The Virtual Reference Handbook

Diane K. Kovacs has been a Web Teacher and Consultant for nearly 20 years dba Kovacs Consulting Internet & Web Training. She designs and teaches Web-based and in-person courses for organizations and individuals including UIUC GSLIS LEEP, ACR, MLA, NEO-RLS, NTRLS, SEFLIN, WNYRLC, and others. Diane has been designing and teaching Web-based and in-person MLA-approved CE Courses since 2001. Her most recent book is The Kovacs Guide to Electronic Library Collection Development: Essential Core Subject Collections, Selection Criteria, and Guidelines, 2nd Edition (2009, Neal-Schuman Publishers). The Virtual Reference Handbook: Interview and Information Delivery Techniques for the Chat and E-Mail Environments (2007, Neal-Schuman Publishers) was published concurrently in the United Kingdom by Facet Publishers.

Genealogical Research on Web was published in 2002. How to Find Medical Information on the Internet: A Print and Online Tutorial for the Health Care Professional and Consumer (Library Solutions Press) and Building Electronic Library Collections: The Essential Guide to Selection Criteria and Core Collections (Neal-Schuman) were both published in 2000. Diane's first book, The Internet Trainer's Guide, was published in 1995. The Internet Trainer's Total Solution Guide was published in 1997. She has also co-authored with her husband Michael Kovacs Cybrarians Guide to Successful Internet Programs and Services which was published by Neal-Schuman in 1997.

Diane is the 2000 recipient of the "Documents to the People" award from the Government Documents Roundtable of the American Library Association. She was also the recipient of the Apple Corporation Library's, Internet Citizen Award for 1992 and was the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science Alumni Association's first recipient of the Leadership Award in 1996. She received an M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois in 1989 and an M.Ed. in Instructional Technology from Kent State University in 1993. She also has a B.A. in Anthropology also from the University of Illinois, 1985.