Digital Reference Services in Academic Libraries

In order to fulfill the reference and information needs of users in a digital environment, many academic libraries across the globe have designed and developed DRS. Tenopir (2001, p. 38) found that 99% of the ARL member libraries, included in her study, provided e-mail reference, while 29% libraries offered real-time DRS. She noted that owing to the introduction of DRS there was a decrease in the total number of reference questions asked at the physical reference desk in 84% of the libraries. However, in-person reference was still used the most in the libraries.

Tenopir and Ennis (2002) conducted four surveys of ARL member libraries over a decade (in 1991, 1995, 1997 and 2000) in order to explore the changes and developments that had occurred in academic library reference services due to emerging technologies, and found that these libraries had adopted digital resources and services at an increasingly accelerated rate due to the introduction of the Internet and its associated technologies. They noted that digital resources had brought about changes in the physical environment of the reference department, in the type and range of reference sources available, and in the attitudes and expectations of both reference staff and users. The reference librarians surveyed were of the view that due to changes in the reference environment they had been able to provide better services to users. The study of Dee (2005) revealed that 80 out of 132 academic health sciences libraries in the USA offered email reference, while 36 libraries provided chat reference. The average number of reference questions received via e-mail by the libraries was 30 per month. Mu et al. (2011) carried out a study to investigate the status of DRS in academic libraries in the USA, and analysed the techniques adopted by these libraries to market their services through their

29 websites. Their study revealed that 85% of the libraries, included in the study, offered synchronous DRS using chat technology, 13% libraries provided asynchronous DRS via e-mail, while 2% libraries had not developed the service. They stressed the need to bridge the gap between users and the DRS by improving service accessibility. In order to improve service accessibility they suggested several techniques, which included creating a user-friendly name along with an image for the service, using large size text for the service name on the library websites, placing the service link on a visible spot on the library homepages.

Chowdhury and Margariti (2004) analysed DRS offered by three academic libraries, namely Glasgow University Library, the University of Strathclyde Library and Glasgow Caledonian University Library, and two other libraries in Scotland, the Mitchell Library in Glasgow and the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. They discovered that these libraries provided asynchronous DRS via e-mail, and were planning to start synchronous DRS using chat technology in order to improve their level of interaction with users at the time of the study. They observed that the majority of the queries handled by the libraries were relatively low-level rather than concerning particular knowledge domains. Barry et al. (2010) conducted a study to explore the status of synchronous DRS (chat reference) in UK academic libraries and found that 25% of the libraries included in their study had developed the service, while 54% of the libraries were considering starting the service. They also analysed various software products that were used by the UK academic libraries for the provision of chat reference services.

Academic libraries in developing countries have also started to embrace new technologies to redesign and improve their reference services in order to fulfil users’ information needs in the web environment. Ahmad (2002) undertook a survey of seven university libraries in the Arabian Gulf in order to investigate types of web-based services offered by these libraries, and found that all the seven libraries had Web OPACs, three libraries provided links to search engines (both English and Arabic), while three academic libraries offered web forms for book recommendations and interlibrary loan (ILL) . The study of

30 Ramos and Abrigo (2012, pp.11-12) revealed that 22 out of 356 academic libraries in the Philippines had developed DRS. These libraries had employed both asynchronous and synchronous tools including web form, FAQs, instant messaging, and VoIP to offer the service. Wang et al. (2004) conducted a study of 95 university libraries in China and reported that 81 (90%) academic libraries offered DRS to users.

Maharana and Panda (2005) undertook a study to investigate the status of DRS in selected academic libraries in India (7 Indian Institutes of Technology and 6 Indian Institutes of Management). Their study revealed that 7 libraries had developed e-mail reference systems. Six libraries had employed videoconferencing to offer reference services, while three libraries offered chat reference. They observed that although these libraries had made a remarkable development in the automation and electronic access to information, they were far behind similar institutions in developed countries in introducing a standardised DRS. A study conducted by Singh (2012) to explore the status of DRS in four selected university libraries in India, revealed that three out of four university libraries had developed DRS. Of the three academic libraries, all the libraries offered asynchronous DRS via e-mail, while only one library had developed a synchronous digital reference system using chat technology. In order to improve the quality of DRS offered by these libraries, he called upon the library administrators to follow the RUSA and IFLA digital reference guidelines, and to develop techniques to assess their services.

Kadir Wan Dollah and Singh (2010) carried out a study to determine the effectiveness of DRS in four selected Malaysian academic libraries. They discovered that 19.5% of the users used e-mail reference, 28.2% web forms, and 4.9% chat reference to ask queries. The majority of the users (54.4%) regarded DRS offered by these libraries as of high quality. Despite the introduction of DRS in these libraries, the majority of users (56%) preferred face-to-face reference.

The study of Sekyere (2011), conducted to explore the status of DRS in academic libraries in ten West African countries, showed that the DRS was at a

31 developing stage in these libraries. The study revealed that only eleven out of sixty academic libraries (18%) had developed the DRS. Of the eleven libraries, ten libraries offered asynchronous DRS via e-mail, while only one library had implemented synchronous DRS by employing IM/chat. The researcher called upon academic librarians to improve their knowledge and skills in Web technologies in order to design and implement services that would meet changing needs of library users.