Future of Digital Reference

There are mixed feelings from librarians about what the future of digital reference. According to a reference librarian from the University of Montana, some librarians feel that in general library reference will fade away, while other librarians think that it is here to stay and will evolve. The general feeling is that both digital and traditional reference services will coexist and work with each other. As technology becomes more sophisticated, libraries will use digital reference more and more. It is convenient and many users have Internet access and live in a digital world. The move toward a more digital world has become has apparent in libraries, with digital readers and music downloads. Because of this librarians will need to rely more and more on material found online rather than print sources. The problem with this is that reference librarians providing patrons with online resources will soon not be enough. One of the major requests made by reference librarians to vendors is to have the capability to scan material in print and send a PDF to the user. Also currently and in the future, academic libraries and municipal libraries alike will become part of larger consortium in which information is shared. Besides providing 24/7 service, libraries will be able to decrease their collections budgets and take advantage of special collections provided by other libraries. Soon reference librarians of the future will be able to talk to and see the digital reference users, walk around the library showing resources, and scan and send information from in print materials and online sources. The good thing is that digital referencing is still young and as technology changes, it could only improve.

Ref: http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/zanin-yost.htm