Looking to Connect: Technical Challenges that Impede the Growth of Virtual Reference
References and Notes
- Pew Internet Study, “Teenage Life Online: The Rise of the Instant-Message Generation and the Internet’s Impact on Friendships and Family Relationships,” www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/36/report_display.asp (accessed May 29, 2007).
- Bernie Sloan, “Digital Reference Services Bibliography,” http://tinyurl.com/ytxtzl (accessed May 22, 2007). Anyone interested in learning about the development of virtual reference and all the various technologies that have been used would be well-served by consulting the most comprehensive bibliography on the development of digital reference services, compiled by Bernie Sloan. When last updated in September 2004, this listing contained more than seven hundred entries. Sloan’s bibliography is must-stop resource for any research related to the history of virtual reference; Miriam Bonham, “Library Services through Electronic Mail,” C&RL News 48, no. 9 (Oct. 1987): 537-38; Bernie Sloan, “Early Examples of Digital Reference Services?” PACS-L , Mar. 10, 2003 (accessed May 29, 2007).
- Cynthia Schoenbrun, “EasyNet: What Has Become of the Small Giant?” Online 17, no.1 (Jan. 1993): 52-57.
- Reference and User Services Association, “Guidelines for Implementing and Maintaining Virtual Reference Services,” 2004, www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaprotools/referenceguide/virtrefguidelines.htm (accessed August 10, 2007).
- Steve Coffman and Linda Arret, “To Chat or Not to Chat: Taking Another Look at Virtual Reference, Part I,” Searcher 12, no. 7 (July/Aug. 2004): 38-46.
- Joseph Janes, “The Challenge of Staying Current Yet Keeping What Works” American Libraries 38, no. 5 (May 2007): 36; www.ala.org/ala/alaonline/inetlibrarian/internetlibrarian.cfm (accessed May 20, 2007).
- “FireFox Gains Users on Explorer,” FinancialWire, Aug 2, 2006, 1.
- “Description of Microsoft Office XP Service Pack3,” http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832671 (accessed Apr. 20, 2007).
- Pew Internet and American Life Project, “Generations Online,” Dec. 2005, www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Generations_Memo.pdf (accessed May 20, 2007).
- Pascal Lupien, “Virtual Reference in the Age of Pop-Up Blockers, Firewalls, and Service Pack 2,” Online 30, no. 4 (July/Aug. 2006): 14-19.
- Ibid.
- Anne Lipow, “Serving the Remote User: Reference Service in the Digital Environment,” Ninth Australasian Conference, Jan. 20, 1999, www.csu.edu.au/special/online99/proceedings99/200.htm (accessed Aug. 16, 2007).
- Esther G. Bierbaum, “A Paradigm for the ’90s: In Research and Practice, Library and Information Science Needs a Unifying Principle; ‘Least Effort’ Is One Scholar’s Suggestion.” American Libraries 21, no. 1 (Jan. 1990): 18-19.
- George Kingsley Zipf, Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort: An Introduction to Human Ecology (Cambridge, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1949), 573.
- Thomas Mann, Library Research Models (New York: Oxford Univ. Pr., 1993), 91.
- Ibid.
- David Ward and Kathleen Kern, “Combining IM and Vendor-based Chat: A Report from the Frontlines of an Integrated Service.” portal: Libraries and the Academy 6, no. 4 (2006): 417-29; Ronalee Ciocco and Alice Huff, “IM Working with Trillian” (presented at the Virtual Reference Desk Conference, San Francisco, Nov. 14-15, 2005).
- Jean Ferguson and Pam Sessoms, “r u there?: Adding Instant Messaging to an Established Virtual Reference Service” (presented at the Virtual Reference Desk Conference, San Francisco, Nov. 14-15, 2005).
- Ward and Kern, “Combining IM and Vendor-based Chat,” 428.
- Baby Boomer Librarian, “Chat Reference at Morrisville State College Library,” http://tinyurl.com/8mlbm (accessed May 17, 2007).
- Sarah Houghton, “U R the Best: Community Building through Chat,” Sept. 1, 2005, http://tinyurl.com/2dak2d (accessed May 17, 2007).
- Ibid.
- L-NET Blog, “Collaborative Enterprise Instant Messaging at ALA Midwinter–Part 5, Collaborative Enterprise IM Pilot Project Proposal,” http://tinyurl.com/2etvg6 (accessed May 26, 2007).
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Posted in: 47, no. 2, Accidental Technologist.
Tagged: Accidental Technologist
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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