Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Can Consortial Reference Partners Answer Your Local Users’ Library Questions?, Bradley Wade Bishop
Can Consortial Reference Partners Answer Your Local Users’ Library Questions?, Bradley Wade Bishop
Information Science Faculty Publications
The purpose of this article is to explore location-based questions as a weakness of virtual reference consortia and discuss how to mitigate related issues. Content analysis of how both local and non-local academic librarians responded to location-based questions provides insight into considerations academic libraries must make when participating in a virtual reference consortia. Unobtrusive testing analyzed the local knowledge assumption that non-local librarians have difficulty answering questions about libraries beyond their own. The results from these two methods indicate academic librarians have some difficulties providing responses to library location-based questions and a discussion on overcoming this weakness is included.