Digital Library and Digital Reference Service

Nowadays, neither the digital library nor the digital reference service is seen as exotic. Both of them are evolving at an amazingly rapid pace. Though they have mutual interests, it has been argued that there is a ‘lack of interaction between the digital reference and digital library communities’ (Lankes, 2004, p. 301). However, the fact is that, on the one hand, the purpose of establishing a digital library is certainly not only building up the digital collection but also providing services on the basis of the collection; on the other hand, the foundation for offering a successful digital reference service is a solid reference collection. Thus, it should not be a question that there might be a point where the digital library and digital reference service match. The digital reference service could be one type of service the digital library provides (seen as Figure 1) while the digital library collection might be a part of the reference collection contributing to the digital reference service (seen as Figure 2).