Virtual Reference Service in United States School of Law Libraries: Its Challenges and the Way Forward — Olugbenga Ademodi
Conclusion
Virtual reference service has the same challenges in law school libraries as in other libraries; that is, the cost factor, the staffing, the software, the attitude and the expectations of the patrons, and so forth. It could, however, be deduced from the aforementioned facts that virtual reference services in law school libraries serve a good purpose which is to reach out and give more options to patrons, particularly those who cannot come physically to the library, including the disabled.
Notes
1. “Guidelines for Implementing and Maintaining Virtual Reference Services.” Reference & User Services Quarterly 44, no. 1 (2004): 9.
2. Nicholas Joint. “Virtual Reference, Second Life and Traditional Library Enquiry Services.” Library Review 57, no. 6 (2008): 417.
3. K. Nilsen, and C. S. Rose. “Evaluating Virtual Reference from the Users’ Perspective.” The Reference Librarian 95/96 (2006): 54.
4. M. Kathleen Kern. Virtual Reference Best Practices: Tailoring Services to Your Library. (Chicago: ALA, 2009), 1–3.
5. Ibid., 4.
6. Ibid., 2–4.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid., chapters 1 & 2.
11. Ibid., 3.
12. L. Eakin, and J. Pomerantz. “Virtual Reference, Real Money: Modelling Costs in Virtual Reference Services.” Portal : Libraries and the Academy 9, no. 1 (2009): 134.
13. Kern, Virtual Reference Best Practices, 6.
14. Ibid., 7.
15. Ibid., 7–8.
16. G. Edward Evans and Margaret Z. Saponaro. Developing Library and Information Center Collections, 5th ed. (Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2005), 130.
17. R. Slater, and D. Johnson. “Choosing Virtual Reference Software.” in Handbook of Electronic and Digital Acquisitions, Thomas W. Leonhardt, editor. (New York: Haworth, 2006): 127.
18. Ibid., 127–28; Kern, Virtual Reference Best Practices, ch. 2.
19. Slater and Johnson, “Choosing Virtual Reference Software,” 127.
20. Kern, Virtual Reference Best Practices, 8.
21. Bernie Sloan. “Service Perspectives for the Digital Library Remote Reference Services.” Library Trends 47, no. 1 (1998): 117.
22. Diane Kresh. “Virtually Yours: Thoughts on Where We Have Been and Where We Are Going with Virtual Reference Services in Libraries.” The Reference Librarian 79/80 (2002/2003): 24.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Joint, “Virtual Reference,” 422.
26. Jo Kibbee, “Librarians without Borders? Virtual Reference Service to Unaffiliated Users.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 32, no. 5 (2006): 469.
27. Ibid., 469–70.
28. Samantha Thompson. “On Being a Virtual World Librarian: Experiences in Offering Live Reference Services in a Virtual World.” The Reference Librarian 50, no. 2 (2009): 222.
29. Scott Matheson. “Library LAWLINE: Collaborative Virtual Reference in a Special Library Consortium.” The Reference Librarian 85 (2004): 106.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid., 105.
32. Courtney Selby. “The Evolution of the Reference Interview.” Legal Reference Services Quarterly 26, no. 1/2 (2007): 42.
33. Ibid.
34. Kresh, “Virtually Yours,” 24.
35. Eric Zino, “Let’s Fix Virtual Reference.” Library Journal 134, no. 2 (February 1, 2009): 94.
36. Ibid.
37. Eakin and Pomerantz, “Virtual Reference, Real Money,” 137.
38. Ibid., 139–40.
39. Ibid.
40. Steve Coffman. “We’ll Take It From Here: Further Developments We’d Like to See in Virtual Reference Software.” Information Technology and Libraries (2001): 149.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid., 149–50.
44. Ibid.
45. Slater and Johnson, “Choosing Virtual Reference Software,” 127.
46. Ibid., 128.
47. Ibid., 128–29.
48. Ibid., 129.
49. Ibid., 128–30.
50. Ibid., 129–31.
51. Ibid., 131.
52. Ibid., 131–33.
53. Ibid., 128–37.
54. Selby, “The Evolution of the Reference Interview,” 39.
55. Ibid., 39–40.
56. Matheson, “Library LAWLINE,” 104.
57. Ibid.
58. Roy Balleste. “Implementing Virtual Reference: Hollywood Technology in Real Life.” Computers in Libraries 23, no. 4 (2003): 14–15.
59. Ibid., 15.
60. Ibid.
61. Ibid., 16, 18.
62. Ibid., 18.