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The article discusses the use of the Semantic Web information technology (IT) in academic libraries. The authors address several services that academic libraries can offer at a network scale, including discussions of social media strategies, the management of faculty activity data and the Institutional Repository (IR), and establishing semantic identities for search terms

This article discusses the potential weakness of location-based questions for chat reference consortia and the actions taken to overcome this weakness by Florida's Ask a Librarian Reference Service. Ask a Librarian is a statewide chat reference consortium where users are able to pose questions to any librarian from 115 participating agencies. In turn, any agency's librarian is able to respond to questions from any user. This article discusses findings from three focus groups with librarians who staff the service. In addition, the article includes a discussion of the efforts to overcome the weakness by both populating and encouraging use of the service's knowledge base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

College students today are spending more time online accessing information and connecting with each other. Libraries and librarians have made changes in their collections and services so as to be easily available and accessible in the online world. Embedding a librarian in a course enhances student learning by connecting students with reliable resources. Most embedded librarian programs focus on online courses but should be offered in face-to-face (F2F) classes as well. Embedded librarians can provide instruction via online Webinars to F2F classes giving them an interactive learning experience. Future embedded librarians need to adopt online Webinars as a way to be where our users and resources are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the quality of reference transactions in academic music libraries, building upon previous research that identified music libraries as having different evaluation needs than main, multidisciplinary academic libraries. Using unobtrusive evaluation techniques, this study analyzed instant messaging/chat and e-mail reference transactions at 128 U.S. academic music libraries to determine the quality of responses provided. Differences in quality of responses between the two mediums are also analyzed. The results of this study provide a state-of-the-art view of the current media on which reference services are offered for music libraries, and the quality of those services. This work discusses the implications of the findings and provides suggestions for improving the quality of these reference services in academic music libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet voice and video calling have demonstrated a dramatic rise in quality in the past several years and have quickly become communication technologies with a disruptive impact on society. Librarians, who regularly adopt such technologies in outreach and public services, should evaluate Web-calling programs as potential sources of ilmovative reference programming. This article describes the development of Skype video and Internet telephony pilot reference services at the Ohio University Libraries and considers the utility of Skype and VoIP in a library setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As digital and chat reference services become established as another way to do business, many libraries juggle the delivery of consortial and local virtual reference services. Balancing services without overtaxing staff and resources presents a number of challenges. How, for example, do libraries staff more than one chat reference service in addition to traditional services? Or more critically, how are subject specialists used to their greatest advantage in a multi-type library service? This article explores the benefits and issues of offering service at the statewide and local level based on OSU's experience and describes how OSU responded to these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the evaluation of virtual reference services from the user perspective. It is one outcome of a long-term research project, The Library Visit Study, which has been conducted in three phases at the University of Western Ontario for more than a decade. These studies have identified the need for, and essential components of, reference interviews and good reference behaviors. The third phase of this research focuses on the factors that make a difference to the users' satisfaction with their virtual reference experience and whether these are the same or different from the ones we identified as important in face-to-face reference. An examination of user accounts of virtual reference transactions indicates that the reference interview has almost disappeared. Among the reasons identified for staff failure to conduct reference interviews in the virtual environment are: the nature of written vs. spoken interaction; the librarian's perceived need to respond quickly in this environment; and the rudimentary nature of the forms used in e-mail reference. The article includes a list of behaviors that users identified as either helpful or unhelpful and concludes with some implications of the research for good virtual reference service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Assessing Quality in Digital Reference project is a first step toward understanding the cost of digital reference services in libraries. This article presents three measures isolated by project participants as being most useful for their immediate needs: total cost of providing digital reference service, the cost of digital reference service as a percent of the total reference budget, and the cost of reference as a percent of the total library or organizational budget. In addition, it reviews selected outstanding issues in the ongoing question of how to determine the cost of reference services in libraries and offers direction for further study toward a general cost model for information services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the incorporation of instruction in library virtual reference services (VRS), and explores whether the rate, and nature of instruction provided to patrons during VRS sessions is different than that provided during face-to-face reference. The Penn State VRS was used as a case study in this assessment. An analysis of a sample of archived Penn State VRS transcripts was conducted to assess the nature and quantity of instruction provided based on the presence of defined instructional elements incorporated in the sessions. The paper discusses the similarities and differences in approach to instruction during VRS and face-to-face reference, and how these relate to overall instructional services in academic libraries. The paper also reviews findings of some similar studies cited in the literature. The findings of this study indicate that there is a significant amount of instruction taking place during both face-to-face reference and VRS. Furthermore, the approach to instruction in both reference environments is very similar. However, the VRS system in use at Penn State (LSSI Virtual Reference Toolkit), because of its technological features and capability, has facilitated new and unique enhancements to instructive reference that are not available in face-to-face reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between October 2003 and July 2004, the Statewide Virtual Reference Project (a Washington State Library initiative funded by LSTA) developed the Virtual Evaluation Toolkit, or VET. The purpose of VET was to help libraries improve virtual reference services, with resulting increased awareness, usage, and customer satisfaction. VET includes three levels of evaluation tools with information on their implementation and examples of the use of results, along with a generic final report based on three test site evaluations (an academic, public, and special library). The complete manual is available on the Web in order to provide practical and meaningful tools and recommendations that encourage libraries to use them and also to report on their use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applied traditional categories used for classifying questions presented at reference desks to online reference services. Questions presented at Penn State's subject libraries were classified as 'Where Is,' 'Troubleshooting,' 'Policy and Service,' and 'Reference.' Definitions and examples were provided to the librarians and staff covering thirteen reference desks. These categories were then applied to Penn State's e-mail and chat reference transactions for the Fall 2002 semester. Although the types of questions were similar across the three services, there were differences in the proportion of questions by categories. This suggests that services have similar, yet distinct, functions and that the type of questions submitted differ between in-person and online and also between e-mail and chat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In observance of the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the first journal article devoted to virtual reference, the author explores early e-mail and chat reference services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts discussing digital libraries. They include "The Art of the Accessibility Statement," by Michael Providenti, "Developing Criteria for the Withdrawal of Print Content Available Online," by Marianne Stowell Bracke and Jim Martin, and "After You Find Your Office, Everything Else You Need to Know Online Orientations for Newly Hired Reference Librarians," by Susan Hurst.

Electronic resources and ebooks in particular, have become a very important source of information for library patrons. When our library was given access to more than 20,000 ebooks, we were faced with bibliographic records of unknown quality. To provide high-quality records in a timely manner, we identified as many potential problems as we could, worked with reference staff to create the best PAC displays, and created efficient record-editing methods to address these issues prior to loading the records in our database. This article documents that process and describes the MarcEdit, Word, and Excel strategies used to methodically correct and improve these records. It also offers practical solutions and procedures for database maintenance and quality control for NetLibrary or any outsourced cataloging records. The future of ebooks and other related cataloging issues, including authority control, are also discussed as points that remain to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States federal government provides an increasing amount of state local environmental information via the Internet. This proliferation of information provides libraries of all types and sizes with service opportunities. An informed citizenry can contribute to the debate on environmental policy. The article identifies key sites that can be useful in providing local environmental information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science published recommendations for a national information policy in 1976, and concerns regarding the protection of privacy and equal public access to online information were introduced. From the mid 1970s to the early 1990s, federal government agencies were beginning to publish materials and maintain records electronically. Most current U.S. government information was available on the Internet by the late 1990s, and depository libraries were required to provide workstations that would facilitate access to documents. Documents librarians, already concerned with the lack of attention to archiving online federal information, were provided with an example of the vulnerability of online publications in the early 2000s when federal agency Web sites were made inaccessible--quickly and easily. The possibility that too much government information was available to anyone with access to the Internet was becoming a national concern. Using government documents as resources, this article retraces the events that were occurring in federal government agencies during the movement of government information to the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persistent themes in modern librarianship have included the importance of online catalogs in recording local holdings, the ability of indexes to extend the subject and descriptive analysis of these catalogs, and the desirability of mainstreaming government publications with non-governmental literature. These themes have been reaffirmed, but in another sense challenged by recent developments in online public access catalogs (OPACs), commercial indexing services such as Lexis/Nexis, and government produced full text databases such as GPO Access. Recent professional literature often recommends compressing and integrating bibliographic description and access without adequately addressing the methods or problems of the process. The management of records in an OPAC centering on the use of direct links to online resources is one of the more concrete and practical forms of such integration. However, the required maintenance may not be a cost effective or desirable use of staff time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 1998, the Documents Data Miner (DDM) was announced as a partnership site of the Government Printing Office's Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), with an enhanced prototype version (DDM2) announced in October 2001. Documents Data Miner 2 is located on the Internet at http://govdoc.wichita.edu/ddm2. DDM was originally developed in 1995-1996 as a research project which attempted to eliminate labor-intensive tasks in processing and collection development of government documents at Wichita State University's Libraries by developing in-house technology, resulting in a relational database built using Paradox. The development team quickly understood the potential for mounting a nationally useful set of tools on the Internet, utilizing Government Printing Office (GPO) legacy metadata which were emerging simultaneously as files available for download from the Federal Bulletin Board. The data mining capabilities of DDM/DDM2 incorporate tabular data available in the List of Classes, Discontinued List, Superseded List, Item Lister, Federal Depositories Library Directory, the GPO Shipping Lists, and GPO MARC Records. Union lists of documents are available to users categorized by geographic area (in miles), by state, and by national region. Use data collected by WebTrends documents over 11,000 unique users of the DDM2 set of Web tools in 2003. The emergence of the Documents Data Miner products single-handedly moved issues of collection development, processing and cataloging of government documents from a 19th century paper-based environment to a 21st century data mining model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuation of the Federal Depository Library Program's historic information dissemination, access, and preservation roles are now dependent upon multi-agency e-government collaboration. The collections and research expertise of Federal Depository libraries are the critical features missing in current e-government service models. The authors propose that the public service and resource discovery features now available at FDLP libraries be coordinated nationally via an AskUS-FDLP Library Portal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The technique used by librarians to determine a user's information question is called the reference interview. It has migrated from the physical reference desk to an e-mail based platform, and thence to a live, or synchronous, interactive mode. By adding this interactive feature to their reference services, libraries are directly reaching users who may have shied away from asking the same question at the traditional reference desk. This paper analyzes the Web-based reference interview and raises a significant question: “Does it save the time of the interviewee?” This question is analyzed in the context of Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science. Areas that require a full-length study are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reviews the nature of queries posed by library patrons during a regular reference interview, within the conceptual framework of Internet reference services in an academic library. The users of the reference desk in a typical university setting usually range from the freshmen to the faculty, with researchers from the corporate sector occasionally dropping in. Presented here will be the viewpoint of a reference librarian indicating that library users, armed with the newly acquired knowledge of Internet/electronic tools, leave the reference desk with a vastly different perspective on carrying out a literature search than they arrived with. The observation is that while the basic theme and nature of queries remain pretty much the same, it is the role of the reference librarian in responding to these queries that has undergone an immense change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For many students, the World Wide Web is their main access point for library research and, therefore, libraries need to find a venue for the virtual reference interview. This paper discusses the use of the library home page as a reference tool and its importance in the online reference interview process. This article also discusses some of the research that went into the creation of a home page for a large, urban, academic institution, how this research was utilized, and how the resulting page serves as an online surrogate for the in-person reference interview. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This section offers news briefs concerning public libraries in the U.S. Free homework assistance via an Internet service is being offered by three libraries of the Phoenix Public Library. A Mary Ellen LoPresti Award has been won by the Bienes Center for the Literary Arts for its 2000 publication "Drapetomania: A Disease Called Freedom." A program was launched by the city of Houston in Texas that offers free e-mail and use of personal computer software to its 3 million area residents.

This “Siteseeing” column provides reviews of a wide range of subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Librarians can use the Web for a wide variety of personal and professional purposes. Vertical files and ready reference files were a main stay of libraries in years past. To day, the Web can duplicate this function in a much more efficient manner. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This editorial describes the articles in this issue of IRSQ. It also contrasts the changes that have occurred in Internet usage since the publication of the 1994 classic, The Internet Unleashed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This editorial describes some of the issues facing reference librarians today and describes the articles in the current issue of IRSQ. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a summary of articles looking at reference practice. The articles discussed include "Library Instruction and Information Literacy--2004," by Anna Marie Johnson and Sarah Jent, published in a 2005 issue of "Reference Services Review, "Instant Messaging and Chat Reference," by David Ward, published in a 2006 issue of "Internet Reference Services Quarterly," and "Who Says We're Not Busy? Library Web Page Usage as a Measure of Public Service Activity," by Jeanie M. Welch, published in a 2005 issue of "Reference Services Review."

The article reviews the essay entitled "Student Searching Behavior and the Web: Use of Academic Resources and Google," by Jillian R. Griffiths and Peter Brophy and published in the issue "Spring 2005): 539-54 of "Library Trends," 53. The article offers a look at two studies of search engine use in libraries that was implemented in order to evaluate a digital information services project in Great Britain. The study, which focused on student searching behavior, found that commercial Internet search engines dominate the methods by which students seek information.

This article describes the features and articles in the current issue of IRSQ. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]