MDC-2: Information Sources and Services

Detailed Syllabus
Unit 1: Basics of Reference and Information Sources:
Nature of information, characteristics, types and formats:
Information is the most powerful and valuable term of the world today. This term first came to
existence in USA, as an alternative term for documentation. This word ‘information’ is used to
define various meaning such as knowledge, message, understanding, data, interpretation and so
on. ‘Information in some sense is treated as an aggregate of statements or facts or figures which
are conceptually (by way of reasoning, logic, ideas or any other mental mode of operation)
interrelated’-Hoffman. According to this definition it is clear that, information is a collection or
we can say accumulation of statements, facts, and figures ideas and related aspects whatever it
may be and that are organized processed in a systematic and scientific manner. And virtually
systematic manner can be done or processed or possible through/by way of reasoning, logic,
ideas, interpretation and etc. According to Mach lap “information is piecemeal, fragmented,
particular where as knowledge is structural coherent and universal; information is timely
transitory perhaps even ephemeral where as knowledge is of enduring significance; information
is flow of message, where as knowledge is a stock, largely resulting from the flow, in the sense
that the input of information may affect the stock of knowledge by adding to it, restructuring it or
changing it in any way.
Nature of Information:
Hence in this regard it is possible to say that information deals with the following
characteristics:- -information is a flow of message.
-information is a transitory by nature.
-information is dynamics.
-information inherits meaning.
-information is a particular.
-information is fragmented.
-information is timely.
-information can be recorded.
-information needs person’s affiliation.
-information is descriptive.
 -information can be abstracted.
Non-documentary sources of information:
The non-documentary sources of information include government establishments, departments,
universities, technological institutions, data centres, information centres, referral centres,
information analysis centres, clearing houses, consultants, technological gatekeepers, etc. Non-
documentary sources of information also include discussion with colleagues, visitors,
participants of seminars and conferences, etc. The library through the referral service provides
access to important non-documentary sources of information which may include the learned
societies, research associations, mass media, etc.
The main categories of non-documentary sources are:
 Institutions or Organizations
 Humans
 Mass Media other than print media, and
 Internet
Documentary sources of information
Generally, there are three basic types of Documentary information sources :
Main Types of Documentary Sources of Information
In research and academia, documentary sources of information are vital tools for gathering,
analyzing, and validating knowledge across disciplines. These sources are classified into three
main types based on their content, purpose, and role in the research process: primary, secondary,
and tertiary sources. Each type plays a distinct role, offering unique insights and layers of
information that, when combined, create a comprehensive understanding of any topic.
1. Primary Sources of Information: Primary sources are original, firsthand records created by
individuals or groups who experienced or directly observed an event, subject, or phenomenon.
These sources are unfiltered by interpretation or analysis, making them crucial for gaining
direct insights and evidence. Primary sources are often foundational for research as they
present raw data and original ideas, providing researchers with unaltered perspectives.
Examples of primary sources include:
 Historical Documents: Letters, official records, and legal documents from a specific period,
often preserved in archives.
  Scientific Research Papers: Reports on original research studies, including methodologies,
data, results, and conclusions, typically published in scholarly journals.
 Personal Narratives and Diaries: Firsthand accounts of events, experiences, or daily life,
offering unique personal insights.
 Interviews and Oral Histories: Recorded or transcribed conversations with individuals,
providing personal or eyewitness accounts.
 Photographs, Audio, and Video Recordings: Visual or auditory representations of events,
places, or people as they occurred.
Primary sources are especially valuable for in-depth research, allowing researchers to
analyze information at its source. Historians, for instance, rely on primary documents to
reconstruct events, while scientists depend on original research studies to build or
challenge theories. However, primary sources may require careful interpretation, as they
can reflect personal perspectives or biases.
2. Secondary Sources of Information: Secondary sources interpret, analyze, or summarize
information gathered from primary sources. These sources do not provide firsthand data but
offer explanations, critiques, and discussions, helping to contextualize and make sense of
primary materials. Secondary sources are invaluable for understanding broader perspectives
on a subject and often synthesize multiple primary sources to provide comprehensive
overviews or draw conclusions.
Examples of secondary sources include:
 Review Articles: Analytical overviews of research on a particular topic, often summarizing
findings from various studies and highlighting trends, gaps, or implications.
 Textbooks: Educational resources that explain topics by integrating and summarizing
information from multiple primary and secondary sources.
 Biographies and Historical Analyses: Interpretations and narratives about a person’s life or
historical events, often derived from primary documents and other firsthand accounts.
 Literature Reviews: Summaries and critiques of existing research on a topic, commonly
found in academic papers and theses, providing context and background for new research.
Secondary sources are helpful for gaining a broad understanding of a topic, as they
consolidate existing information and offer expert interpretations. Students and researchers
widely use them to build knowledge without starting from scratch, but it is essential to
 consider the perspectives and biases of the authors, as these can shape the interpretation of
primary materials.
3. Tertiary Sources of Information: Tertiary sources compile, condense, and organize
information from primary and secondary sources for easy access and quick reference. Unlike
primary sources that provide raw data or secondary sources that analyze it, tertiary sources
offer overviews without detailed analysis, making them suitable for background information
or introductory research. Tertiary sources often provide summarized, distilled information,
helping researchers locate facts or basic information rapidly.
Examples of tertiary sources include:
 Encyclopedias: Comprehensive collections of brief articles on a wide range of subjects,
summarizing essential facts and concepts.
 Bibliography of Bibliographies: A bibliography of bibliographies is a compilation of lists
or references to other bibliographies. It serves as a resource for researchers to locate
bibliographic sources on specific topics or subjects.
 Dictionaries: Resources offering definitions, meanings, and origins of words or concepts,
useful for clarifying terminology.
 Handbooks and Almanacs: Concise reference materials on specific subjects or fields
containing factual data, tables, and quick summaries.
 Indexes and Databases: Organized listings of articles, books, or other materials, often
allowing for keyword searching to locate primary or secondary sources.
Tertiary sources are ideal for initial research, providing background information or serving
as starting points for deeper investigations. They are commonly used in the early stages of
research to get acquainted with a subject or to gather quick facts. Although they lack the
depth and detail of primary or secondary sources, tertiary sources can point researchers to
more detailed resources.
Evaluation of Reference Sources.
For evaluation of a reference book, the authorities have prepared a checklist which includes past
record of the publisher, authority, scope, treatment, arrangement, index, special features, book
reviews, limitations, format, and conclusion
Misinformation, Disinformation :
1. Misinformation
When disinformation is shared without the intent to manipulate people, it is
called misinformation. An example would be sharing a rumor that something has happened,
before finding out it’s actually false. We can also categorize as misinformation unintentional
mistakes, such as inaccurate photo captions, dates, statistics, and translations, or when satire is
taken seriously.
2. Disinformation
Disinformation is false or misleading piece of information spread with the intention to deceive
or cause harm. It can appear in the form of the fabricated or deliberately manipulated audio/
visual content, intentionally created conspiracy theories or rumors spread to harm or cause
distrust. Any examples? There are plenty around us! When a blogger intentionally changes
scientific facts to support his/ her conspiracy theory, it’s disinformation. Or when people in
power share only selected piece of information together with their biased commentary, which
distorts reality, it’s also disinformation.
[Link] news
Fake news or information disorder is false or misleading information
(misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and hoaxes) claiming the aesthetics and legitimacy
of news.[1] Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity,[2] or
making money through advertising revenue.[3][4] Although false news has always been spread
throughout history, the term fake news was first used in the 1890s when sensational reports in
newspapers were common.[

Unit 3: Reference Service:

Concept: Reference service, is the process of helping readers to identify sources of information
in response to a particular query, problem or assignment to be done. Following are some of the
definitions of reference service given by the various experts. Ranganathan has defined reference
service as a personal service to each reader in helping her/him to find the document, answering
the particular query, pinpointedly, exhaustively and expeditiously. Ranganathan has also
emphasised that the reference service aims at “providing the right book to the right reader at the
right time.”
Types:
Ranganthan’s Classification of Reference Services
Reference service is a process in which readers receive their information through personal
contact of the Reference Librarian. There are queries of many types, varieties and are time
bound. Reference section or reference department of the library makes the efforts to remove the
difficulties of the readers to fulfil their requirements. Therefore all such information which is
provided to readers immediately are called Ready Reference Service, and reference service
which indicates long time is called as Long Range Reference Service. American Library
Association called it as Direct Reference Service and Indirect Reference Service respectively. S.
R. Ranganathan defined the following facets of reference work:

7.1 Ready Reference Service

Ranganathan defined Ready Reference Service as reference service finished or replied in a
very short time, in a minute if possible. These include such reference services which direct the
readers to reference sources immediately and information is gathered within short time.
Generally the ready reference services are of the nature of fact finding that can be finished or
answered in a very short time – in a short moment if possible. The reference librarian uses
sources like reference book, online searches or offline/ online catalogue search for providing
such kind of services. In the present context the need of ready reference services arises from the
fact of the complex and vast nature of a data, information and knowledge, its artificiality, and
arrangement of information. The distinguished person, fellows, foreign delegates, dignitaries,
scholarly users generally approach for such type of services. Sometimes some customary and
regular patrons/users also need the fact finding reference service because of shortage of time to
locate and search there queries.
Ready Reference Service includes the following queries:
• Which are demanded direct
• Which are demanded by sharp medias
 • Which are simple
• Which are answered on the table of Reference Librarian
• Which involve short answers
• Which are responded within short time, or within 5 minutes, or less

The Reference Sources which can be used for Ready Reference Queries are sources which are
Fact Finding Sources. These include:
• Dictionaries
• Directories/Handbooks
• Census Reports
• Year Books/ Annuals
• Biographies
• Gazetteer
• Atlas
• Encyclopaedias
• Publications and websites of the specific organizations
• Authentic Online Web Based Sources
• Online Publishers Sources including Online Databases

7.1.1 Need of Ready Reference Service

It is generally seen that readers have knowledge of books and other sources which are
concerned with the studies but sometimes the readers need such information which are not
known to them and their queries are not related to the concerned books and regular sources.
Reference Sources are such books and literature which are referred and consulted as when the
information is needed. So generally the users are not aware of these resources as these are
arranged differently which is not familiar to the users. This makes the need for the ready
reference service. In the present context also the patrons or users including students, researchers
email or use social media to contact the reference librarian to ask the short questions relating to
the ready reference and get the answers immediately.
 7.2 Long Range Reference Service

Ranganthan stressed that Long Range Reference Service is more used by the public and
special libraries. This service indicates taking long time in providing reference service. It is given
to the special readers demanding special information. Normally it takes more than 5 minutes to
provide the service with the help of reference sources. It is based on referencing every possible
source of information to arrive at the required solution; as such, it is not possible to deliver this
type of service immediately. The search in the long range reference service starts with the
reference books, literature and online reference sources in present context and then goes to the
books, reports, monographs, articles in periodicals in physical and online format. If the
information is not available in the library sources whether physical or online then the search can
even go to other local libraries and even to the other libraries in the country. The long range
reference service provided today can become the ready reference service tomorrow, as by this
time the reference librarian will be able to locate the material speedily from his past experience
and developed skills. The scope of long range reference service has now even expanded to
bibliographical service, referral service, translation service which is considered as long range
reference services.

7.2.1 Need of Long Range Reference

a. It Save the Time of the Reader and the Experts

The time is precious for a reader and research scholar. As the researcher spends more time in
literature search so the reference librarian can help its user with the reference sources and the
procedures to search the required information.

b. Knowledge Explosion

Due to knowledge explosion vast literature is produced and the researcher/ user can not study
the universe of knowledge in physical and online format. Libraries procure a variety of resources
of literature and reader is always eager to know the details and the whereabouts of the literature
received in the library or published anywhere in the country or the world. Reference librarian is
well versed and trained in the search techniques of literature. He can help the readers to trace
his/her documents. Reference librarian can serve the reader with the help of reference tools and
sources.

c. Complexity of Information Sources

Information sources are many and full of complexities. Every information source has different
arrangement, style of presentation, language barrier, which is not known to readers. Reference
Librarian with his abilities provides all information to the readers.

d. Information Sources of other libraries

No Libraries complete in itself and requires the help of other libraries for using and sharing the
information sources. Similarly, due to the limited funds and huge information sources the
libraries need to depend, each other. Therefore Reference librarian can help its users in providing
the resources from other libraries.

8. Levels of Reference Service

8.1 Ready Reference

• Less than 5 minutes

• Use a designated reference collection to provide the answer
• Done while its patrons wait
• The result is always an answer
• Simple questions with generally simple answers
• Involves looking up factual information
• Requires quick access for ready reference materials

8.2 Long Range Reference Service

• From 5-30 minutes
• May take more than one day
• The result is usually an answer or a referral
• Simple question/ simple answer
• Requires more sophisticated resources
• Involves looking up information – not analysis

8.3 Research

• Labour intensive – consuming anywhere from a day to a week

• Library staff conducting secondary research
• The result is an explanation of research findings rather a clear cut answer
• Also may be called extended reference
• Complex question / complex answer
• Requires many sources
• Involves analysis

8.4 Referral

a. Question Referral

• One librarian referring a question to another librarian

• The referral is between librarian and libraries
• The referring librarian remains in control of the question

b. Client Referral

• Referring the client to another librarian or to an alternate source of information

• Once the referral is made, the referring librarian is out of the loop
• Providing a lead or making a contact (Robinson, 1989)
 9. Five Laws of Library Science and Reference Services

S. R. Ranganathan provided the laws of library science and his interpretation further formed
the groundwork for the reference service. The reference service satisfies the Five Laws of
Library Science by the ways of personal contact, understanding the queries of the readers,
making the reference sources available to the users and by saving the time of the users. The laws
are enumerating with explanation on how the reference service abides to Five Laws of Library
Science.

9.1 The First Law Books are for Use

According to Ranganathan, the First law is to put the book to its maximum use and it is best to
employ reference service to help the readers to help themselves. Reference librarian stimulates
the users and attracts them to the resources of the user choice. Similarly explaining the law in
reference to readers Reference librarian establishes personal relations with the readers by his
sweet behaviour, liberal attitude, knowledge and personality. In other words, Reference librarian
is a friend, thinker and guide. So his role is to provide maximum service to the reader.

9.2 The Second Law Every Reader his Book

According to Ranganathan, reference service is required to aid the reader to get along with the
document search. Similarly, the reader should also shoulder his responsibilities to understand the
library sources and facilities.

9.3 The Third Law Every Book its Reader

To Ranganathan, the book cannot travel to the reader on its own, but will require reference
service to interpret the collection to the potential user or match the reader’s query with the
document. The reference librarian needs to keep personal contact with the readers and
encourages them to use various resources of the library. Book exhibitions, new arrivals display,
web based promotions, social media contacts, traditional services like translation, indexing, and
abstracting, bibliographical compilations also helps in keeping the library resources in contact
with the users.

9.4 The Fourth Law save the Time of the Reader

According to Ranganathan, reference service comes to the aid of the researcher and scientist
whose time cannot be wasted. Efficient and speedy reference service will definitely help in
saving the time of the users.

9.5 The Fifth Law Library is a Growing Organism

According to Ranganathan, the collection, the readers, and time increase to meet altered
situations; the kind of reference service will have to be altered to take advantage of technological
advances. Similarly, the efficient and good reference service increases the number of the readers
and thus it further helps in the growth of the library collection, staff and the infrastructure. It thus
satisfies the fifth law.

10. Evaluation of Reference Service

The criteria for evaluation of Reference Service are as follows:

• Access
• Equity
• Response Time
• Impact
• Accessibility/ Convenience
• Value
• Usefulness
• Efficiency
• Effectiveness in meeting needs
 • Effectiveness in anticipating needs
• Approachability
• Reliability
• Empathy
• Interest
• Listening /Enquiring
• Follow ups
• Service Quality
• Tangibles
• Assurance
• Accuracy of Answer
• User Satisfaction with service
• Rate of repeat users
• Costing per transaction
• Completion Time
• Role of Technology

11. E-Reference Services and Digital Reference Services

The present world has moved to electronic reference, e-reference, services with Internet- based
question and answer which easily connects the patrons and users with library professionals who
have expertise in the information sources through web forms, e-mail or social networking
platforms. They have transformed the reference service from physical to virtual by establishing
various information formats, packages, tools and delivery channels and further by reducing
physical constraints of time and boundary. Libraries are now able to provide reference services
on campus and off campus 24 X7 through web portals and web pages.

According to Janes, Carter and Memmott (1999), ‘‘Digital Reference Service is a mechanism
by which people can submit their questions and have them answered by a library staff member
through some electronic means (email, chat, web forms, etc.), not in person.’’ Digital Reference
Service is communicating and interacting with users in virtual environments by utilizing
computer and Internet technology. The asynchronous system of Digital Reference Service
include emailing, using social media tools and web based forms where patrons/ users can submit
their questions/ queries and receive answers, usually within 24 hours while synchronous digital
reference service support real time communication with reference librarian through chatting and
instant messaging.

The modern reference can be provided traditionally and non- traditionally. These different
avenues of reference services can meet the diverse needs of a community and can be explained in
three models:

11.1 Roving Reference

The reference librarian meets the patron where they are, be mobile within the library space or
moving among the stacks, they are available as required by the users.

11.2 Outreach reference

Reference Librarian being visible in the community and connecting with user and patrons face
to face. Participating in community events and providing program is an opportunity to teach the
public about library services and resources.

11.3 Virtual reference

Available through phone, text, chat. Mobile Technology allowing for the immobile, distance
or tech-savvy users to use library reference services.

12. Human Resource Policy for E-Reference

Some of the major things which need to be considered while deputing the Human Resource
for the E-Reference Services include:
 • Contractual Human Resources for e-reference service to be avoided
• Scheduling of reference librarian hours for e-reference service 24 X7- includes
operations, workloads, shift lengths
• Priority for e-reference in comparison to other work and services of the Library
• Staffing levels, obligation to staff training and professional development (Johnson, Peter
and Newton, 2011)

CAS :
A current awareness service has the following characteristics: a The service is usually in the
form of a publication, and attempts to bring information that is current or of recent origin to the
attention of its users. a The service does not seek to answer any specific questions that the user
may have. a The service is usually confined to a well defined subject area or topic. However,
topics from related areas are also covered in the service. a The service may sometimes confine
itself to a given type of literature, e.g., patents; or may cover different types of literature. The
service could be bibliographical in nature, e.g., a list of references with or without abstracts. The
service could also be discursive, e.g., a newsletter. In this type of current awareness service
usually there are short contributions from professionals with the objective of highlighting recent
developments or exchanging information and ideas. a The service endeavours to alert its users of
the recent development as quickly as possible. a The service attempts to make browsing
convenient and easy for the user. Although published current awareness service is the
predominant form, more re- Current Awareness Serviees cently, the service has also been using
electronic means. This usually takes the form of an electronic Bulletin' Board which is computer-
based, and accessible to users through their terminals. The user browses through items in the
electronic board just as he would do in a publication. Types of Current Awareness Services
Having understood the need for current awareness services and main characteristics of such
service, we may now proceed to examine the different types of such services.

Contents-by Journal Service

In this type of service, the library or documentation centre, or a commercial publisher distribute,;
a publication which contains copies of contents pages of journals in a broad area, e.g..
life :,ciences. A very good example of a Contents-by-Journal service is the publication called
Current Contents published by the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) in the USA. If a
library provides the service, it normally restricts it to the journals received in the library. The
rationale behind this type of service is that the journals are the predominant medium for
communicating new information. If users can be regularly informed of journal articles appearin:;
in current journals in broad or narrow areas, they would come to know of recent articles or
papers in their areas of interest. The silnplest way in which this can be done is to duplicate the
contents pages of journal issues and circulate them individually or in a compiled form to users.
Another rationale for this type of service [Link] fact that users tend to value certain journals. very
high and look forward to browsing through the issues of these journals as soon as they are
received in their library.
Documentation Bulletins or Current Awareness Lists This is by far the most predominant form
of current awareness service provided by libraries. In this kind of service the library or
documentation centre scans primary journals and other sources of current information received in
the library to identify potentially useful articles of interest to their users The bibliographical
details of such articles are collected, and classified or grouped into bvoad or narrow subject
groups. At periodic intervals (fortnightly, monthly, etc.) the collected bibliographic entries are
listed under the different subject headings, class numbers, or groups. The list is then duplicated
and circulated to users. It is usual for documentation bulletins to feature the entries in the list in a
manner that facilitates browsing. The subject headings or classification numbers and/or
subheadings under which entries are listed make it easy for the user to browse through the list. A
documentation list could have an author and a subject index, and a contents page. These devices
enable a user to locate sections of the bulletin which he should browse in order to get items of
information that may be useful to him. A documentation bulletin may sometimes include
abstracts of papers listed in the bulletin. The provision of abstracts greatly enhances the
usefulness of the documentation bulletin since the abstract provides additional information about
papers. If abstracts are well prepared they can often be substituted for the original paper. Of
course, more time will then be needed to produce this service. Current awareness lists are
published or issued by the library of an organisation for use within the organisation, as well as by
professional or learned bodies, international agencies and commercial organisations, for use by
any one interested in the subject areas covered by the list. Examples of current awareness lists
produced by professional bodies are Chemical Titles of the Cllemical Abstracts Service, and
Current Chemical Papers of the Chemical Society, U.K.
6.3.3 Research-in-Progress Bulletins This is another type of current awareness service and, as the
name suggests, it alerts users of new research projects and the progress made in the research
projects in hand. Such current awareness services usually require the joint effort of more than
one organisation working in similar or closely related research areas. A parent body whlch funds
or controls a group of research organisations (e.g., CSIR, ICAR in India) could also bring out
Research-in-Progress bulletins with the input to these bulletins being provided by the different
laboratories or research centres under that body. Ar example of this type of service is the United
States Department of Agriculture's Current Research lnformation System (CRIS). All USDA
laboratories and research stations contribute their input to CRIS. It is a computer-based service
and it can be searched to retrieve information on research projects. It is used also for current
awareness purposes. Another example of a research-in-progress service that is international in
scope is the CARIS (Current Agricultural Research information System) of the Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO). .
6.3.4 Newspaper Clipping Service News clippers are current awareness media, since they
publish news of recent clipping on the political, social, and economic front of a nation or region.
News papers carry useful information to everyone from housewives to top management of
companies and ministers. Again. news papers are of different kinds. Some of them are local or
regional in their orientation and coverage, others are national or international. Further, some
news papers specialise in economic or financial news and contain in depth analysis of industry,
trade, banking, commerce, etc.
SDI services: Luhn defined SDI as "that service within an organisation that concerns itself with
and Techniques machine-assisted channeling of new items of information from whatever source
to those points within the organisations where the probability of usefulness, in connection with
current work or interest, is high". DI and Retrospective Searching In a retrospective search, a
user's request for specific information results in a search of the database (of indexes, catalogues,
etc.) to retrieve documents or references that may satisfy the user's request. On the contrary, in
the SDI service, the search is for one or more users who may find one or more new documents
useful.
 Interlibrary loan: Inter-library loan (abbreviated ILL, sometimes called document
delivery, document supply, inter-lending, inter-library services, inter-loan, or resource
sharing) is a service that enables patrons of one library to borrow materials that are held by
another library. Libraries have established voluntary associations for resource sharing, organized
on a regional or national basis, or through other affiliations such as university systems with
multiple campuses, communities of libraries with related holdings and research interests, or
established library consortia.

Unit 4: Digital Reference Services:

Concept : Digital reference (more commonly called virtual reference) is a service by which
a library reference service is conducted online, and the reference transaction is a computer-
mediated communication. It is the remote, computer-mediated delivery of reference information
provided by library professionals to users who cannot access or do not want face-to-face
communication. Virtual reference service is most often an extension of a library's existing
reference service program. The word "reference" in this context refers to the task of providing
assistance to library users in finding information, answering questions, and otherwise fulfilling
users’ information needs. Reference work often but not always involves using reference works,
such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc. This form of reference work expands reference services
from the physical reference desk to a "virtual" reference desk where the patron could be writing
from home, work or a variety of other locations.
Definition : The terms "virtual reference," "digital reference," "e-reference," "Internet
information services," "live reference" and "real-time reference" are used interchangeably to
describe reference services that utilize computer technology in some way. Digital reference (or
virtual reference) service is a service by which a library reference service is provided online and
the reference transaction is a computer-mediated communication between the user and the
librarian. Digital Reference is a service that provides users with answers to questions in a
computer mediated environment. Digital reference refers to a network of expertise,
intermediation and resources put at the disposal of a person seeking answers in an online
environment. Digital Reference Services are Internet based services that employ human experts
or intermediaries to provide information to users.
Types – Asynchronous and Synchronous: Types of Reference Services There are two types of
Digital/Virtual reference services:
1 Asynchronous Virtual Reference Service: It is a type of virtual reference service in which
user/patron/client submits a question and the librarian responds after some time. In other words
there is a time delay between the question being posed by the user and the answer being given by
the librarian. Asynchronous virtual reference service takes the form of the following:
1.1 Email reference service:In this type of reference service a user sends a request in the form of
email to librarian or specifically designed reference email Id by reference service section of the
library. The user specifies his/her specific information need in the email. The librarian responds
to the query accordingly. This is the simple, cheap & cost effective method of virtual reference
service. Email reference service is the most widely service used among users as users can pose a
question even if library is closed & it doesn’t require any additional software to use the service.
This service is available free of cost and no additional effort is required on the part of the
librarian to implement the service. The email reference service is very much useful for the users
have poor oral communications skill
1.2 Reference Through Web: It is evident that even though the e-mail reference service is
beneficial for users in its own way but there are several shortcomings of the service & the
information professionals face a lot of problems as it is not a structured form of service. It does
not provide complete details regarding the information needed by the [Link] this regard new
innovative technologies have been developed to add additional features to the service. Likewise
Ask a librarian website has been framed out which is designed to provide a structured web form
where user is asked to reciprocate to particular queries, in addition to their information needs.
The web based form has to be accessed from library home page or reference web page. The
required fields then have to filled in by the user and ultimately the form is reverted back to the
library through e-mail. web forums are created for digital reference services to help the users to
be more productive to ask their queries.

2 Synchronous:In synchronous digital reference service the exchange of information takes place
in ‘real time’with an immediate response to the [Link] this case there is a live interaction
between the user and the reference [Link] is therefore called as real-time digital reference
service.
Chat using instant messaging: Instant messaging or online chat is one of the most common forms
of web communication. It is more instant than an email reference service. The exchange of
information between user and reference librarian takes place in real time i.e there is live
communication between user and the reference librarian. In this case same scenario is adopted to
answer the question as in real reference desk. The digital reference librarian prefer web based
electronic resources or electronic resources as these sources are easy to access, easy to keep &
easy to share with the users. Speed of this service is faster than e-mail service as the users do not
need to wait for the response. This service can be offered round the clock. 2.2 Video based
reference service/video conferencing/web camera service: It is a video based virtual reference
service. It is also called as video help. It was introduced to overcome the communication
problems inculcated in text based services. This mode of communication involves visual
elements where the reference librarian and the user can use both text and voice transactions &
they can see & hear each other in the same manner as in face to face [Link]
conferencing is useful in distance learning, online lectures, research and reference applications. It
is also useful in off campus library services of university libraries. Now a days viva voce
examinations & interviews are conducted via video conferencing.
Digital/Virtual Reference Robots :It is an artificial intelligence based service & is used to
respond the questions during the unavailability of the reference [Link] service involves the
use of software to search the databases.
Web 2.0 : Web 2.0 is the tag attached to new services, such as social networking, wikis,
instant messaging and social tagging, offered by the second generation World Wide Web
(WWW) to facilitate online collaboration and sharing among users. Web 2.0 is also known as
People Centric Web or Network as Platform or Social Web. he key features of Web 2.0 include

1. Folksonomy– free classification of information: Web 2.0 allows users to create free
classification/ arrangement of information over web. For example, Social Tagging;
2. Rich User Experience – Web 2.0 uses Ajax （ Asynchronous JavaScript + XML) to
present dynamic, GUI based rich user experience to users. For
example, Google Maps;
3. User as a Contributor -In Web 2.0, user also contributes to the content by means of
evaluation, review & commenting;
4. Long tail – Web 2.0 services are long-known;
5. User Participation– In web 2.0, users participate in content sourcing. This is also known
as Crowdsourcing. For example, Wikipedia & You Tube;
6. Basic Trust– In earlier web, the contents are protected under Intellectual Property
Rights, while in web 2.0 the contents are made available to share, reuse, redistribute and edit. For
examples Wikipedia & Creative Common; and
7. Dispersion– Web 2.0 uses multiple channel that include file sharing &
permalinks to deliver content. The typical examples are Bit Torrent and Mashup.
3.0 services : The Semantic Web, also known as Web 3.0 is to simplify human–computer
interfaces, which attaches machine-readable metadata to web content to enable computers to
‘understand’ the actual/intended meanings of this content as they process it. It provides a
common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and
community boundaries. The semantic web is a vision of information that can be readily
interpreted by machines, so that machines can perform more of the tedious work involved in
finding, combining, and acting upon information on the web.