Dissemination-of-information-model for reference services at the National Diet Library, Japan

WATANABE, Yuriko (2014) Dissemination-of-information-model for reference services at the National Diet Library, Japan. Paper presented at: IFLA WLIC 2014 - Lyon - Libraries, Citizens, Societies: Confluence for Knowledge in Session 101 - Reference and Information Services. In: IFLA WLIC 2014, 16-22 August 2014, Lyon, France.

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Language: English (Original)
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Abstract

Dissemination-of-information-model for reference services at the National Diet Library, Japan

Although it is true that more people are getting information through Google and libraries are receiving fewer inquiries in recent years, Google presents us not just with challenges but also with opportunities. Google affords us the opportunity to expand reference services by creating useful research content that can be made available to the public on the Internet. The NDL provides Search Guides on the Internet which are created thanks to our librarians’ experience and professional knowledge. The Search Guides consist of content that provides outlines and information resources for specific topics. The NDL now provides Search Guides for about 1,700 topics, which are available on the Internet. The Search Guides can be very effective when a topic which meets and anticipates the patron’s needs is available. To identify these needs, we utilize two databases which accumulate past inquiries and answers; the first is the intranet system “REX,” which is shared by reference librarians in the NDL, and the second is the Collaborative Reference Database, which records past inquiries and answers as well as other useful reference date obtained by Japanese libraries. The Search Guides ware created to meet the need of potential users and receives a rather large volume of traffic. Compared with the Collaborative Reference Database, a Search Guide receives 90 times as many references per item of content. This is a clear indication that preparing a model answer in advance, as in the Search Guide, provides a much more pertinent response to patrons’ questions. One of our major challenges is the maintenance of each Search Guide. Moreover, when adding content, it is necessary to integrate each field and consider how this information might be best utilized in the future.

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