Cooperative Digital Reference in Europe: where are we going?

The ICT developments, the increasing availabilty of electronic information resources on the web, the move of library users to the Internet, the offer of commercial “ask a” services on the net are shaking traditional library reference services. Reference librarians are facing the challenge created by this new context The presentation intends to give an overview of what is happening in different library context in Europe, to describe the opportunities and critical issues involved in providing digital reference services. Special emphasis will be placed on the current and future perspectives of cooperative reference service and the role of library consortia.

Paola Gargiulo
Library Automation Services and CIBER Secretariat
C.A.S.P.U.R, Via dei Tizii, 6 b 00185 Roma, Italy
Telephone : ++39-06-44486-605
E-Mail: p.gargiulo@caspur.it