Abstract

Author(s): Neeraj Kumar Singh

Digital Reference Service is an advancement of the traditional reference services that is emerging as natural solution to meet the user’s information needs in the changing environment. This paper deals with the digital reference service in academic libraries. This paper discuss the various models of providing digital reference services in academic libraries including email, AskA services, online chat reference, video conferencing, digital robots, and collaborative digital reference. This paper highlights the present status of Digital reference service in the four University libraries and discusses the strength and weakness of existing reference service being provided in the libraries under study. This paper is an attempt to make a comparison of University libraries in Northern India on the basis of digital Reference Services and Online/ Digital Service being provided by these libraries.