• Journal of Information Management
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.19-42
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• 2003

Reference services have taken a central place in library and information services. But current digital libraries focus more on access to digital information, and hardly lay emphasis on the service aspects. This paper looks at the current state of research in reference services in digital libraries. It first analyses some representative definitions of digital reference services. It then provides a brief overview of the various online reference and information services currently available on the Web. The paper also reviews the types of the digital reference service in major 'Aska' service sites. Finally, the paper proposes new digital reference service model that specifically bases on the sharing of the human and information.