Key issues surrounding virtual chat reference model : A case study (original) (raw)
Related papers
2015
In libraries around the world there are people asking librarians for research assistance. As technology has advanced and communication strategies have moved outside the physical library buildings, librarians now respond to reference queries online. This study analyzed two forms of virtual reference; instant messaging (IM) and log-in chat. The purpose of this study was to find out if there is any inherent difference between the way the patrons or the librarians used these two virtual services. An exploratory research design focused on numerous aspects of virtual reference communication. During the spring terms of academic years 2011 and 2012 at a community college, 1,341 transcripts of IM and log-in chat sessions were recorded. Using a systematic sampling process, 320 transcripts were sampled and their content analyzed. Findings indicate that a length of the transaction significantly affected the outcome of all transactions. Log-in chats were generally longer than IM chats and it was...
User Preferences in Reference Services: Virtual Reference and Academic Libraries
This study examines the use of chat in an academic library’s user population and where virtual reference services might fit within the spectrum of public services offered by academic libraries. Using questionnaires, this research demonstrates that many within the academic community are open to the idea of chat-based reference or using chat for some loosely defined “research purposes,” but this openness does not necessarily result in high levels of use. The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether the lack of virtual reference use could, in part, be explained by students’ preference for competing methods and technologies for obtaining reference assistance. This study demonstrates a pattern that suggests chat-based reference does not compete well with other methods of providing reference service.
Motivations and uses: Evaluating virtual reference service from the users' perspective
Library & Information Science Research, 2006
The questions of whether chat reference service is beneficial enough to users to justify the costs of offering it, and how valuable it is to users in fulfilling their information needs, have been primary concerns for librarians providing the service, for library administrators managing the service, and for funding agencies paying for it. The present study combines a traditional evaluation of the user's satisfaction with the reference encounter, with details of the user's information use and the user's motivation for using the chat reference service. This evaluation study assesses the effectiveness of chat reference service in meeting users' information needs.
Do You Want to Chat? Reevaluating Organization of Virtual Reference Service at an Academic Library
Reference & User Services Quarterly, 2016
Since their inception, virtual reference services have evolved considerably and are now a significant component of library services in many types of library environments. The current paper reports on a study undertaken at a research-intensive academic library that analyzed and evaluated a decade-old virtual reference service. The main goal of the study was to obtain a broad and comprehensive picture of the current service, grounded in the actual day-to-day provision, usage, and organization of the service. The group of librarians involved in the study developed a feasible, efficient, and adaptable methodology for assessing and evaluating a virtual reference service. The developed methodology that combines qualitative and quantitative methods can be used and applied for a similar evaluation of the service in any type of library environment.
Shaping the future realities of virtual reference
Proceedings of The Asist Annual Meeting, 2006
This panel addresses some of the gaps in VRS research. Results from two major research projects, one a state-wide, the other an internationa l evaluation of VRS are discussed in the context of addressing the needs defined by Po merantz (2005).
2006
Rowena Li, a school media specialist at Bayside High School in New York, is a Ph.D. student in information science at the University of North Texas. She received her Master Degree of Library and Information Science from Queens College, CUNY, in 1997. She has worked in her current position for more than four years. Prior to that, she worked as a senior reference librarian at Queens Borough Public Library in New York, a prospect researcher at Queens College Foundation, and a lecturer at Nankai University in China. Her research interests focus upon cross-lingual information retrieval and cultural dimensions of documentations and website designs.This study investigates patrons' information seeking behavior and information needs demonstrated in the virtual reference environment, by examining the usage patterns and service effectiveness of virtual reference services in a large academic library. Both live chat and e-mail reference questions are analyzed quantitatively by mapping peak u...
User Perceptions and Virtual Reference Services
As academic librarians embrace the Internet as an appropriate medium for information exchange, communication, and instruction, college and university students are also becoming more familiar and comfortable with emerging technologies, including both synchronous and asynchronous tools. Acceptance of Web based products that provide speed, convenience, and anonymity cannot, however, be assumed, especially in a non-recreational context. Based on survey and interview responses, this paper discusses actual usage patterns and behaviors, what users in an academic setting expected to receive from an Ask a Librarian service, and the implications these findings might have on future virtual reference projects.