As electronic reference services continue to broaden in scope and comp
lex requests are negotiated via e-mail, the e-mail reference interview
will became commonplace. The difficulties of conducting e-mail refere
nce interviews have been noted in the literature, but research in this
area is lacking. A three-phased project at the College of Library and
Information Services (CLIS) at the University of Maryland was underta
ken to begin to explore the e-mail reference process. This paper, whic
h focuses on the e-mail reference interview, discusses differences bet
ween e-mail reference interviews and those conducted using other media
, presents a taxonomy of approaches to e-mail reference interviews, pr
oposes the use of a systematic approach to e-mail reference interviews
, and introduces a model e-mail reference interview. The results sugge
st that reference interviews can be conducted via e-mail for some comp
lex questions. However, further testing is required by experienced int
ermediaries working under the pressures of client deadlines and instit
utional constraints.