Excerpts from Chapter 5: ELECTRONIC RESOURCES FOR REFERENCE
Chapter Author: Kathleen M. Kluegel

EXPANDING RESOURCES

The changes in technology can be summed up in one word: more. More speed, more images, more formats, more channels, and more resources. The future is likely to be more of the same. Is the result just more reference service or are there some fundamental differences in how these resources are developed and used?

In the beginning of the end-user revolution, there were relatively few resources available. Many of them were known to the user in their print format. The move to electronic form meant faster, easier, more flexible searching within familiar boundaries. The users had some idea about the kind of material that they would receive from their searches. One of the roles of the reference librarian was to guide the user from the print to the electronic version. User instruction was largely one-to-one and took place in the reference room or at the information desk.

By 2007, the tidal wave of electronic resources had washed away virtually all knowledge of the existence of print resources and swept all signposts from the emerging reference resource landscape. The end-user's information universe has expanded from a tidy solar system to an immense and expanding galaxy. Just as a galaxy is filled with neutron stars, supernovas, quasars, suns, and planets beyond counting, the end-user's information space has become much more complex. It begins with indexes and abstracts and includes full-text electronic journals, dictionaries, encyclopedias, directories, and datasets, to name just a few resources. This has transformed the role of reference librarians in helping users navigate this space.

As the number and type of electronic resources grows, the challenge becomes one of assisting users in identifying and selecting the appropriate resource for their needs. In person, the reference librarian can guide the end-user from source to source, pacing the information flow to suit the user's knowledge and experience. The reference librarian is also able to see if the user is working successfully alone or if some additional guidance is needed. Similarly, if the interaction with the user happens as part of the virtual reference service, the real-time user interactions guide the reference librarian in the selection and utilization of resources. When reference librarians think about developing and delivering the same guidance to those users who are far beyond the walls of the reference room, they have provided gateways or portals. These gateways on the Web can be thought of as maps to the library's information space and are designed to guide the user to the correct resources. They attempt to divide resources into familiar categories and keep similar kinds of resources together. In some ways, the gateways work to simulate the arrangement of a reference room on the screen. Creating a set of virtual index tables, encyclopedia cases, and dictionary stands on the library's gateway page may help the user identify where to begin.

Some gateways may be built as a series of branching menus with multiple layers of choices. Each choice brings a new set of choices to the screen until the user reaches the final layer. This strategy assists the user by breaking down an enormous amount of information into smaller, more manageable pieces. Instead of having to deal with 250 or 2500 electronic resources of all types in one long list, one can choose among perhaps five categories. These could be arranged on a subject basis or on another functional basis. This approach has some distinct advantages over scrolling through screens of resources. It is important that the menus are very well designed, with clear, unambiguous, and comprehensive choices and very flexible detours back to previous levels for an alternate set of choices.

If gateways are based on a database of databases, they can provide a kind of flexibility and responsiveness that is unavailable in traditional guides to reference sources. A carefully designed database of databases can include inclusive and exhaustive lists of subjects and topics for each of the resources, based on the vocabulary of that discipline. The gateway can be built "on the fly" in response to a user's query. For example, a user may come to the gateway and be invited to type in some words from a topic of interest. The gateway software will search for resources that contain that topic and present to the user tools like subject encyclopedias, abstracting and indexing sources, and even Web sites of possible interest. This approach, while an interesting and valuable alternative to a more static style of gateway, has a problem that may be termed the "Salvador Dali" problem. That is, a user will type in a term such as "Salvador Dali" rather than "Art History" or "Modern Art" or "Twentieth Century Art" or other more generalized description of the subject. If so, the user's search is not going to find a match in the database of electronic resources because they are not indexed to that level of granularity or detail. The converse problem, the "History" problem, occurs when a user types in a topic that is so broad it matches nearly every resource in the system. Devising appropriate guidance mechanisms for these searches will be a long-term challenge for reference librarians, as will be the development of the descriptors for each of the resources.

There are some developments in software systems that are designed to assist users in selecting and searching across multiple resources. The most common term for this development is federated searching. In federated search systems, a library selects a group of resources, typically including the online catalog, major abstracting and indexing tools, and some reference tools, and provides a simple interface to the user that will allow a search across all the tools simultaneously. The library may design the search interface to cluster broad-based resources together or offer choices among subject categories or a combination of the two approaches. The challenge in these systems is to select tools that can be made to work together and present the disparate results in a way that is intelligible to the user. Typically, the federated search system necessarily makes some compromises in the way the resources are searched and is not able to support the native system search capabilities in the cross-search environment. However, it can go some distance in reducing the user's frustration in conducting searches serially across a variety of resources. And it can bring to the experienced library user's eye resources that had not been discovered earlier. Success with federated searches is improving as librarians and vendors work together to match user behavior and expectations within the limitations of computing power and resource compatibility.

Of course, the users of the virtual reference room are similar to the users of the physical reference room. They may not know where to start or how to frame their question. They may not understand the relationship between and among different kinds of reference resources. So to supplement the electronic gateway to the virtual reference room, some libraries have created research guides on their Web pages to assist users. Some of these are virtual "pathfinders" with step-by-step guides to research in an area. Duke University [http://library.duke.edu/research/help/], Los Angeles Public Library [http://www.lapl.org/resources/guides/], Cornell University [http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/tutorial.html] and the New York Public Library [http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/grd/resguides/] are just a few libraries that have developed research guides on the Web.

Translating the intellectual and functional concepts of information resources into the visual and verbal structures of the computer screen will take good imagination and design skills. Providing enough information to support intelligent decision-making processes within the constraints of computer screens is a challenge. This challenge is addressed through a variety of mechanisms. "Layering" the screen so that additional information about a resource is accessible through a mouse-over or as a pop-up is one strategy. Creating an "About this Database" icon that links to fuller descriptions of the resources is another strategy. Adding to the challenge is the constantly changing array of reference resources. Reference collections have always been dynamic. Reference librarians add resources as they become available, replace older editions with new ones, and de-accession materials as they lose their utility. However, the rate of change for electronic resources is substantially higher than for traditional print resources. In addition to the "changes by choice" in which a library changes its subscriptions to add or delete a title, there are the changes in the nature of the resources that remain in the collection. Given the very fluid state of electronic resources, how can the library's gateway service lead novice users to the "new" resource while helping experienced users recognize that it is a new incarnation of the one they used last week?

ADDITIONAL READINGS [ADDED IN 4th EDITION]

• Bell, Suzanne S. Librarian's Guide to Online Searching. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. 268p.
  
  This book combines tutorial material on database structure and basic search techniques with discussions of search strategy development for major databases in a variety of subject areas. Suzanne Bell also offers guidance on evaluating databases and choosing the right resource in response to a question.
  
  
• Cervone, Frank. "What We've Learned from Doing Usability Testing on OpenURL Resolvers and Federated Search Engines." Computers in Libraries 25, no. 9 (October 2005): 10-14.
  
  This article identifies some of the major challenges and opportunities in implementing federated search engines and OpenURL resolvers in a major academic research library. The findings are based on three years of usability tests.
  
  
• Lipinski, Tomas A., ed. Libraries, Museums, and Archives: Legal Issues and Ethical Challenges in the New Information Era. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2002. 335p.
  
  In this book, Lipinski brings together over a dozen authors who address the topics at the intersection of information technology and legal issues, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, information ethics, and privacy concerns, among others.