[WEB4LIB] Policy Issues in Digital Reference Service

[Tony Barry]

At 8:55 AM -0700 9/4/01, Sloan, Bernie wrote:
>need to be considered for online/digital reference services.

Do they need to be associated with a physical library?
	Many of the Ask a services are not

Does a model using multiple libraries (or other bodies, specializing 
in particular topics work better than a service based on one 
institution?

Can these services be run from a traditional reference desk or should 
they be organized separately?

If based in one institution would it be better to distribute such a 
service across all the staff, based on individual expertise, rather 
than in a traditional reference group?

Should answers to queries, if approval is given by the questioner, be 
fed back into a public database (@&A) both as a source of information 
for clients and a promotional tool?

Which is the best way to provide answers? For instance via a text 
based email or by mounting the answer on a web server and providing a 
URL for the answer?
	Many questions might be covered by a Q&A entry or an FAQ
	for which a URL could be given.

In a large institution, such as a univerity,  would such a service be 
more effective if the questioner was put in touch with a subject 
expert in the institution via email rather than the library providing 
an answer.

Tony
-- 
phone  +61 2 6241 7659
mailto:me at Tony-Barry.emu.id.au
http://purl.oclc.org/NET/Tony.Barry