International Research: Journal of Library & Information Science | Vol. 2 No. 1, Jun. 2012 102 Virtual Reference Services: Tools and Techniques Harsh Bardhan Arya Research Scholar harshmlis@gmail.com, Dr. J. K. Mishra Reader jmishr@gmail.com Dept. of Library and Information Science, Dr. Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar (M.P.) India 470003 Abstract: Virtual reference service is an emerging trend of traditional reference service. This paper describes some of the rising trend in digital reference services, including e-mail and web forms, text-based chat services, web-camera based services, ask-a-librarian services, digital robots, and collaborative services. It’s also discusses about basic concept, elements of Virtual reference service and give in detail modes, the advantages, disadvantages and limitations. Keywords: Virtual Reference Service (VRS), Digital Reference Service (DRS), Live reference, Real Reference service, Chat Reference, E-mail Reference, Collaborative Service, Ask-a-librarian, Digital robots, Quality of VRS, Providing modes. Introduction The present era is the era of information revolution. Many virtual resources are available in the library. The increase in information available on the Web has affected information providing methods. 1 VRS are important services as not only human mediate services in library but also a function of virtual library. It seems that VRS is the service which raise library's value, therefore VRS has strong points that is free from limitation of place and time in comparison with traditional reference service. 2 The terms "virtual reference," "digital reference," "e-reference," "Internet information services," "live reference" and "real-time reference" are used interchangeably to describe reference services that utilize computer technology in some way. Whether it is email reference, chat reference or an automated routing system, virtual reference is significantly influencing the delivery of high-quality library services (Virtual Reference Canada). Digital reference techniques have been around, in one form or another, for almost a decade now. VRS or DRS are simply defined as the provision of real-time personal assistance to users via web-based interactive software. To satisfy the information need, the librarian can "chat" as a component of the software to answer a fairly specific or simple question, or deliver digital materials, or suggest relevant web resources to the user, and provide online bibliographic instruction. Questions submitted via email and linked web pages require attention from reference staff, and the virtual reference transaction can be more complex and time- consuming than traditional in-library service. Academic libraries started first offering e-mail reference where users could submit their questions via an e-mail address. Recently the adoption of Web forms not only changed the quality of the e-mail reference engagement for the better, but also challenged librarians to develop effective means for managing