Competencies among virtual reference library and information science professionals: An insight

Reference services play a very important role in satisfying the information needs of the users. Essence of reference services is to provide personal assistance to the users when they face any kind of problem while exploiting the services provided by the library and information centers. With the advancement of information and communication technology libraries have introduced different technologies for performing different types of operations. Reference services have also got a technology touch in the digital information environment in order to fulfill the changing information needs of their patrons through the provision of virtual reference services. Providing effective and efficient virtual reference services depends upon the competencies and capabilities of the professionals who are engaged in providing these services to the library patrons. Present paper highlights the concept of virtual reference services in detail along with the competencies essential for providing these virtual reference services to the users.