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Highlights the need for professionals who refer customers among themselves to acquire up‐to‐date information on specialists available in the area and their performance. Develops a model to assist with the understanding of this process. Discusses several managerial implications related to marketing referrals. Concludes that further investigations of the model are needed in other service markets.

There is a worldwide increase in the use of referral services, and a number of projects or services are already under way. The aim of referral projects is to develop aids for users of information in selecting the most appropriate information resources for their needs. Some of the benefits that can result from referral services are: easier access to systems and better use of information resources, cost savings due to short search time, easily readable and uniform information service description, unbiased guidance etc.

The report of the Metals Information Review Committee contains two recommendations relating to referral. The first, classed as a Principal Recommendation, was to the effect that a pilot referral centre for metals information should be established at the Metals Society and funded by the Department of Industry. The second, listed among the Other Recommendations, was that the British Library Research & Development Department should investigate the effectiveness of current informal referral practices, including the role of referral in technology transfer. It noted that the project should include consideration of whether there should be a national referral system for science and technology, or whether smaller, subject or industry‐oriented services are more appropriate. According to the report, this recommendation was based on the finding that ‘the referral function is a basic component in effective access to and availability of information, independent of improving bibliographic control and information dissemination. It provides a key to maximising the usefulness of existing resources of knowledge and information’.

Internet referral services are a common form of online marketing operating activities. To incentivize infomediaries and improve referral performance, brand retailers typically apply the cost-per-click (CPC) or the cost-per-sale (CPS) payments. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of referral services on the optimal contract with CPC or CPS payments.

This paper studies a mechanism design problem for internet referral services. To maximize the expected utility of the brand retailer, an uncertain contract model is established in which the brand retailer's assessment of the infomediary's referral service capability is characterized as an uncertain variable. Then equivalent models under CPC and CPS payments are presented to obtain the optimal solutions.

The results demonstrate that under CPC payments, as the referral service capability increases, the optimal sales volume is increasing, and the optimal transfer payment first shows a declining and then a rising trend. The brand retailer is less likely to raise the optimal transfer payment for the infomediary given a higher CPC revenue-sharing fee percentage, which is counterintuitive. Under CPS payments, the optimal sales volume and transfer payment are also increasing in the referral service capability. In addition, an increase in the click-through rate leads to the infomediary's incremental marginal utility.

The value of this research is its application of incentive contracts to the internet referral services considering CPC or CPS payments. The results of this research can serve as a guide for retailers and infomediaries in their decision-making around online retailing.

Cooperative reference is defined as “a process through which information assistance is provided, at least in part, by referring the user or the user's questions to library/information personnel at another institution, according to a system of formally established protocols.”

As information technology has become increasingly accessible and familiar, and as the benefits have become increasingly well understood, the public's expectations and demands for information have grown. Nowhere is this more true than in the human services. A wide variety of professionals have found a need for systematic access to information about human service organizations in their communities and in response have developed resource files of varying degrees of sophistication. Whether the file is set up on a rolodex, in a printed directory, or in a complicated computerized system, those using it immediately recognize that they have to have a way of indexing and accessing the information that allows them to get to the right organization in a minimum of time.

As the cost of powerful microcomputer hardware continues to decrease each year, the demand for sophisticated software designed to take advantage of these low cost machines increases. This inverse relationship is especially true in the human services field where budgets are almost always tight and the need for information continues to increase as the client population grows.

Healthcare organisations face significant productivity pressures and are undergoing major service transformation. The purpose of this paper is to disseminate findings from a Lean healthcare project using a National Health Service Single Point of Access environment as the case study. It demonstrates the relevance and extent that Lean can be applied to this type of healthcare service setting.

Action research was applied and Lean tools used to establish current state processes, identify wastes and develop service improvement opportunities based upon defined customer values.

The quality of referral information was found to be the root cause of a number of process wastes and causes of failure for the service. Recognising the relationship and the nature of interaction with the service’s customer/supplier lead to more effective and sustainable service improvement opportunities and the co-creation of value. It was also recognised that not all the Lean principles could be applied to this type of healthcare setting.

The study is useful to organisations using Lean to undertake service improvement activities. The paper outlines how extending the value stream beyond the organisation to include suppliers can lead to improved co-production and generation of service value.

The study contributes to service productivity research by demonstrating the relevance and limitations of Lean application in a new healthcare service setting. The case study demonstrates the practical challenges of implementing Lean in reciprocal service design models and adds validity to existing contextual models.

Although the Public Health Service has identified AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) as the number one priority among public health concerns in the United States, and the Surgeon General has issued an official report calling for AIDS education initiatives to be instituted in a variety of settings throughout this country, many libraries have been slow to develop proactive means of supplying educational material on AIDS. As part of an overall AIDS education initiative, libraries stand to play a significant role through the production and/or distribution of information on AIDS, through the development of collections capable of satisfying the informational and educational needs of patrons and through the provision of reference and referral services that provide effective information delivery as it pertains to inquiries regarding the subject of AIDS.

Developing digital reference services within a large library system requires managing fundamental organizational issues before applying technological strategies. Using the development of library services for distance learners as a catalyst, the University of Minnesota‐Twin Cities Libraries have implemented an organizational model for providing digital reference services to all students, faculty and staff who access the library remotely. The resulting service, InfoPoint, has the dual role of providing reference service and making referrals to over 30 information service units in the library system. Details the planning and implementation process by which the libraries developed this centrally coordinated digital reference service within a historically decentralized environment. Initial conclusions based on the service’s first two years of operation are presented. In conclusion discusses organizational change issues and the value of digital reference services in the digital library.