Reference service + Internet = True? Librarians’ thoughts about the usage of Internet during the reference service.

The aim of this master thesis is to investigate the design of the reference service and its development that Internet has caused in college/university libraries when it comes to the service provided to the user. I want to examine the quality of this development from the view of the librarians, and also investigate their attitude and how they deal with this development.The following questions were asked:•How has Internet changed the reference service at college/university libraries?•How do the librarians look upon the possible change of quality in the reference service when the Internet is involved?•What attitude do the librarians hold toward this development where Internet is used in the reference service and how do they deal with it?The method used was qualitative interviews. A total of six librarians from Blekinge tekniska högskola, Halmstad högskola, Lunds universitet and Växjö universitet have been interviewed.The theories and models used were “media richness”, a quality framework including “quality aspects of a service”, and social psychology and its “reasons for a positive/negative attitude on an organisations change”.The result shows that Internet has brought more sources of information and additional ways to contact the library. It also shows a change in “how” and “where” the search is conducted. Furthermore the study indicates that the quality of service was not affected by Internet and that the librarians were positive towards the change and handled with it through education and “technical support” among other things.Uppsatsnivå: