| Through an interpretative research paradigm this study examines how reference librarians facilitate interaction in online learning environments. Much of library research has a positivist outlook that trends to a functionalist view of digital reference services. This study, however, draws on distributed learning theories in order to develop a grounded theory of instructional interaction of digital reference services.; The study used a mixed-methods research methodology, informed by case study and critical ethnography, to collect observational, interview, and questionnaire data. The site under study combines face-to-face, phone, and digital reference service at one service point. Data were gathered as follows: librarians were observed at their reference activities; interviews were conducted with four librarians that sought their impressions of the reference service milieu and the digital reference service specifically; a second interview was conducted using a stimulated recall method to analyze the librarians work with digital reference; the librarians completed self-reports that triangulated with observational and interview data; and, an analysis of the transcripts of the digital reference service.; The resulting data were analyzed by a constant comparative method based on the grounded theory design. With this procedure, continual analysis by the researcher by means of comparing new data with previously collected data noted the similarities and differences among the data. Categories were thus allowed to inductively emerge.; It was concluded that librarians facilitate interaction in online learning environments through an evolution of the traditional practice of the reference interview. A new theory of reference interaction is suggested that calls for further studies to be conducted to test and refine it. |
