New opportunities a comparison between traditional and electronic reference work.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate the differences between the traditional way of conducting a reference interview and the electronic way. The main questions of this thesis are: How does the electronic reference interview appear in comparison to the traditional one? How do the librarians experience the differences? Is quality affected in the electronic reference interview? Examples from Fråga biblioteket Ask the Library have been used in this study. The method used in the investigation is based on qualitative interviews in combination with studies of relevant and recent literature. The librarians interviewed all have experience from both traditional and electronic reference work. The result of the interviews, combined with the literature studies, revealed that the greatest differences are found in the interaction between the librarian and the user. Another difference that was found is that the electronic reference-service is independent of time and space, at least in theory. The users possibility of being anonymous in the electronic media was another difference that was revealed. It was, furthermore, concluded that there is also a difference in the type of questions asked in the different types of media. It cannot be determined whether the quality of the interview was improved or deteriorated in electronic reference service. The different types of reference service serve different purposes. It can be stated, though, that those librarians who work with both traditional and electronic reference work increase their competence. The conclusion of this study is that the similarities were greater than the differences and that traditional and electronic reference work complement each other.Uppsatsnivå: