Current State of Digital Reference in Primary and Secondary Education

This paper examines the domain of digital reference services for and by the primary and secondary education community. Data is provided to demonstrate the current understanding of education question types and education users in digital reference. It is believed this data will be of wide utility for digital library builders geared toward primary and secondary users (K-12) such as the International Children's Digital Library [1] and the National Science Digital Library [2]. Digital Reference and Digital Libraries for Education Digital reference refers to Internet-based expert answering services [Lankes, 1999b]. In such a service, a user typically poses a question to a digital reference service through a web form, e-mail or a chat interface. An expert (such as a scientist or librarian) uses this input to construct an answer that is both passed back to the user as well as used in some knowledge base or enhancement to a digital library collection. There is a growing body of research and development in digital reference [Janes, 2000; Mardikian and Kesselman, 1995; Tyckoson, 2002; Lagace and McClennen, 1998; Mon, 2000; Ferguson and Bunge, 1997], and digital reference services are being implemented within the context of digital libraries such as the National Science Foundation(NSF) National Science Digital Library [National Research Council, 1998]. Much is known about use of digital reference in primary and secondary education (in this article, the term "education" will refer simply to primary and secondary education), and this knowledge has utility not only to digital reference services aimed at this population, but to the larger digital library community as well. Specifically, the author argues that services aimed at primary and secondary users represent a revelatory case for digital reference for three reasons; digital reference services for education are: 1. Well researched: Much of the initial research in digital reference was founded in the AskA community, which saw education as a primary audience. 2. Well funded: Education digital reference services such as AskERIC, Dr. Math, KidsConnect, and the Virtual Reference Desk's Learning Center have received relatively substantial (though not always long-lived) funding. 3. Well established: Many education digital reference services have established and consistent funding. Current State of the Art In order to present a picture of digital reference for education, the author first presents two major types of services in the education domain. Each type is then illustrated with an exemplar service. Types of Digital Reference Services in Education There are two obvious, though often overlapping, categories of digital reference services in education: library-based services, and AskA services. AskA services can be further divided into general services that may be of use to the education community as part of a more general mission (such as Ask Joan of Art® [3], an AskA service that answers questions concerning American art for anyone who asks, but is particularly useful in art education) and services targeted squarely at the education community (such as AskERIC(sm) [4], though it covers all levels of education including higher and continuing education). The author will concentrate on education AskA services for this paper.