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Summary
Digital reference is an important research area with the potential to enhance information delivery to library patrons. The process of digital reference involves the challenges and problems of an interactive computer-mediated reference interview. Related studies of mediated online searching have identified the major tasks during a mediated online search. The search intermediary's tasks included gathering information on the information need, previous searches on the topic by the information seeker, search terms and strategies, database selection, search procedures, system's outputs and relevance of retrieved items, and the number of topics to be searched. The information seeker's tasks include providing information to the search intermediary on their topic, discussing their previous information seeking and evaluating the online search output. Models of digital reference interviews need to include more complex information seeking behaviors, such as successive searching and multitasking. Further research is needed to extend our understanding of digital reference processes.