Internet Reference Services and the Reference Desk: Does the Nature of a User's Query Really Change?

This paper reviews the nature of queries posed by library patrons during a regular reference interview, within the conceptual framework of Internet reference services in an academic library. The users of the reference desk in a typical university setting usually range from the freshmen to the faculty, with researchers from the corporate sector occasionally dropping in. Presented here will be the viewpoint of a reference librarian indicating that library users, armed with the newly acquired knowledge of Internet/electronic tools, leave the reference desk with a vastly different perspective on carrying out a literature search than they arrived with. The observation is that while the basic theme and nature of queries remain pretty much the same, it is the role of the reference librarian in responding to these queries that has undergone an immense change.