The digital reference research agenda

This article presents a research agenda for the study of digital reference. The agenda stems from a research symposium held at Harvard in August 2002. The agenda defines digital reference as " the use of human intermediation to answer questions in a digital environment. " The agenda also proposes the central research question in digital reference-" How can human expertise be effectively and efficiently incorporated into information systems to answer user questions? " The definition and question are used to outline a research agenda centered on how the exploration of digital reference relates to other fields of inquiry.