Balancing Statewide and Local Digital Reference Service

Abstract

As digital and chat reference services become established as another way to do business, many libraries juggle the delivery of consortial and local virtual reference services. Balancing services without overtaxing staff and resources presents a number of challenges. How, for example, do libraries staff more than one chat reference service in addition to traditional services? Or more critically, how are subject specialists used to their greatest advantage in a multi-type library service? This article explores the benefits and issues of offering service at the statewide and local level based on OSU's experience and describes how OSU responded to these issues.

Key Words:

• Digital reference
• chat reference
• virtual reference
• digital reference consortia
• statewide reference services
• multi-type library services
• Oregon State University Libraries
• L-net
• Answerland