The History

1
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach

• The History
• Where We are Now
• My Experiences
• The Consortium
• What We Hope to Accomplish
• Evaluation
• Statistics

hmacfarlane_at_wesleyan.edu
2
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach

• Why We Need It In a Small Residential College
• Faculty/Student surveys
• Graduate Liberal Study Program
• Undergraduates studying abroad and during breaks
• 60 of e-resources are used outside of libraries
  
• A lot of usage occurred while there is no staff
  on duty, i.e. after 10pm, and weekends
• To connect to our users whenever and wherever
  they may need help

hmacfarlane_at_wesleyan.edu
3
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach

• The History
• Applied for a grant to fund the two-year project,
  March 2001
• Received grant in late May 2001
• Hired and trained 1.5 FTE librarians to provide
  live services during off-peak hours for
  participating institutions
• Installed server and software (summer, 2001)
• Hardware SUN250
• Software eGain 5.0
• Trained all reference librarians to use the
  software, (September / October) and began to
  recruit other colleges to participate.
• Went live Wesleyan October 15, 2001 Connecticut
  College, November 5, 2001
• Smith College started on April 1st, 2002
• Wellesley College started in September 2002 and
  Vassar College will begin in Spring of 2003

hmacfarlane_at_wesleyan.edu
4
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach

• My Experiences
• I work from 6 pm 2 am.
• Chat is a LOT slower than talk. Need to get
  feedback / response from users constantly.
• Users are very patient they understand this is
  an experiment.
• Sometimes it IS easier to send web pages,
  however, it is not always necessary.
• Expect typos!

hmacfarlane_at_wesleyan.edu
5
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach

• The Consortium
• Connecticut College
• Smith College
• Wellesley College
• Vassar College
• Others? Perhaps from Oberlin group?
• Shared Hours
• 6 pm 2 am Monday-Thursday
• 10 am- 5 pm Saturday
• 4 pm- 12 am Sunday

hmacfarlane_at_wesleyan.edu
6
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach

• What We Hope to Accomplish
• Study the long term impact of introducing a new
  type of reference services
• Find a way to calculate the demand of digital
  reference service
• Ascertain the feasibility of sharing
  collaborative live help during off-peak hours as
  a long term consortium service
• Calculate the real cost of providing reference
  services in an academic library
• Gain some insights to help us improve library
  user services

hmacfarlane_at_wesleyan.edu
7
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach

• What We Have Learned So Far
• Link placement!
• Local issues constitute 88 of questions
• Needs as much PR as possible
• Digital reference is a service of convenience,
  not a substitute for traditional reference
  services
• Referral to subject specialists
• Take advantage of built-in features
• Transcripts

hmacfarlane_at_wesleyan.edu
8
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach

• Evaluation
• Capturing and sharing the questions and user
  comments provide tangible evidence of the overall
  scope and end results we try to achieve as an
  organization to all library staff
• Transcripts help identify areas where new staff
  need more training, old staff need update on
  policies, procedures, etc
• Ability to follow up or transfer questions to
  subject specialists
• Web reference service CAN be a much more personal
  experience
• A good foundation toward creating a local
  knowledge database for users and staff

hmacfarlane_at_wesleyan.edu
9
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach

• Statistics
• Beyond statistics captured by the LiveHelp
  software, we are recording the numbers whenever
  the link is clicked to see how many clicks
  translate into a real LiveHelp session
• Wesleyan is collecting reference statistics on
  and off Reference Desk to study the long term
  impact of introducing new types of reference
  services
• in-person, phone, email, LiveHelp
• date and time, time in minutes to answer a
  question, user type, name of librarian
• anticipated end results average time to answer
  questions by services types, cost/question by
  service types, cost effectiveness of services by
  types, overall cost of providing reference
  services

hmacfarlane_at_wesleyan.edu
10
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach
Hourly Trends
hmacfarlane_at_wesleyan.edu
11
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach

• Daily Trends

hmacfarlane_at_wesleyan.edu
12
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach

• Weekly Trends

hmacfarlane_at_wesleyan.edu
13
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach

• Sessions breakdown by location and referring web
  pages

hmacfarlane_at_wesleyan.edu
14
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach

• Clicks vs. real session comparison by week

hmacfarlane_at_wesleyan.edu
15
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach
hmacfarlane_at_wesleyan.edu
16
Live Reference Services over the web a college
library consortium approach

• Examples of Questions
• I'm looking for an article in the CIAO database
  called 'Irish Troubles since 1916.' I don't know
  how to get onto the CIAO database or even what it
  is..!
• I need information about Helena Rubenstein,
  especially articles. Where should I begin?
• Can I get into Wesleyan's Indexes and Databases
  when I am at home during vacation?
• User Comments
• Thanks!. . .I had a Personal Research Session
  with a librarian. . . and I should probably do it
  again sometime soon!
• that was an amazing display of how technology
  enhances our life.i thank you for making my life
  less frustrating!