Unfortunately, only the abstract is free for this:
New Concepts in Digital Reference
Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services
2009, R. David Lankes‌
School of Information Studies, Syracuse University

Abstract
Let us start with a simple scenario: a man asks a woman "how high is Mount Everest?" The woman replies "29,029 feet." Nothing could be simpler. Now let us suppose that rather than standing in a room, or sitting on a bus, the man is at his desk and the woman is 300 miles away with the conversation taking place using e-mail. Still simple? Certainly--it happens every day. So why all the bother about digital (virtual, electronic, chat, etc.) reference?
If the man is a pilot flying over Mount Everest, the answer matters. If you are a lawyer going to court, the identity of the woman is very important. Also, if you ever want to find the answer again, how that transaction took place matters a lot.

Digital reference is a deceptively simple concept on its face: "the incorporation of human expertise into the information system." This lecture seeks to explore the question of how human expertise is incorporated into a variety of information systems, from libraries, to digital libraries, to information retrieval engines, to knowledge bases. What we learn through this endeavor, begun primarily in the library context, is that the models, methods, standards, and experiments in digital reference have wide applicability. We also catch a glimpse of an unfolding future in which ubiquitous computing makes the identification, interaction, and capture of expertise increasingly important. It is a future that is much more complex than we had anticipated. It is a future in which documents and artifacts are less important than the contexts of their creation and use.

http://www.morganclaypool.com/doi/abs/10.2200/S00166ED1V01Y200812ICR001

"Block me, and I will go around you. Build a wall, and I will build a door. Lock the door and I will break a window. And if I don’t have have a leader to inspire me, I will lead. If I don’t have a team that will support me, I will recruit a team from beyond the organizational boundaries - every policy has a loophole, every system has a hidden reward.”

Found on Shifted Librarian Feb 27, 2009, post which quoted Dave Lankes' (Participatory Librarianship Starter Kit) Feb 20, 2009 post. http://ptbed.org/blog/

Almost done with the homework

Six months later, emmm finally gets almost done with her homework.
That "almost" part is a bummer.