A library patron in California asks a question about pay grades for U.S. military personnel during World War II. It is answered by a U.S. Army Librarian, who offers to fax the patron a copy of the pay scale.
A student working on a project in a university library in Southern California is interested in finding out more about crime statistics in Asia and receives a list of recommended resources from the librarians at the Hong Kong Institute of Science and Technology.
For most of the 20th century, library users took their reference questions directly to reference librarians: to a rather austere group of gentlemen in the Library's Main Reading Room, ca. 1911 (above); or to reference specialists with a specific expertise, as in this photo from the 1950s of the Science Reading Room (below).
A teacher contacts a university library in North Carolina, seeking references for studying the Elizabethan Age for 10 and 11-year-olds in a language arts class. The question is referred to a public library in New Jersey, that generates a list of age-appropriate resources.
The interactions described above are actual examples pulled from a recent Library of Congress pilot project–the Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS). CDRS is a librarian-to-librarian reference network established to explore the potential of the Internet to connect librarians to each other, to their patrons, and to distributed resources, online and on paper. This is only part of a growing trend at the Library of Congress and throughout the library profession to develop the tools that allow librarians to share their resources more efficiently, and enrich the services all libraries are able to provide.
"It is undeniably a watershed moment for our profession, a time to reinvent ourselves and to adapt our skills to the demands of the…universe of information," said Diane Kresh, director of the Library's Public Service Collections and a major force behind the Library's digital reference efforts. "At no other time in history has the emergence of technology affected so significantly the core mission of a library. The challenge for librarians is to leverage the excitement, power, and technology of the Internet to create resources and services that researchers will return to again and again."
New digital tools enable the Library to serve a more diverse audience today than at any time in its 200-year history. Recognizing the utility of new technologies, as well as their potential pitfalls, the Library is in the process of adapting its reference mission and developing "best practices" for delivering service in a new medium. No longer exclusively the Library of "last resort," the preserve of scholars and academics only, the Library of Congress is at the forefront of a global effort to take reference service out on the Web, and to provide greater access to its services and holdings for its traditional patrons, as well as for new audiences.
CDRS at the Library of Congress: The Beginning
At the American Library Association midwinter conference held January 1998 in New Orleans, the Library of Congress sponsored an open session to discuss the impact of the Internet on reference librarianship. Two hundred reference librarians, administrators and library educators attended this brainstorming session. Themes that emerged from the meeting included the need for new skills and training for librarians; the necessity of developing a plan of action in response to the increase in "remote" patrons seeking assistance via the Internet; and the importance of evaluating and articulating the "best practices" of librarianship while applying these to new technologies. The participants concluded that despite the many challenges it posed, an online environment could facilitate collaboration between librarians, allowing them to share their resources and serve a broader audience.
Several other meetings hosted by the Library of Congress followed, and a core group of pilot libraries of various types emerged–among these: Library of Congress, the National Libraries of Canada and Australia, the EARL (Electronic Access to Resources in Libraries) Consortium of public libraries in the United Kingdom, Cornell University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Washington, the Santa Monica Public Library, several California library consortia, the Morris County (N.J.) Public Library, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
An advisory board was created from the ranks of the early CDRS members to guide the development of the service and to ensure that the interests of a variety of library types were represented. The CDRS team of reference librarians and project administrators at the Library of Congress also drew up a prototype of a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in consultation with its in-house legal team, as well as service guidelines for members. The SLA enumerated the responsibilities of members to one another, as well as the terms of collaborative work. The CDRS pilot was free-of-charge and relied solely on the commitment of its members to function. Members could participate in the service in a variety of ways; some would be net "askers" of questions, due to limitations in the size of their collections and their resources. Other libraries offered to share their resources and expertise as net "answerers." Still others would edit answers into a standard format for submission into the "Knowledge Base"–a searchable archive of questions and answers.
The first live question to the new Collaborative Digital Reference Service was posed on June 29, 2000. This reference inquiry–regarding ancient Byzantine cuisine–was sent by the EARL Consortium. The request was routed to the Santa Monica Public Library at 10:40 a.m. Several hours later, a list of five books was on its way to London.
During its first month of live testing, the member institutions exchanged more than 300 questions and answers, creating a virtual reference desk spanning three continents and 15 time zones. Eighteen months later, CDRS had more than 250 members from more than 18 countries.
Participant response has been positive. Rosemary Cooper, a public librarian in Boise, Idaho, and an early CDRS member, believes that networked service "strengthens the local system because it not only adds resources for an initial up-front investment of time, but also provides an opportunity for us to rethink our old ways of providing service in ways that might consider the users' needs as more of a priority than some of our standard models of reference service do. Many of our local communities are interested in retaining the human interaction they value at their local public libraries, but not always at the expense of service and convenience. That is what the Internet is showing us, anyway. That certainly has been our experience so far. I see CDRS as a way of turning some of those users back to us and allowing us to help meet their information needs."
This version of the "Ask a librarian" page is scheduled to debut in June and will be accessible from the Library of Congress home page, www.loc.gov.
Ask a Librarian
The Library's reference librarians have worked with "remote" patrons for years–via surface mail, fax, telephone, e-mail,"live reference" (or "chat" reference) technology pilot projects. The reference staff at the Library of Congress has recently developed a new "Ask a librarian" Help Desk, www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/, designed to lead patrons to various online resources and reference links. The new Help Desk allows patrons to submit questions directly to Library of Congress reading rooms, using Web forms tailored to each division's collections.
This type of form is often called an "Ask a librarian" Web page, because it simulates what is known in the library profession as the "reference interview." It captures important information about the question such as: "reason for research" (e.g. "general interest" vs. "research paper"); the educational level of the desired answer (primary school vs. graduate student). Information derived from the reference interview gives the librarian a context within which to frame her/his response and direct the patron to the most appropriate resources to answer the question.
Statistical and anecdotal reports from libraries throughout the United States show that reading rooms are emptier, while traffic on the Internet continues to grow. It is clear that library users have taken to the Internet. The Library of Congress would like to meet them there with relevant information and responsive service that keeps them coming back. The Library and its partners are developing the tools to enable librarians to share their resources more efficiently, and enrich the services all libraries are able to provide.
On February 19 of this year alone, the Library of Congress' new "Ask a librarian" online "help desk" www.loc.gov/rr/askalib registered 1,306 hits. There is no way that any one library can answer every question it receives–not even the Library of Congress has the resources to do this. But by developing new tools to manage workflow more efficiently, by pooling resources, creating a strong, unified Web presence and high standards of service, libraries can ensure that patrons will find the information they need.
QuestionPoint
The Library of Congress is currently testing QuestionPoint, a new digital reference software based on the prototype of CDRS, which was developed in partnership with the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) of Dublin, Ohio, a pioneer in developing innovative services to support collaboration among librarians, including collaborative cataloging and interlibrary loan programs. QuestionPoint software is already being used in all 21 of the Library's reading rooms, as well as the reading rooms of more than 40 other institutions throughout the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Hong Kong.
QuestionPoint was developed by the Library of Congress and OCLC to help librarians manage their online reference transactions, and to make reference service on the Web more responsive. It creates a unified approach to managing the increasing online reference flow in and out of reading rooms and enables librarians to develop local online reference groups. The QuestionPoint software allows librarians to transfer questions to colleagues anywhere in their established network. These reference networks can extend beyond one library to regional or state libraries, and then out to the wider world network. While CDRS was a single, one-size-fits-all network, QuestionPoint provides the foundation upon which more focused and complex reference networks of varying sizes may be built and configured to fulfill a variety of needs.
The new system will also allow member libraries to tap into a diverse, international network of libraries and information specialists for assistance in responding to reference questions. QuestionPoint member libraries can tailor their Web interface to best suit their institutional character and users' needs. The system will also provide member libraries with a shared database of archived questions and answers to assist them in responding to "frequently asked questions."
During the CDRS Pilot Project, librarians have had to submit questions to the system on behalf of their patrons. QuestionPoint enables patrons to submit their questions to their local library directly, through an "Ask a librarian" form on the library's Web page. Librarians will input questions to the system on behalf of their users, but in the future patrons will also be able to submit questions themselves, by clicking on an "Ask a librarian" button on their library's home page.
The personal interaction between library patron and reference librarian continued in the 1970s in the Manuscript Reading Room (left), and in the 1980s in the Main Reading Room (center). At the same time, the introduction of computers began to supplement in-person reference assistance at the Library of Congress in 1977 (right).
The Future of Digital Reference Services
Imagine that some time in the near future, a patron goes to the home page of her public library in a large town in Illinois, seeking information on the so-called "Pig War" between British and American troops on San Juan Island, off the coast of Washington state. She clicks on the "Ask a librarian" button, and the browser asks for some standard pieces of information–e-mail address, city, state, zip code, and the education level of the desired response (elementary, secondary, undergraduate, adult/lifelong learner, or graduate level). She would then be asked about the subject area of the question, and the turnaround time–how soon she would need the information (hours, days). The patron clicks on the "submit" button, and the question is on its way.
A librarian in her public library then receives an alert e-mail, telling him that someone has submitted a question to the network. The librarian goes online, reads it, and after checking in his library's catalog and various databases, realizes that he may not have the resources on hand to answer the patron's question fully. The librarian e-mails the patron what little information he has been able to find in his collection and offers her the option of contacting him via telephone or a live chat session, so he can find out more about the information she needs.
The patron returns to her library's home page and clicks on the "Live Reference" or "Chat" Button. A small window pops up on her monitor, and she begins to type out a question, to which the librarian types a response seconds later. Realizing the patron needs more information than the local library is able to provide, the librarian tells her that he will send the question along to his colleagues at a Washington State regional library. This library responds with a comprehensive list of recommended books, articles, and Web sites about the "Pig War" that the librarian sends along to his patron. In this case, the librarian has not only helped the patron find the information she needs, but also has provided her with a positive connection to her local library.
There are plans in the works to provide an integrated document-delivery and interlibrary loan component to the system, and services in languages beyond English, to support further international growth and opportunities for collaboration.
CDRS has a current membership of 261 libraries. Since June 2000, more than 4000 reference questions have been submitted and answered by members. The QuestionPoint service is scheduled to replace the CDRS pilot by mid-June, 2002. Both CDRS and QuestionPoint were designed to be accessible online and do not require the installation of any special software; all that is required for use is access to the Internet and a browser.
CDRS and QuestionPoint both work off databases of library profiles. Information in a library's profile includes an extremely detailed description of its collection (subjects and formats) holdings and information resources, its hours, education level served, the languages in which it can respond to questions (although currently a primarily English-language service, it is hoped that CDRS will offer service in other languages, beginning with Spanish, before the end of 2002.). In CDRS the questions are routed to an appropriate answering institution in response to information found in the institution's profile.
As part of the pilot project, CDRS members created a knowledge database ("Knowledge Base"), a searchable, edited archive of question-and-answer sets for the future use of librarians and their patrons. The idea is that when a patron submits a question, the knowledge base is searched automatically, to see if the same (or a similar) question has been asked and answered before. QuestionPoint will also enable libraries to develop their own local knowledge bases, as well as contribute to the global database which will be available to the entire network. Then a question such as "where do I find information on the history of the toothbrush?" (a frequently-fielded question, believe it or not, in the Library's Science Division) will need to be answered only once. Patrons and librarians can also go directly to the knowledge base and search it manually.
These new digital reference tools are designed to supplement the services libraries can offer, not replace them. In creating the new software, the Library of Congress and OCLC placed an emphasis on developing a customizable interface, so that patrons could access the new tool through their own local or regional libraries.
Developing the software is, in some ways, the easiest part of the process of creating a new vision of the reference desk and the role of the reference librarian. The greater challenge is developing shared standards of service and trust in the new tools and in the collaborative process itself. It is important that service in a virtual medium retains the personal touch that is valued by both reference librarians and their traditional patrons.
What Do CDRS Patrons Want to Know?
- I wish to pursue research on guilt in Graham Greene's novels. I would be very glad if you would help me find out if the topic has been researched earlier.
- One of our patrons requested a work which, she believes, was written by Martin Luther. The work is entitled "Die Schonheit der Deutsche Sprache" ("The Beauty of the German Language"). We have checked our copy of "Werke: Kritische Gesammtausgabe" (Weimar, H. Bohlau, 1883-1916), a multi-volume edition of Luther's works, to no avail. However, several volumes in this set are missing. Anyone have an idea as to how we might find this work?…
- A local pastor asked if we might have a list of the questions that are asked of a person being ordained in the Baptist Church by an Ordination Council. We had several items that provided some categories but none that supplied actual questions. Any ideas?
- A patron remembers a book from the early 70s. The story was about a goose and a chicken who married and their offspring was called a ‘chirkendoose'…
- I need to write a research paper on the history of Legos. I am having trouble finding information. Can you please help?
- I am teaching the Western Hemisphere and went to circle it on the map. In doing so, I discovered a perplexing situation. On a few different maps the exact location seems to differ: on one, bits of Asia were shown as well as New Zealand. On another, if you were using the prime meridian and international date line as markers, parts of Africa were included. Also, Greenland is apparent. However, in the dictionary, the Western Hemisphere only includes North America and Latin America. What is the exact definition of the Western Hemisphere and what countries and locations are included?
- Hello. I am trying to find out information about coffin motels. Coffin motels are those places people can rent to sleep in and are widely used in Japan. Specifically, I need to know the history of when they first came into use and if there is an international directory of where they are. Are they catching on in the United States, and if so, where can I find out more?
- A faculty member at our institution is trying to find information about the breakdown of investors in the stock markets: how much of the investing is being done by different types of investors; like individual investors, institutions, mutual fund managers, corporations, etc. She is interested in this information over time: 20 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago as well as current figures. We are not sure how this information might be reported, but total dollars and trading volume for each type of investor would be useful.
- What bird serves as an alligator's toothbrush?
