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The first part of the paper develops a framework explaining the need to disambiguate user inquiries to improve information systems and services. Theoretical grounds for this framework are explained for how questions are categorized on the basis of their ambiguity type, while the relevant literature is reviewed including both the traditional and the digital information service environment. The second part of the paper categorizes a set of questions (400 Qs), originally collected for TREC 8 and 9 QA Tracks, according to ambiguity type. Three types and two dimensions of ambiguity are identified by the author with the acceptable levels of inter-coder agreements presented. The last part of the paper discusses three aspects of information systems and services, mainly related to user-system and user-information intermediary (i.e., a reference librarian) interactions, on the basis of the results of categorization. Those three aspects include (1) increasing user input to make initial queries less ambiguous, (2) reducing search space by disambiguating queries, and (3) clustering search results based on the characteristics of prospective answers. In each of the three aspects, discussions on the evolving environments of virtual reference services were presented.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since their inception, virtual reference services have evolved considerably and are now a significant component of library services in many types of library environments. The current paper reports on a study undertaken at a research-intensive academic library that analyzed and evaluated a decade-old virtual reference service. The main goal of the study was to obtain a broad and comprehensive picture of the current service, grounded in the actual day-to-day provision, usage, and organization of the service. The group of librarians involved in the study developed a feasible, efficient, and adaptable methodology for assessing and evaluating a virtual reference service. The developed methodology that combines qualitative and quantitative methods can be used and applied for a similar evaluation of the service in any type of library environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.