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E-Mail Reference Services: Characteristics and Effects on Overall Reference Services at an Academic Health Sciences Library

The authors describe the process of initiating an e-mail reference service in June 1995 at the Ohio State University Health Sciences Library and the growth of the service through December 2000. Data on increases in the number of questions over five and a half years, types of patrons who use the service, and types of questions and answers are presented. Issues that arose while providing e-mail reference services have caused the librarians at this library to rethink the services they provide to all patrons, regardless of the means of contact, and to integrate e-mail reference more effectively into the library's overall reference services. By the end of the twentieth century, most academic libraries had initiated some form of email reference services to complement their traditional in-person and phone assistance to patrons. The libraries of the Ohio State University (OSU) have been no exception. The authors of this article have analyzed the e-mail reference questions received, and the answers sent, at the OSU John A. Prior Health Sciences Library (HSL) from June 1995 to December 2000. The e-mail reference service has had an effect on the policies, procedures, and delivery of other, more traditional types of reference services in this library. These changes and their implications will be discussed, and other questions will be raised for future study. Literature Review A review of the literature on e-mail reference services revealed numerous articles from the mid-1980s to the present. Several of the articles in the 1980s described the development of electronic reference services and the initial low user response. (1) Beginning in the 1990s, authors expanded upon the topic and examined the management of e-mail reference and its implications. Articles pointed out e-mail reference's advantages and disadvantages, made practical suggestions such as what type of form to use, how to define the service policy, and how to staff and promote the service. Several authors suggested ways to analyze the service. (2) Additionally, two authors provided good reviews of the literature on the topic. (3) As the use of e-mail reference expanded, librarians kept records of the service and began studying the actual requests. Academic, public, and special librarians reported what types of questions were being asked and who asked them. (4) The categories of reference questions and type of requestors varied from article to article, but there were some common themes such as primary or nonprimary patrons, ready reference, and so on. Reviewing this data can assist librarians in identifying the information-seeking patterns of patrons and in planning services. History of the OSU Health Sciences Library's E-Mail Reference Service In 1994-95 the main library of OSU's library system started an e-mail reference service. Soon after its initiation, librarians at the main library began to forward health-related questions to the HSL's head of reference services. At that time, there were only one or two questions a month at most, but the HSL librarians foresaw that, as patrons became more accustomed to using the Internet, electronic services in general would become an alternative to in-person or phoned reference questions. They knew that they needed to position themselves for expansion into this area. In June 1995 the HSL head of reference met with the e-mail reference services coordinator at the main library, to learn more about their service's technical support, staffing, policies and procedures, and promotion to user groups. Librarians at HSL were consulted as the policy and procedures were developed. At the time, there was no e-mail access at the reference desk, so it was decided that initially the head of reference would field all questions sent to the new email reference address, either answering them herself or referring them to other librarians as appropriate for their areas of expertise. The head of reference kept records of all transactions, both questions and answers. …