Library of Congress\' Collaborative Digital Reference Service

July 9, 2001 - 11:13am — Ryan

Federal Computer Week profiles the emerging Collaborative Digital Reference Service this month:

Most baseball fans know that New York Yankee Don Larsen pitched a perfect game — allowing no batters to reach base — against the Brooklyn Dodgers during the 1956 World Series. Although the game has been well documented, one man walked into the National Library of Canada with a certified stumper: Did Larsen go to a \"ball-three\" count against any Dodger batter?

It’s a reference librarian’s job to try to find answers to patrons’ questions, no matter how arcane. In this case, library staff members couldn’t find the answer using their own print and electronic resources, so they turned to a new resource, the Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS), and waited for another library somewhere in the world to provide the answer. [More . . .]