messages for user perspectives on digital reference success, outcomes, and quality elements in answers. Digital reference interactions receiving thank you messages were also compared with nonthanked interactions. Results indicated that librarians who used more words in answers were more likely to receive a thank you response from users and that many other factors, such as e-mail or Web form use or the librarians' expressing thanks to the user, did not appear to impact the thank you rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. The development of such a schema would allow researchers to develop tools that practitioners can employ. In turn, this would 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deals with the role of the reference interview in the more traditional reference encounter and in the virtual realms of Web-based reference services in the context of the Ross and Ronan pieces. Explains why reference interview needs to be used in every reference transaction. Reasons why reference interview is needed only sometimes or only under certain circumstances and not for directional queries or for ready reference questions; Findings in a library visit developed in early 1990s; Common problems encountered by the users when asking questions to the staff members.