1. State of Virtual Reference January 2004

2. Libraries using VR Gerry McKiernan’s Registry of Virtual Reference: (http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/LiveRef.htm) Joseph Janes’ global census of Virtual Reference (http://www.vrd2003.org/proceedings/presentation.cfm?PID=162)http://www.vrd2003.org/proceedings/presentation.cfm?PID=162 Hundreds of libraries doing VR alone or in consortia. More VR software providers than ever. Other big trend: Patrons using IM.

3. Collaborations Almost 100 collabs on Bernie Sloans pages. (http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~b-sloan/collab.htm)http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~b-sloan/collab.htm QuestionPoint Night Owl (NCSU, UNC, Duke) State Services: (MASSanswers, AnswerZone, AnswerOnline, AskAway,KANanswer, Answerland), Regional, National (ASERL’s project, CDRS) International (Ask A Librarian- Finland, AskNow- Australia)

4. Organizations Virtual Reference Desk. (http://www.vrd.org) They host the VRD conference.http://www.vrd.org MARS Ad Hoc Committee on Virtual Reference: working on guidelines, policies and standards for librarian behavior and administration of Virtual Reference.

5. Other Virtual Services Ask a+ Locator- A network of expert-based services (for instance, ask an ornithologist) ( http://www.vrd.org/locator/subject.shtml) http://www.vrd.org/locator/subject.shtml LSSI and 24/7- “rent a librarian” services. RIP AskERIC- Educator’s Reference Desk (http://www.eduref.org/) Why isn’t there an EbscoHost VR service??

6. Standards Interoperability between systems Interoperability with email Librarian Performance guidelines Administration practices Major Players: RUSA- quality, behavior, administration NISO Netref community (hardware, software, metadata, organization schemes)- stems from work on WRC

7. Listservs DIG_REF http://www.vrd.org/Dig_Ref/dig_ref.shtml Livereference http://groups.yahoo.com/group/livereference/