Virtual Reference Service:Understanding Trends through Review of Literature

Literature reviews are systematic syntheses of previous work around a particular topic. Nearly all scholars have written literature reviews at some point; such reviews are common requirements for academic writings, are often the first section of empirical papers, and are sometimes written to summarize a field of study. Given the increasing amount of literature in many fields, reviews are critical in synthesizing scientific knowledge. A literature review is a systematic explicit and reproductive method for identifying evaluating and interpreting the existing body of recorded work produced by researcher's scholars and practitioners. (Fink, 1998, p.3).

The review of the literature for this study focuses on virtual reference service (aka digital reference service) as discussed by different authors in their scholarly writings. The emphasis has been made to cover the scope, research methodology, major findings, and suggestions or recommendations put forward by the authors.