SYRACUSE, New York, January 12, 2001-The Information Institutes of Florida State and Syracuse Universities announce their intent to conduct a study to assess quality in digital reference service, starting March 1, 2001, pending receipt of adequate funding from interested libraries. OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Dublin, Ohio is the lead sponsoring organization for the study.

The purpose of the study is to develop methods to assess the quality of digital reference services, test and refine measures and quality standards to describe digital reference services, and to produce a guidebook that describes how to collect and report data for these measures and standards. Co-principal investigators for the study are R. David Lankes, Director, Information Institute, Syracuse University (rdlankes@ericir.syr.edu) and Charles R. McClure, Director, Information Institute, Florida State University (cmcclure@lis.fsu.edu).

This announcement also solicits funding support from libraries, state libraries, regional consortia, and other related organizations and associations to support the study. The complete proposal and additional information about the study and how organizations can help sponsor the study is available at: quartz.syr.edu/quality/.