E-mail reference in a distributed learning environment: Best practices, user satisfaction, and the reference services continuum

Royal Roads University (RRU) Library uses e-mail reference as its primary point of contact for reference services. Learners working off-site are encouraged to request reference help at a central e-mail address which routes questions to librarians. Questions are monitored cooperatively and answered via an informal protocol. RRU prides itself on excellent client service and the librarians endeavor to be responsive and helpful. Recent staff turnover and a need to orient new librarians led to the development of a set of best practices for e-mail reference. This paper examines the role of e-mail reference in the continuum of digital reference services and discusses best practices together with staff training and development issues that are particular to the conduct of e-mail reference in a distributed learning environment. To measure the success of this model, learners were surveyed for their satisfaction with responses to questions and for their preferred mode of contact.