Security was very high on the priority list when developing the latest version of IE and MS Office.8 Chat software developers will have to keep up. An increasing emphasis on security means increased potential for co-browsing glitches, as VR software must be constantly modified to accommodate new security measures.
Browsers and operating environments are just the beginning, however. Pop-up blockers and firewalls can wreak havoc and prevent co-browsing. Users are advised to turn off pop-up blockers and disable firewalls. Add to the mix slow connection speeds, the inability to search many online research databases unless you can authenticate, and the need to read a page of instructions explaining how to use VR and what to expect, and you have some significant impediments.
And the list doesn’t stop there. Users also need to enable cookies and be aware that some Web resources cause disconnects. There are admonitions not to use the refresh and forward buttons on your browser. Do not try to add to favorites. If you must open a second browser for any reason while connected, use the Start menu or Taskbar shortcut, not Control-N or File, New, and so on.
A recent Pew study found that teens and Generation Y (eighteen- to twenty-eight-year-olds) are enthusiastic users of online applications that enable communicative, creative, and social uses. One aspect of the information-age mindset is that students have little tolerance for delays. Immediacy is expected, services need to be available 24/7, and responses need to be quick.9 This finding suggests that libraries would do well to find ways to eliminate delays when helping students. Prompt responses make a significant difference in the decision-making process of whether to use the service.
Vendor Response
Although some users may be willing to put up with a modest amount of technical difficulty in using a new product, particularly if it’s fun, interesting, or useful, most expect the program to work as advertised. The virtual reference vendors have been actively addressing the problems enumerated above, but the results are mixed. In a project undertaken last year at the University of Guelph, librarians conducted a series of interviews to determine the experience of other libraries using VR software. This study confirmed that the problems described above were generally experienced to some degree by most of the libraries surveyed.10
While I agree that improvements can and should be made to the technical aspects of providing a virtual reference service (and I’m really looking forward to those improvements and innovations), it continues to concern me that much of our blame for a perceived low use of these services focuses primarily on the software. How can we definitively state that because an “…abundant evidence that millions of teenagers and young adults are using commercial chat and instant messaging (IM) services regularly, but that isn’t translating to the library realm”? I don’t understand that logic. It’s like saying billions of humans use phones, but it just isn’t translating to the library realm because our phones aren’t ringing off the hooks. What is our benchmark for sufficient usage? And how are you making the service know to your users?
Here at AskColorado we struggle to keep up with demand. We do very little marketing. Use is generated from link placement at participating library websites, library catalogs and databases, and word of mouth. Our primary users (more that 60%) are the same demographic cited as being avid IM users in the article; teenagers.
My main concern is that libraries first need to set benchmarks for sufficient use of any reference service (in-person, phone, e-mail, IM, VR) then assess usage. If you’re not happy with usage you need to look at how you are making your service available. Can users find the VR service on your website? No? Then you need to make it more visible (‘Goal of Convienence’.) Try this experiment: Add Live Help links throughout your library’s website and in your library catalog. Assess usage of the service. If your numbers still do not meet your goals then perhaps you need to assess whether it is the technology preventing usage of your service.
I know it’s not as simple as I’ve explained above. My main point is to caution librarians not to discount a service based on technology alone, without looking at other factors that may impact usage of that service.
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