Virtual Reference Service: An Overview

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Virtual Reference Service An Overview

• Diana Chan
• The Hong Kong University of Science and
  Technology Library

2005 Library Conference Balancing the External
and Traditional Libraries at Tamkang University,
Taiwan Online Information and Education
Conference, Thailand Library and Online Resources
Technologies 2005 Xiamen Conference At Xiamen
University, PRC
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Contents

• Trends in Reference Service
• Impact of the Internet
• What is VRS?
• Developments in VRS
• Usage Studies on Real Time VRS

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1. Trends in Reference Service

• Anne Lipow- Early signposts pointing the wrong
  way
• Decreased circulation statistics
• Fewer walk-in users
• Staff cant keep up
• Reference desk eliminated
• Outsourcing on the rise
• Reduced Reference service hours
• Search engines automated reference librarian
• Need for large building and staff not clear
• Anne Grodzins Lipow, Thinking out loud Who will
  give reference service in the digital
  environment? RQ 37(2) (Winter 1999), pp. 125-9.

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2. Impact of the Internet

• In 2002
• 73 of college students said they use the
  Internet more than the library
• Only 9 said they use the library more than the
  Internet for information searching.
• The Pew Internet American Life Project.
  (September 15, 2002). http//www.usdla.org/html/jo
  urnal/OCT02_Issue/article03.html (accessed
  September 8, 2005)

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INTERNET USAGE STATISTICS The Big Picture
Internet Usage Statistics, the big
picture. http//internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
accessed Aug 25, 2005
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2. Impact of Internet

• In the digital age, the biggest change is
  increased user expectations. Increasingly, user
  expect to be able to find everything online,
  full-text. (1998)
• Now both reference staff and patrons believe
  that an answer to almost every question can be
  found if the right combination of resources and
  search strategies is chosen from the multitude of
  Web resources and online services accessible.
  (2002)
• Carol Tenopir and Lisa Ennis

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Impact of Internet

• In 2001, Carol Tenopir surveyed 70 major
  American research librarians about how their
  reference services changed because of electronic
  resources
• 70 put email above telephone and fax as a
  communication method for reference inquiries
• 21 (30) offered some form of real time VR
• 70 had real time VR in planning.
• Reference librarians spend more time per
  transaction A single tally cannot capture the
  varying dimensions and growing complexities of
  reference services. Kyrillidou (2000)

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3. What is Virtual Reference Service (VRS)?

• Internet-based Reference Service
• Asking a question online
• Live online reference service
• Virtual, digital, live, interactive, real time,
  web-based, synchronous
• Using computer and communications technology to
  provide reference service to patrons anytime and
  anywhere
• - OCLCs Question Point (QP)

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U.S. Dept of Educations Virtual Reference Desk
Guidelines

• Accessibility
• Fast turn-around
• Clear policies
• Interactive
• Instructive
• Authority
• Privacy
• Review and evaluation
• Publicize service
• IFLA Digital Reference Guidelines
• "Guidelines for Implementing and Maintaining
  Virtual Reference Services. American Library
  Association. 2005.

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Pros and Cons of VRS

• Pros
• Immediate assistance for remote users
• Real time VRS is better than email for conducting
  reference interview
• Remains anonymous
• Awareness of the library among the user community

• Cons
• Additional staff
• Less flexible schedule
• Lack subject expertise
• No visual or auditory cues
• Less interactive
• Typing is slow
• Some logoff before you finish answering
• Slow communications

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Whos Doing VRS?

• 1999
• 150 academic libraries, 45 offered VRS
• (Janes, Carter and Memmott 1999)
• 122 ARL Libraries, 96 provided VRS
• L. Goetsch (1999)
• 2000
• 140 academic libraries, 45 offered VRS.
• Libraries with greater financial resources,
  larger staff, adopted more computer-based
  services, higher demand for current services
• MD White (2000)
• 2001
• 121 ARL Libraries, 29 provided real time
  reference
• Tenopir and Ennis (2001)

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4. Developments in VRS

• Asynchronous digital reference
• Patron submits a question and the librarian
  responds at a later time
• Example Email, Web Form.
• Synchronous digital reference
• Patron and librarian communicate in real time.
• Example Chat, Voice over IP, Video Conferencing,
  SMS, IM.

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More VRS Developments

• Email Web Form
• Reference Kiosks
• Instant Messaging Short Message Service
• Video Conferencing
• Voice over IP
• Online Chat
• Collaborative Reference Services
• Commercial Services

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Reference Options of 121 ARL Libraries, 2001
Carol Tenopir and Lisa Ennis. A decade of
digital reference 1991-2001 Reference User
Services Quarterly. Spring 2002, 41(3), pp.
264-273
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a. Email and Web Form

• Describe the services offered
• Types of questions it handles, or does not
  handle
• Frequency the mailbox is checked
• Response time
• Confidentiality
• Priorities
• How statistics are kept and how service is
  evaluated

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Usage Surveys on Email Reference

• A study of 485 Qs at State University of New York
  at Buffalo Libraries (1993-94)
• 70 reference Qs, 30 circulation-related Qs
• 90 of Qs were submitted during opening hours.
• A study at the University of Central Arkansas
• 67 of Qs were by faculty, 25 by non-affiliates,
  8 by staff and none by students
• A study of 450 Qs at the California State
  University Chico Library (1997-99)
• 21 of Qs were answered using standard reference
  resources. 15 were papers or projects, 12
  factual, 11 OPAC, 9 policies, 7 websites

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b. Reference Kiosks
National Library Board, Singapore

• Place Cybrarian Kiosks in the library so that
  users can ask librarians wherever they are in the
  library

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c. Instant Messaging (IM)

• Brief emails exchanged very fast in real time
• Popular IM services
• MSN Messenger
• AOL Instant Messenger
• Yahoo! Messenger
• Google Talk,
• .NET Messenger Service
• ICQ
• IM Clients supporting many protocols
• Gaim
• Trillian
• Jabber

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DukeRef
Temple University
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c. Instant Messaging (IM)

• 53 million adults send instant messages on a
  daily basis 1
• Provides Just-in-time reference
• Less formal, low tech end
• How to Do It
• Create a profile
• Accept imperfection
• Use abbreviations
• Use online sources, load IM software on public
  PCs
• Best practices for IM
• Use a multi-network IM program, e.g. Trillian for
  Windows, Gaim
• Send descriptive links instead of urls,
• Employ away messages
• 1. Sept 2004 Study How Americans Use IM by the
  Pew Internet American Life Project

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IM Usage Survey

• SUNY Buffalo
• Offered IM reference assistance Monday-Friday
• Used AOL's free IM software -AIM and Express
• Staffed 75 hrs a week by 20 librarians 4
  library school students
• Questionnaire results
• 70 of users 18-25 of age,
• 69 of users on campus (25 from Cybrary)
• 79 satisfied with service
• Type of questions
• 26 questions are in information literacy
  category
• 23 about using the catalog
• 12 are about specific library information (e.g.
  hours)
• 6 of questions are technical troubleshooting,
• 5 web navigation
• 4 electronic course reserves
• 4 finding SUNY Buffalo information.
• Many librarians did not receive a single question
  in their 1 hour shift.

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c. Short Message Service (SMS)

• A service available on most digital mobile phones
  
• Permits people to send short messages between
• Mobile phones
• Other handheld devices
• Landline telephones

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Curtin Universitys SMS
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Curtin Universitys SMS

• Users
• Curtin students and staff with a text-enabled
  mobile phone
• Scope
• 1 SMS equals 160 characters per hour
• Cost
• 25 cents (Aus) per message to Curtin Library
  service (standard rate for SMS sent to anyone)
• Report on findings
• 200 queries in 6 months
• 87 received during library opening hours
• 71 were explanatory type of reference questions
  
• Patron feedback
• Easy to use (4.2 out of 5)
• 100 of clients did not have any problems
• 92 claimed they would use it again.

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d. Video Conferencing

• UC Irvine Science Library (1997)
• Provided the service to medical students who are
  working in a computer lab, one hour a day, mostly
  on Medline searching
• Apple VideoPhone Kit (software, camera,
  microphone, color conferencing capability,
  Internet, Timbuktu Program)
• Audio, video, chat window, whiteboard
• Students comments
• Excited about this high-tech
• Wanted document delivery of full-text articles

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Video Conferencing Software

• A combination of chat software, audio and video
  applications
• 2 kinds of software
• Software for writing classes
• Software for businesses to hold conferences
• Examples
• Daedalus
• GroupWise
• Web Publisher
• Norton Connect Net
• Microsoft NetShow
• Microsoft NetMeeting
• Reilly WebBoard

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Microsoft NetMeeting
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e. Voice over IP

• Since 2003 IM services have voice components
• MSN Messenger, AOL IM, Yahoo Messenger
• Provides free or low-cost talk on internet
• Negative - call other Internet users using the
  same software program
• Positive - make calls to land and cellular-based
  phones for a modest fee
• New programs
• Skype, Google Talk

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Skype

• Allows people to talk and IM for free using
  PC-to-PC connections
• Connections require someone else to have Skype
  software.
• Users are identified through names instead of
  numbers
• Skypers use headsets and microphones attached to
  the computers
• Soon to offer video and other communication
  services

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Google Talk
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f. Online Chat

• Web contact center software and web collaboration
  software
• Page pushing
• Co-browsing
• Escorting to various sites
• Question queuing and routing
• Transcripts of each session
• An archive of QAs

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Chat Service Agents and Vendors

• Multiple online agents
• Cisco
• Lucent
• eGain
• Netagent
• LivePerson
• HumanClick
• WebAgent
• Webline

• Software vendors
• 24/7 Reference
• DOCUTEK Information Systems Inc.
• Questionpoint
• LivePerson
• LSSI Library Systems Services

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Prairie Area Library System
Librarian Live
Thomas Ford Memorial Library
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Chat Debate - Pro

• Reach out to patrons who
• Cant get to the Reference desk
• Never have been reached before
• Good for
• Those who need instant replies
• Clarifying a question faster
• Assisting users to learn effective ways to search
  through co-browsing and escorting
• Of the 107 million people in USA using the
  Internet, 40-50 million use chat
• - (NY Times 1998)

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Chat Debate Pro

• Usage Study of New Jerseys 24/7 Live Virtual
  Reference Service 1
• 53.9 of the customers have used the service more
  than once
• 89.9 would use the service again.
• Nov. 2002 - Oct 2003 49,503 chat sessions
• 1. These data result of 7,000 pop-up surveys.

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Chat Debate - Pro

• More Usage Studies
• Carnegie Mellon University (2001)
• 74 reported receiving full information
• 88 would use Reference Chat again
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2001)
• 90 reported the completeness of answers as very
  good or excellent
• 85 would use it again
• Southern Illinois University Carbondale (2001-02)
• 82 said the answers were very helpful
• 82 rated the service as a very good method of
  reference help

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Chat Debate - Con

• Some transactions never finished
• System or browser crashes
• Co-browsing proprietary db is difficult
• Patrons disappear
• Time-consuming
• Librarians must multi-task
• Concerns about quality
• Shady reputation
• Low acceptance on the web by commercial business
• Only 12 offered a chat on websites (Benchmark
  Portal 2003)

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Chat Debate - Con

• Providers stopped using chat
• Vandebilt U
• MIT
• Los Alamos National Labs
• LCs 11 divisions using QP in June 2002 down to 3
  in April 2004

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g. Collaborative Reference Service

• Extend hours of coverage of participants to 24/7
• Cooperation and collaboration, informal or
  network arrangement

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Examples of Collaborative Reference Service

• LC/OCLC QuestionPoint (QP)
• Peoples Network
• LSSI VRD
• 24/7 Reference
• Convey Systems
• Docutek
• Calis Distributed Collaborative Virtual Reference
  System (CVRS) - China

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NCknows the State Library of North Carolina's
Virtual Reference project staffed by librarians
from throughout N Carolina
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Example of a Transcript of an NCKnows Chat
Session

• anonymous I mean the Silicon Valley are composed
  of high-tech companies. What arbout Resarch
  Triangle region. Are they also high tech or just
  research companies as its name applies?
• 24/7 Librarian vw Apart from one being in NC, on
  the east coast, and one being in VA, on the west
  coast?
• anonymous Is there any difference between
  Research Triangle and the Silicon Valley in CA?
• 24/7 Librarian vw Try copying and pasting the
  address into a new browser window
• anonymous I have this message pops up "Stack
  overflow at line 1"
• 24/7 Librarian vw http//www.rtrp.org/
• anonymous What is the url of this page.
• 24/7 Librarian vw Does this answer your
  question?
• anonymous Page sent - Site Selection
  Consultants
• 24/7 Librarian vw Here is a website about the
  Research Triangle region.
• 24/7 Librarian vw Page sent - Research Triangle
  Region
• anonymous Hi! I'm out of the states. Can you
  tell me what is the Research Triangle in NC
• 24/7 Librarian vw How may I help you?
• 24/7 Librarian vw Hello, welcome to our NCknows
  Reference Service.
• 24/7 Librarian vw - A librarian has joined the
  session.
• A librarian will be with you shortly. Please
  remember that while our librarians can help you
  use your library, they may not be from your
  specific library system or branch

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Busy Collaborative Services

• AskUsNow in Maryland (2,900 in Oct 2003)
• AskNow in Australia (3,196)
• QandA in NJ (5,800)
• KnowItNow in Cleveland (3,500 a month, 4 of
  total ref workload)

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Number of Collaborative Reference Services

• In North America
• 1,730 libraries in 62 collaborative services (as
  of Jan 2004)
• 3,000 - 4,000 libraries using chat software

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Index of Collaborative Reference Service

• Collaborative Live Reference Services, by Bernie
  Sloan
• Index of Chat Reference Services, by Stephen
  Francoeur
• 500 VR Services (Feb 2004)
• LiveRef(sm) A Registry of Real-Time Digital
  Reference Services, by Gerry McKiernan
• 132

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OCLCs QP

• Started in 2002 by LC and OCLC
• Used by over 1,000 libraries in 20 countries
• Over 7,000 QandA Knowledge base
• Subscription of 2,000/yr
• Questions received - Use best-matching routing to
  library profiles
• Web-based chat, co-browse and cooperative
  reference tools
• A management tool for reference transactions
• Respond, assign, refer, route

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Example of a Question from OCLCs QP
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Usage Study - QandANJ

• Statistics
• 25,000 customer questions in 2002,
• 50,000 questions in 2003,
• Nearly 60,000 questions in 2004,
• During a busy hour, may handle 25-30 questions. 
• In the busiest month (March 2004), more than
  7,400 Qs
• Pop-up customer feedback form on 8,745 customers,
  Jan 2002-Oct 2003
• 53.9 of the respondents used more than once
• 89.8 of the respondents said they will use again
  
• 60 said they have their questions completely
  answered
• 80.2 were satisfied or very satisfied with the
  service

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Doubts about VRS - Steve Coffman

• Joe Janes Global Census of Digital Reference
• Less than 6 Qs a day in Nov 2003
• Only 29 of ARL libraries offer VRS (36 out of
  124)
• LSSI - Oct 2003 declined over Oct 2002

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h. Commercial Service

• Information Please
• KnowPost
• Experts Exchange
• Inforstry
• Webhelp.com
• Questia
• Ask.yahoo.com/ask/most
• LCs Ask a Librarian
• Virtual Reference Desk

• Search engine
• AskJeeves
• Ask yahoo
• Expert systems
• Allexperts.com
• Abuzz
• Google answers
• AskMeNow

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Google Answer

• Beta version, Apr 2002
• 500 freelance researchers
• Costs US0.5 to list a Q
• 2-200 for an answer
• 1 day turnaround
• User may rate the answer
• User may reject the answer and request a full
  refund
• 25 of the fee to Google
• The service provides an FAQ, a database of QA.

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• AskMeNow
• A commercial VRS
• 100 answer agents
• Free for basic Qs,
• US0.49 for AskAnything
• Beta test with 10,000 users
• Sign-up with cell phone (N. American wireless
  carrier)
• Call AskMeNow phone number with the cell phone
• Ask the Q
• Answer is text-messaged to your cell phone
  within minutes

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Cornells Study (2002/03)

• 24 Questions from 3 sources (Maryland, Cornell
  and Google)
• 2 librarians and 1 assistant prepared answers and
  noted the time spent
• 1 librarian registered with Google Answers as a
  user, submitted the questions and obtained
  answers
• Conclusion
• Quality Cornell reference librarians were rated
  about the same as the Google researchers
• Cost Cornell reference librarians were much more
  expensive

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Cornell Study Average Price by Difficulty of
Question
Average Price
Difficulty Level
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5. Usage Studies on Real Time VRS1

• When
• 70-80 took place from Mon.-Thurs.
• Tuesday and Wednesday are the busiest
• How
• 50-70 of respondents learned about the service
  through library homepage
• Where
• 30 of respondents were within library
• 40 on campus, 30 off campus (Broughton)
• Why
• Convenience and anonymity (Foley and Ruppel
  et.al.)
• Satisfaction
• 80-90 satisfied
• 1. Kelly Broughtons paper summaries 7 studies

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Quote about VRS

• Digital reference matters but it will not if we
• do it badly
• do it alone
• do it only one way
• do it in secret
• do it too slowly
• or from a position of fear
• - Joe Janes

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Quote about VRS

• Be brave, be bold, be thoughtful and if you
  build it, they will come.
• - Diane Kresh, Library of Congress

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References

• 1. Academic Library Statistics (2004).
  Association of College and Research Libraries,
  available at httpwww.ala.org/ala/acrlbucket/stat
  icticssummaries/2004abcde/B17.pdf (accessed
  September 1, 2005.)
• 2. ARL Statistics 2003-04. (2005). Association of
  Research Libraries, available at
  http//www.arl.org/stats/arlstat/graphs/2004/pubse
  r04.pdf (accessed August 25, 2005.)
• 3. Broughton. Kelly M. (2002/03) Usage and user
  analysis of a real-time digital reference
  service. The Reference Librarian, No.79/80, pp.
  183-200
• 4. Coffman, Steve. (2004) To chat or not to chat
  taking yet another look at virtual reference,
  Part 1. Infotoday, Vol. 12 No. 7, July/August,
  available at http//www.infotoday.com/searcher/jul
  04/arret_coffman.shml (accessed June 17, 2004)
• 5. Coffman, Steve. (2004) To chat or not to chat
  taking yet another look at virtual reference,
  Part 2 . Infotoday, Vol. 12 No. 8, September,
  available at http//www.infotoday.com/searcher/se
  p04/arret_coffman.shml (accessed June 17, 2004)
• 6. Foley, Marianne. (2002) Instant messaging
  reference in an academic library a case study
  College Research Libraries, pp.36-45.
• 7. Giles, Nicola and Grey-Smith, Sue. (2005)
  TXTing librarians _at_ Curtin Information Online
  2005, available at http//conferences.alia.org.au/
  online2005/papers/a12.pdf (accessed September 2,
  2005.)
• 8. Guidelines for Implementing and Maintaining
  Virtual Reference Services. (2005). American
  Library Association, available athttp//www.ala.o
  rg/ala/rusa/rusaprotools/referenceguide/virtrefgui
  delines.htm (Accessed September 2, 2005)
• 9. Hyman, Karen and Brombert, Peter. (2003) "I'm
  just ecstatic about the whole darn thing!
  Customer feedback and lessons learned at Qand A
  NJ, New Jersey's 24/7 Live Virtual Reference
  Service. available at http//www.vrd2003.org/pro
  ceedings/index.cfmEvaluation (accessed
  September 10, 2005.)

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References

• 10. Internet Usage statistics, the big picture.
  (2005) Miniwatts International, Ltd., available
  at http//internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
  (accessed August 25, 2005.)
• 11. Katz, Bill. (2002/03) Digital Reference an
  overview The Reference Librarian, No.79/80, pp.
  1-17
• 12. Kennney, Anne R. et.al. (2003) "Google meets
  eBay what academic librarians can learn from
  alternative information providers" D-Lib Magazine
  June Vol.9 No.6 pp.1-16
• 13. Kresh, Diane. (2002/03) "Virtually yours
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  going with virtual reference services in
  libraries" The Reference Librarian No.79/80,
  pp.19-34.
• 14. Kyrillidou, Martha. (2000) Research Library
  Trends ARL Statistics Journal of Academic
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• 15. Lessick, Susan. Kjaer, Kathryn and Clancy,
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  September 2, 2005.)
• 16. Lipow, Ann G.(1999) Thinking out loud Who
  will give reference service in the digital
  environment? RQ Vol. 37 No.2 Winter, pp. 125-9.
• 17. Meola, Marc and Stormont, Sam.
  (1999)"Real-time reference service for the remote
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• 18. Moeller, Sherry E. (2003) Ask-a-librarian
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  large academic library Internet Reference
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62
References

• 19. Schmidt, Aaron and Stephens, Aaron. (2005)
  "IM me" Library Journal April 1, pp.34-35
• 20. Stephens, Brad. (2004) Is the voice over IP
  finally ready to be the next big thing? Library
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• 23. White, Marilyn D (2001). Diffusion of an
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