Cooperative Reference - A Pioneering Venture

[digiref at loc.gov]

	WHERE'S THE BEST PLACE TO GET A QUESTION ANSWERED ON THE WEB?

Wouldn't it be great if most people answered this question, "At the 
library!"?  Services like AskJeeves, Northern Light, and Google
proliferate, but how many of their users' questions are answered
completely? Accurately?

Wouldn't it be great if you could participate in a pioneering
collaborative service that provides quality, authoritative reference
service by professional reference librarians 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week, 365 days a year?  A service that will position your library as the
first place your patrons turn to for quality information on the Internet.

Now you can!  The Library of Congress, OCLC Online Computer Library
Center, Inc., and over 80 participating institutions are collaborating
to make this vision a reality. LC and OCLC, at the forefront of
library cooperation efforts for over three decades in shared cataloging
and resource sharing, are now beginning a brand new era in cooperative
reference services. The Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS) is
a pioneering new service that will provide professional reference service
to researchers - anywhere, anytime -  through an international, digital
network of libraries and related institutions.  Librarians will assist
their users by connecting to the CDRS to send questions that are best
answered by expert staff.  A large searchable archive of previous
questions and answers will also be available to CDRS users.
				 

For more information on how to become a founding member in this exciting
project, go to
<http://www.oclc.org/services/reference/cdrs.shtm > or
<http://www.loc.gov/cdrs >

Stop by the Library of Congress and OCLC booths at ALA Annual in San
Francisco to learn more about CDRS and its information sessions during the
conference.