References
- Lesley M. Moyo, “Virtual Reference Services and Instruction: An Assessment,” Reference Librarian 95/96 (2006): 215.
- Susan E. Beck and Nancy B. Turner, “On the Fly BI: Reaching and Teaching from the Reference Desk,” Reference Librarian 72 (2001): 83–89.
- James K. Elmborg, “Teaching at the Desk: Toward a Reference Pedagogy,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 2, no. 3 (2002): 458.
- Susan Avery, “When Opportunity Knocks: Opening the Door through Teachable Moments,” Reference Librarian 49, no. 2 (2008): 117.
- Beth S. Woodard, “One-on-one Instruction: From the Reference Desk to Online Chat, Reference & User Services Quarterly 44, no. 3 (2005): 203–209.
- Laura Taddeo and Jill M. Hackenberg, “The Nuts, Bolts, and Teaching Opportunities of Real-Time Reference,” College & Undergraduate Libraries 13, no. 3 (2006): 82; Patricia E. Johnston, “Digital Reference as an Instructional Tool: Just in Time and Just Enough,” Searcher 11, no. 3 (2003): 31–33; Moyo, “Virtual Reference Services and Instruction,” 213–30; Christina M. Desai and Stephanie J. Graves, “Instruction via Instant Messaging Reference: What’s Happening?” The Electronic Library 24, no. 2 (2006): 174–89; David Ward, “Measuring the Completeness of Reference Transactions in Online Chats: Results of an Unobtrusive Study,” Reference & User Services Quarterly 44, no. 1 (2004): 46–56.
- Desai and Graves,” Instruction via Instant Messaging Reference”; Moyo, “Virtual Reference Services and Instruction”; Johnston, “Digital Reference as an Instructional Tool”; Ward, “Measuring the Completeness of Reference Transactions in Online Chats”; Association of College and Research Libraries, “Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education,” www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/ informationliteracycompetency.cfm (accessed Feb. 20, 2010).
- Christina M. Desai and Stephanie J. Graves, “Cyberspace or Face-to-Face: The Teachable Moment and Changing Reference Mediums,” Reference & User Services Quarterly 47, no. 3 (2008): 242–50, 252–55.
- Amy VanScoy and Megan Oakleaf, “Effective Instruction in the Virtual Reference Environment,” in Teaching with Technology: An Academic Librarian’s Guide, ed. Joe Williams and Susan Goodwin (Oxford: Chandos, 2007): 65–86.
- Janet E. Davidson and Robert J. Sternberg, “Smart Problem Solving: How Metacognition Helps,” in Metacognition in Educational Theory and Practice, ed. Douglas J. Hacker, John Dunlosky, and Arthur C. Graesser (Mahway, N.J.: Lawrence Earlbaum, 1998): 47–68.
- Mary Lamon, “Constructivist Approach,” in Encyclopedia of Education, ed. James W. Guthrie (New York: Macmillan, 2003), 1463–66.
- Ibid.
- Elmborg, “Teaching at the Reference Desk,” 455–64.
- Megan Oakleaf and Amy VanScoy, “Using Educational Theory to Enhance Virtual Reference Instruction: A Study in Progress,” (presentation, Association of Library and Information Science Annual Conference, Seattle, Jan. 15, 2007).
- Vanscoy and Oakleaf, “Effective Instruction in the Virtual Reference Environment”
Appendix A. Example of Transcript Including Multiple Instructional Strategies
(20:29:51) User: Hi, is may I ask a question from someone on here?
(20:31:53) User: me excuse my first sentence, I now see it did not make sense … I was just wondering if I am doing this right to talk to someone for help on finding an article?
(20:33:22) Librarian: Yes you are.
(20:33:22) User logged in.
(20:33:47) User: okay, great … sorry for the way i first started out … i was alittle confused
(20:33:56) Librarian: That’s okay!
(20:34:07) User: I had a question about finding some journal articles
(20:34:42) Librarian: Okay. What is your topic?
(20:35:13) User: I am in a class at state “teaching math with technology” and have a project coming up dealing with choosing a big topic and then researching it using journal articles, so my topic is functions and graphs, but specifically dealing with algebra at the middle school level
(20:35:31) User: so i’m not exactly sure how one would go about finding articles for that!!!
(20:36:16) Librarian: That’s a pretty specific topic!
(20:36:36) Librarian: Have you searched the ERIC database yet?
(20:37:22) User: well … i tried, but i don’t think i actually did … i kept trying to get into this thing … like EBCOS (or something like that ?) maybe EBHOST or something similar but i could never get to ERIC
Share Secret Knowledge—Provide definitions for specialized language
(20:37:45) Librarian: Ebsco is that platform that Eric is on.
(20:37:52) User: yes
(20:37:54) User: that was it
(20:38:01) Librarian: So you were searching Eric.
(20:38:13) Librarian: Let me see what I can find.
(20:38:18) User: but i was on one thing and i thought i found an article i wanted and then it was saying i had to pay like 30 dollars, so i don’t think it was ERIC
(20:39:41) Librarian: We do not have access to all items listed in ERIC.
(20:40:19) Librarian: ERIC is a database that indexes articles and documents by keywords.
(20:40:33) Librarian: It doesn’t show exactly what we have in our collection.
(20:41:15) Librarian: Sometimes there are links that say “Full text from ERIC” in which the documents are available for free.
Request for Instruction
(20:41:25) User: this is going to sound kind of like a dumb question, but sometimes i look for just specifically journals, and then it comes up with all “articles” is that the same thing?
(20:41:59) Librarian: I am not sure what you mean.
(20:42:11) Librarian: Where are you searching for journals?
(20:42:25) User: I thought I was … but I wasn’t sure
(20:42:35) User: I will be able to figure it out though.
(20:42:48) User: that was just kind of a side note question
(20:42:59) Librarian: Is there any way that you can come to the library in the next day or two??
(20:43:11) User: yes, I was planning on trying to come tomorrow
(20:43:21) User: depending on how time goes
(20:43:55) Librarian: I really think that if you come to the reference desk and speak with one of the librarians in person—you will understand the total research process better.
(20:43:59) Librarian: Because
Be the Welcome Wagon—Explain that other information seekers wrestle with similar issues
(20:44:45) Librarian: it seems to me that you are having difficulty (like many students do) in understanding how to use the library catalog v using databases to locate articles.
(20:45:35) Librarian: I will be glad to help you try to find some articles this evening, but I think it would really help to come to the library this week as well.
(20:47:15) User: well … i still have alot time to do this project, so i will just start by coming in tomorrow or sometime soon
(20:47:56) Librarian: Okay—but let me at least give you an initial search to do in ERIC— b/c I did locate some articles that may be of use to you.
(20:48:33) User: ok, great!
(20:48:34) User: thanks
Show, Don’t Tell—Direct patrons to open a browser window, librarian completes steps during chat
(20:49:25) Librarian: Go to ERIC. You will see three search boxes. In the top box enter middle school in the second box enter algebra in the third box type graphs
(20:51:40) User: okay … i am getting to ERIC now
(20:52:50) Librarian: Have you been able to enter the search terms yet??
(20:52:53) User: yes
Let Them Drive—Allow patrons to make decisions and take actions
(20:53:11) Librarian: Do any of the articles look like they would be of use to you?
(20:53:36) Librarian: I think I got a list of about 23 articles.
(20:54:04) User: yes, some of them do, but i don’t know if this makes sense what i’m asking, (yes, i have 23 also!) but are all of these journal articles?
(20:54:44) Librarian: One thing that I did notice— the second article is in a journal called “Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School.” I just checked our library catalog to see if we have that in our collection—we do.
(20:55:32) Librarian: So that may be a journal title that you could write down the title of and bring it to the library to have them show you an example of how to search the catalog for a particular journal.
(20:55:33) User: so, what does that mean … like you have the actual journal on hand at the library?
(20:56:44) User: also … is there any way for me to save this search, so tomorrow when i am working on this some more i can pull this exact list of articles i am viewing up on my computer screen, without typing in all the searches again?
(20:58:22) Librarian: Yes—we do have the actual journal in the library.
(20:58:47) User: ok, great … i will come and look through it hopefully close!
(20:58:56) User: (soon*)
(20:59:30) Librarian: But I would have them show you at the desk how to specifically search for articles in that particular journal using the database (instead of manual flipping through all of the journal issues).
(20:59:50) Librarian: Let me see—I think there is a way to email that search to yourself …
(21:00:37) User: it says “sign in to My EBSCO-host”
(21:00:40) Librarian: Hm.
(21:00:45) User: can you just create an account?
(21:00:49) Librarian: Yeah, it got the same as well.
(21:00:55) Librarian: I don’t think that you can.
(21:01:21) Librarian: What i would do is copy and paste this IM transcript into a word document and save it.
(21:01:29) User: well … i should be able to create the same list tomorrow or within the next few weeks, by typing in the different searches like we did, right?
(21:01:38) Librarian: Exactly.
(21:01:44) User: so … i will be fine
(21:01:57) User: i think my main thing was what to type where in the search boxes
(21:02:08) User: getting that again shouldn’t be a problem
Chunk It Up—Make patrons aware of or offer advice about coming challenges and opportunities
(21:02:26) Librarian: I have no doubt that you will be. Do come by the library, though—so that we can show you how to retrieve some of the items you may not be able to instantly get to.
(21:02:44) User: and then if i wanted to focus more on functions, could i take out the last box where we put graphs and just put functions
(21:02:48) User: ?
(21:03:02) User: because i am kind of wanting to look at them together
(21:03:19) User: but i may find that these articles have some of them together already through us just putting graphs
(21:03:32) Librarian: Yes.
(21:03:34) User: since they do go together at this math level
(21:03:36) User: okay great!
(21:03:50) User: and these are all journal articles right?
Make Introductions—Redirect patrons to other reference venues, if needs can be better met that way
(21:05:00) Librarian: That’s the tough part with ERIC. Some of them are, some of them aren’t. There are professional educational documents in ERIC that are not necessarily scholarly.
(21:05:35) Librarian: Again, since you have some time before the assignment is due—come by the library and ask them to explain it to you.
(21:06:03) User: ok … i def. will, but just having this list and the actual articles tonight will help me to get somewhere! thanks soo much
(21:06:20) Librarian: You’re quite welcome.
(21:06:27) Librarian: Have a good night.
[...] did something a little different at the suggestion of our guest Stephen Francoeur and discussed an article about instructional strategies for IM reference services by Megan Oakleaf and Amy Van Scoy (no relation to our Anna Van Scoyoc). Standard [...]