We'll take it from here: Further developments we'd like to see in virtual reference software

Virtual reference services-providing patrons with live, real-time reference over the Web-have suddenly become a very popular topic in the library comm unity. Any conference program with "virtual reference" or "digital referenc e" or "24/7" or any of the variety of other euphemisms we use for live, onl ine reference on the Web, is guaranteed to be packed. New electronic discus sion lists and discussion groups are popping tip like mushrooms. The first articles on the subject have already appeared in American Libraries and Lib rary Journal, and dozens more are being churned out as we speak. But even m ore telling are the numbers of libraries that have actually begun to implem ent it. In September 1999, there were no more than five libraries that had implemented any kind of live virtual reference service, or that even knew w hat it was. Today, less than eighteen months later, there are over two hund red libraries from all over the world that have started offering live onlin e reference in one guise or another, and more are joining the fray everyday .