AskA's: Lesson learned from K-12 digital reference services

The Internet has brought libraries to a crossroads. The nature of collection, service, and information organization is changing rapidly. There is considerable anxiety about changing roles and responsibilities in this new digital environment. While a great deal of research and development is occurring in both collection development (such as NSF's Digital Library Initiatives) and information organization (metadata), little attention has been paid to how reference and user services will function in this new digital environment. This article outlines some of the thinking in this area as it relates to K-12 digital reference services. These services answer thousands of questions every week and have addressed many issues involved in providing human-intermediated information and referral services via the Internet.