"Digital reference" or "e-reference" has become a buzzword in the library reference world today. As the second VRD (Virtual Reference Desk) 2000 Conference summarizes, the new millennium sees "the proliferation of new commercial services (of digital reference) and increased competition for libraries" for that matter.
It is true that reference by e-mail and/or online forms has existed ever since libraries were first connected to the Internet a little over half a decade ago. Reference by conventional phone has had a much longer history. Yet digital reference, in its true sense, is relatively a new phenomenon. It is made possible only by the advent of e-commerce and Web contact software that helps online businesses to interact with their customers in ways modeled after their long-standing real world "call centers." A business call center is analogous to a library’s reference desk equipped with e-mail and/or telephones. Banking on this Web contact technology, libraries can now offer Internet-based question-and-answer services that connect users with librarians who can answer questions and enhance the development of users’ information skills by all multimedia means available.
One example of Web contact software that runs on an e-commerce platform yet finds its employment in library digital reference services is eGain Live from eGain.com. This software allows users to browse a Web site to get instantaneous live assistance from a human librarian through their Web browser via text chat, escorted (or shared) browsing, online form assistance, telephone callback and voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP).
This following diagram illustrates the live interactivity between librarians and library users that this software provides. In other words, eGain’s Live Web solution brings interactive user assistance to digital reference desk situations. Remote users get immediate, personalized assistance through an online chat room or VoIP phone while viewing information delivered through their browser. Reference librarians use advanced browser and forms sharing capabilities to help users complete their information inquiry efforts without them leaving the Web site.
An important feature of eGain Live is its automatic adaptability to various types of browsers such as that of AOL, and to network connections like Web-TV. Its JumpStart Service helps with planning, designing, configuring, training, and deploying the eGain Live application suite (for details, visit <http://www.egain.com/pages/level2.asp?SectionID=3&PageID=z580>.)
Commercial web contact software that can be used for digital reference service is not limited to eGain Live. Others include General Interactive’s EchoMail, Liveperson.com’s LivePerson, and Kana’s line of e-mail management products.
At the ACRL’s 10th National Conference in Denver in March 2001, Judy Horn and Kathryn Kjaer examined the planning, evaluation, and testing involved in the transition from a standard e-mail based reference service to an expand-ed digital reference service. Libraries they listed that used eGain Live either independently or in combination with other software for their digital reference include MCLS (Metropolitan Cooperative Library System) and LSSI (Library Systems & Services, LLC). To see a demonstration of the virtual reference desk at LSSI, visit <http://www.lssi.com/virtual>. To try a digital reference desk using eGain Live in action at MIT, visit < http://libraries.mit.edu/digref2/ask-us-live-general.html>.
Haiwang Yuan, Assistant Professor and Web Site & Virtual Library Coordinator of Western Kentucky University Libraries & Museum, Bowling Green, Kentucky
LIRT News, June 2001. Volume 23, number 4.
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