Diane Kresh
Library of Congress

The Information Challenge

• Exponential growth of resources
  
• New researchers
  
• Researchers have new needs
  
• Multiple communication options
  
• New expectations and opportunities
  
• Information Resources and Tools
  

Internet

• Located everywhere
  
• Growth doubles each year
  
• Digital only
  
• No single search engine covers more than 16% of the Internet

Libraries

• Physical locations
  
• Continued growth
  
• Analog and digital
  
• Standard tools (analog and digital) cover higher percentage of resources

The Challenge for Researchers

To retrieve information that is:

• Relevant
  
• Accurate
  
• Authoritative
  
• Easy to locate

The Challenge for Libraries

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

Modeling the Solution

• Leverage the skills and experience of librarians, who are trusted advisors
  
• Connect and provide seamless access to reference resources on a national/global network
  
• Document and manage collective knowledge for reference access by libraries
  
• Complement information that is readily available on the Internet

Collaborative Digital Reference Service

Provides professional reference service to users anywhere anytime, through an international, digital network of libraries.

What Does It Look Like?

• Concept Definitions
  

  o End User: a person who asks a question

o Member: an organization (e.g., a library), or a person (e.g., a certified Ask-A specialist) participating in CDRS on behalf of a Researcher.

o Service Level Agreement (SLA) : an agreement between a Member and the CDRS, describing the scope of services expected from both

o Request Manager (RM) : software for managing Q&A receipt and distribution, SLA compliance, administrative tasks

CDRS - Resource Databases

• Member Profiles
  

  o Member features and strengths (e.g., hours, collections, patron groups served, etc.)
  o Member representative (staff) strengths (e.g., specialties, languages, etc.)

Knowledge Base of Questions and Answers

• Searchable by staff, later by end users
  
• Confidentiality, privacy, intellectual property maintained

CDRS - Members

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

Service Level Agreements: Some Member Options

• Asks and answers questions
  
• Only asks questions
  
• Agrees to ask and/or answer specified number of requests per specified period
  
• Edits Q&A for archive
  
• Serves as "on-call" request manager

Options for Web Q Form Fields

• End User
  
• Member
  
• Header
  
• Question
  
• Administration

Q&A Component: Policy Issues

• How much time is spent on a given Q&A?
  
• What types of questions don't get answered?
  
• How are privacy issues related to profiling handled?
  
• How are proprietary databases handled?

Q & A Component: Archiving

• Review Q & A before archiving
  
• Remove confidential information
  
• Apply "cataloging" to knowledge base records
  
• Update knowledge base as necessary

Three Pilot Phases

Phase 1 (February - March 2000)

o 10 members
o Test member profiles
o Begin to determine RM needs
o Use email, then web form, with completed Q&A submitted by members
o 30 questions per week
o LC staff serve as RM
o Completely scheduled and scripted

Phase 2 (June 19 - July 17)

o Increase to 13-16 members
o Use and test sample RM software and routing decisions
o Build and test revised Member profiles
o Test new web form
o Use current Questions
o Scale up to 100 Questions a week
o Develop Service Level Agreements
o Determine statistical needs
o Determine training requirements
o Determine costs for Members
o Clarify Member benefits

Phase 3 (August 14 - September 10)

o 16-30 members
o Scale up to full production to test volume and speed
o Test portal for bringing in new Members
o Determine necessary back-up systems
o Determine Governing Body membership and roles

Goals of the Pilot - Summary

To determine and evaluate technical, service, and administrative requirements, including:

• Set-up component features for bringing in and certifying members
  
• Q&A process, including web form, RM procedures for routing, etc.
  
• Scope and capacity of researcher requests
  
• Response time
  
• Interoperability
  
• Best practices

CDRS Pilot 1 and 2 - Members

• Library of Congress
  
• University of Texas, Austin
  
• Cornell University
  
• University of Washington
  
• National Library of Canada
  
• National Library of Australia
  
• National Agricultural Library (USA)
  
• Smithsonian American Art Museum
  
• Morris County Public (NJ)
  
• Santa Monica Public
  
• Peninsula Library System (San Francisco Bay area)
  
• Suburban Library System (Chicago area)
  
• Ask ERIC
  
• EARL Ask-a-Librarian (UK public libraries)
  
• Metropolitan Cooperative Library System (Los Angeles area)

CDRS Management Support

• Governance
  
• Policies and Standards
  
• Funding
  
• Information Technology
  
• Marketing & PR
  
• Training
  
• Information Management
  
• Research Projects

CDRS - Direct Benefits

• Quality reference service to broad spectrum of users anytime anywhere (24x7)
  
• Reliable, authoritative knowledge navigation service
  
• Creation of a Q & A knowledge base

CDRS - Indirect Benefits

• Support for education and research
  
• Creation of standards/best practices for remote reference
  
• Analysis on changing nature of research
  
• Influence on the development of search engines

CDRS Philosophy

Think Globally + Act Locally = Everybody Wins

Contact Us: http://www.loc.gov/rr/digiref/