ABSTRACT

Increased student use of the Internet and declining reference desk statistics are factors encouraging academic reference librarians to look for new ways to reach patrons. Web-based customer contact center software gives librarians the tools to provide interactive, 24/7 reference service to Internet users. This article describes how the library at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona developed its live/web reference service. We discuss the factors that encouraged us to launch the service, the challenges that we encountered along the way, and examples of our experiences to date. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <https://www.docdeliveryhaworthpress.com" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: <https://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2002/2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]