The Reference Interview Revisited: Librarian-patron Interaction in the Virtual Environment

This paper examined the reference interview literature over the past 10 years to determine how thinking has changed regarding the process. The ten-year window was chosen to roughly measure the impact of the internet on reference (specifically, the RI) since its introduction in the early 1990s. The paper was divided into two parts–the RI in the traditional (electronic) reference setting; and the online RI in the virtual setting. The thinking of reference personnel has come full circle–to an understanding that the basic tenets still hold true. To the extent that reference workers provide the “human touch” in the “high-tech” setting is the extent to which they will, not only survive, but thrive in modern libraries.