Examing the research landscape and identifying gaps in digital reference services in sri lankan academic libraries: insights from literature

Abstract

Digital Reference Service (DRS) is generally identified as the provision of online mediated reference services by specialized personnel using the internet and computer technologies to communicate with the users and the staff without being physically present at the libraries. The main objective of this study is to identify the core areas discussed in the literature regarding Digital Reference Services and the research gap in the context of Sri Lankan academic libraries. The Web of Science, Emerald, and Google Scholar databases were searched with the identified keyword combinations to achieve this purpose, and the study included 39 studies selected from a total of 788 articles by following the methodology set out in the PRISMA statement. These 39 articles were selected as the primary dataset for the research, and the researchers have followed the review of the studies method to obtain the results. The study is qualitative in nature. Data gathered was analyzed using the frequency of the themes, and it found that there were no research studies conducted on digital reference services in Sri Lanka that mainly discussed reference services in general. Hence, this study recommends conducting studies on digital reference services to cater to the demands of net generation users by minimizing the challenges identified through the literature. It will be most important as a proactive decision when facing pandemic situations like COVID-19 as a readiness approach.