Search

This article presents an initial discussion of the ethics of librarianship from the vantage of participatory librarianship. Participatory librarianship is an emergent approach to the profession grounded in conversation theory which states knowledge is created through conversation and libraries, being in the knowledge business, are centrally concerned with conversation. This foundation challenges the notion that any person can be without bias, and that ultimately, all ethics of the profession must be viewed relative to the ultimate goal of service. In this context librarians must be acutely aware of their ethical stances and be active in how those ethical stances impact the community they are situated within. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Assessing Quality in Digital Reference project is a first step toward understanding the cost of digital reference services in libraries. This article presents three measures isolated by project participants as being most useful for their immediate needs: total cost of providing digital reference service, the cost of digital reference service as a percent of the total reference budget, and the cost of reference as a percent of the total library or organizational budget. In addition, it reviews selected outstanding issues in the ongoing question of how to determine the cost of reference services in libraries and offers direction for further study toward a general cost model for information services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the fallacy that real-time and asynchronous digital reference software are fundamentally different. Instead the author argues that the only real difference is lag time, and that this difference does not support the separation of digital reference functions. An attempt is made to create a unified model for digital reference and digital reference functions. Lastly, the author presents some practical considerations for libraries seeking to purchase digital reference software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful management of a real-time digital reference service requires effective and efficient data collection to provide accurate and useful information about service processes and outcomes. This article describes the data collection procedures developed by AskERIC for its real-time reference service; in particular, this article will describe how these procedures address limitations, gaps, and inaccuracies in the data as passively captured by software. Finally, particular issues and considerations for service managers about various statistical measures within the real-time environment are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]