Current Online Information Ecology

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The Information Challenge

• Exponential growth of resources
• New researchers with new needs
• Multiple communication options
• New expectations and opportunities

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Information Resources and Tools

• Internet Resources
• Located everywhere
• Growth doubles each year
• Digital only
• No single search engine covers the entire
  Internet
• Short-lived

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Information Resources and Tools

• Library Resources
• Bricks and mortar
• Continued growth
• Analog and digital
• Standard indexing tools
• Perpetual

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The Challenge for Researchers

• To retrieve information that is
• Relevant
• Accurate
• Authoritative
• Easy to locate
  

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The Challenge for Libraries

• Use traditional strengths to build new programs
• Leverage the community of librarians and
  libraries worldwide
• Redefine the role of librarians and
  libraries in the Internet age

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Modeling the Solution

• Provide seamless access to global resources
• Collect knowledge for reference access
• Complement access to information on the Internet
  
• Demonstrate flexibility in creating
  solutions

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• Collaborative Digital Reference Service provides
  professional reference service to users anywhere
  anytime, through an international, digital
  network of libraries.

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How Does it Work?

• 
  

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Process Definitions

• End User a person who asks a question
• Member an organization or a person participating
  in CDRS on behalf of an end user
• Service Level Agreement (SLA) an agreement
  describing the scope of services
• Request Manager (RM) software for managing QA
  receipt and assignment, SLA compliance and
  administrative tasks
  
  

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Resource Databases

• Member Profiles
• Member features and strengths
• Member representative strengths
• Knowledge Base of Questions and Answers
• Searchable by staff, later by end users
• Confidentiality, privacy, intellectual
  property maintained
  

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Members

• Libraries (public, academic, special)
• Consortia
• Museums
• Ask-a Expert Services

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Three Pilot Phases

• Phase 1 (February - March 2000)
• 10 members
• Test member profiles
• 30 questions per week
  
  
• Scheduled and scripted
  
  
  

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Phase 2 (June 19 - Sept. 15)

• Increase to 16 members
• Use and test sample Request Manager software and
  routing decisions
• Build/test revised Member profiles
• Test new Web form
• Develop Service Level Agreements
• Determine training requirements
• Determine costs

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Phase 3 (Oct. 17- Jan. 31, 2001)

• 40 members
• Scale up to full production to test volume and
  speed
• Investigate portal technology
• Determine Governing Body membership and roles
• Service Level Agreements

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Goals of the Pilots - Summary

• QA process, including web form
• Request Manager procedures for assigning,
  tracking, etc.
• Determine scope and capacity of researcher
  requests
• Response time
• Interoperability
• Best practices

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Modeling the Solution

• Maximum flexibility
• System integration
• Multiple partners
• Reestablish libraries as epicenters of
  knowledge for their communities
• Internet services implement customized community
  library portals

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Community Portals Provide...

• Dynamic content - events, news, weather, book
  reviews
• Useful applications - reserve a book, chat with
  an author, browse the catalog
• CDRS Gateway - enables patrons to submit
  questions during off-hours without diluting
  local librarys brand

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Portals Benefits

• Internet services recover investment through
  advertising and affiliation fees (e.g.,
  Amazon.com)
• CDRS tags along with portal for reduced fees or
  for free

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Where to Next?

• One stop shopping for reference and research
  services, including
• Locating/verifying bibliographic citations
• Interlibrary Loan
• Document Delivery

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International / Universal Issues

• Language literacy
• Accessibility infrastructure
• Cultural political sensitivities
• Jurisdictional service constraints
• E-commerce trade agreements

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http//www.loc.gov/rr/digiref/
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Beyond CDRS an end-to-end user service model
Delivery Process ILL document delivery
Catalogue Process verify locate
Reference Process ask answer