An Evaluation of the Electronic Reference Services of the Websites of University Libraries in the Central Region of Iran

This research studies and compares the electronic reference services in the websites of central university libraries of the central region of Iran. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research method was descriptive. The standard checklist for evaluating electronic reference services was used for data collection. The research population included the websites of the central libraries of state universities in the central region of Iran. The websites function best in navigation services and linking to electronic resources; 79. 16 percent provide navigation services and 63. 33 percent provide linking to electronic resources. None of the websites provide a synchronous transaction service. The websites of the central libraries of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences، University of Isfahan، and Isfahan University of Technology are ranked first to third respectively. The digital reference services that the libraries studied provided were better than average، but they are still a considerable distance away from matching the websites of libraries in developed countries.