AROUND THE CLOCK, AROUND THE WORLD: OVERVIEW OF VIRTUAL
REFERENCE SERVICE
Jan E. Heckman
Marine Sciences Liaison
University of Connecticut Library at Avery Point
1084 Shennecossett Rd.
Groton, CT. 06340
ABSTRACT: An overview of virtual reference efforts in the library
community with a focus on those that may apply to future IAMSLIC
initiatives.
Reference services are under constant review and are impacted by ever changing resource
delivery methods, e.g. delivery to us in the library. What has relatively recently occurred
is an innovation in how we deliver the information we have gathered to the end user or
patron who may no longer have to be standing in front of us or on the phone. Whether or
not IAMSLIC decides to offer a form of virtual reference would not only mean
evaluating all the variables any library should consider but a number of questions unique
to our organization some of which I will raise in the following discussion. The scope of
this paper is only an overview but the references and web page sites I have gathered
should expose the reader to the complexity of offering virtual reference service.
For clarification purposes I should define some of the terminology that is being used in
the discussion of “virtual,” “online,” “electronic,” “e-mail,” “chat,” or “24/7” reference
service. Virtual, online, and electronic reference can cover the others but the literature,
thankfully, tends to be more specific when referring to e-mail, chat or 24/7. Chat and 24/7
usually means real-time interactivity between librarian and patron, but the level of
interactivity may be dependant on the software used.
E-mail reference, as a service advertised by a library, has been around for a while. The
Global Reference Network of the Library of Congress, which many may have heard of, is
an e-mail reference service. Questions are routed based on the profiles provided by
participating institutions. The Library of Congress announced this summer a
collaborative effort with OCLC that is called