REF-DELIVERY project plan: electronic reference service

Abstract

The idea of ​​the project is to create a website (www.refdelivery.com) that aims to provide a reference service in six university libraries: (6 October University Library for Modern Sciences and Arts MSA - Khartoum Applied College Library - Omar Al-Mukhtar University Library in Al-Bayda City - Palestine University Library Technical attendance - Benghazi University Library - Faculty of Computers and Information Library, Fayoum University) in order to respond to reference inquiries for library users, including students, faculty members, and graduate students.

In addition, the service in its early stages is provided free of charge until the site is developed and updated, and it reaches an advanced stage that provides everything required, based on studying the needs of the beneficiaries and interconnecting with other office sites, and companies that facilitate access to various electronic databases that allow access to them, and benefit from various sources, In addition to implementing various advanced workshops.

The project monitored identifying the number of beneficiaries who logged in to the site and their categories, the volume of reference inquiries answered, identifying the most frequently asked topics, identifying the most requested categories of reference questions, the number of times electronic materials were downloaded, and the extent to which beneficiaries used the service and evaluated it.

Among the most prominent results:

The project recommended several recommendations, including: Urging those in charge of libraries to provide reference services that focus on providing information, answering reference questions that search for specific facts, in addition to providing guidance services, and calling on other university libraries to strengthen the partnership between them and create a unified platform. To provide a unified digital reference service, which will be a destination for researchers and scholars in all fields of human knowledge, and to create comprehensive awareness to introduce all categories of beneficiaries to the services provided by the library, most notably the reference service, while clarifying its major role in serving beneficiaries and scientific research.

Within a period of less than a month since the site was made available on the Internet, approximately 39 beneficiaries were responded to, as a test broadcast of the site, and a response to reference inquiries, whether by providing the required sources or directing them to the platforms that most help them in obtaining them.