Face-to-Space

1
Face-to-Space

• Creating Buy-In for New Reference Mediums
• _at_ Your Statewide Cooperative

Ahniwa Ferrari Project Coordinator for
Ask-WA The Washington State Virtual Reference
Cooperative Washington State Library Office of
the Secretary of State aferrari_at_secstate.wa.gov
360-570-5587 http//www.secstate.wa.gov/library/li
braries/
2
An Overview

• Over 60 Washington libraries participating
• 21 public systems 39 academics numerous
  partners
• Versus 24 libraries at beginning of 2008
• Began in 2001 as individual grant cycles turned
  into current cooperative circa 2005
• Uses QuestionPoints software and 24/7 cooperative

3
Why Virtual Reference?

• First, lets get rid of the idea of virtual
  reference being some sort of new service.
• If Ranganathan were a reference librarian today,
  his second law would read
• Every user his or her reference medium.
• Because youre committed to providing your
  patrons / students with help when they need it.
  Right?

4
Think about Online Services

• How important is it that you can
• Bank Online
• Buy Stuff Online
• Be Entertained Online
• Communicate Online?
• These things are important to your users, too.

5
Reference is a Conversation

• Your users want to talk to you.
• You say you want to talk to them too?
• They EXPECT you to be there when and how they
  need you (just like their other online
  services).
• Our users should get to pick how to communicate
  with us. OUR role is to give them as many options
  as possible.

6
Common Issues

• I cant do as good a job virtually as I can
  face-to-face.
• Yes, face-to-face is the ideal communication
  medium.
• You cant always get what you want.
• Would you rather serve 500 users face-to-face,
  knowing that youre missing another 500 virtual
  users or would you prefer to answer all 1000 of
  your users, even if only 100 of those
  interactions are face-to-face?
• Providing reference online does require new
  skills, but learning these skills will make you a
  better librarian.

7
Common Issues

• Other libraries cant help my users effectively
• But they can START the conversation they can
  engage the user they can provide you a point of
  connection with that user where you can
  follow-up
• QP makes it so the users home library always has
  the last word with their own users
• This may not be a service issue but a content
  issue what information is so sought after by
  your users that youre NOT making easily
  accessible online?

8
Common Issues

• Virtual Reference is not an appropriate forum for
  long/research/local/collection/assignment/etc
  questions.
• Stop and think about this. Do you really think
  that questions involving more research / longer
  connection times are inappropriate, or are you
  just not interested in typing that much? Are you
  worried about your attention span or your users?
  Are you saying you have better things to do?
• There may be valid arguments here, but not as
  many as you think. Again, VR can be the doorway
  that opens the connection. You can always get
  your user started and then use your VR session to
  schedule a F2F meet-up.
• Check out David Lee Kings blog post relating to
  this http//www.davidleeking.com/2009/01/06/ask-a
  -librarian-services-need-a-reboot/

9
Common Issues

• Were already over-worked we dont have the
  staff available to start a new service!
• Its not a new service its a test of your
  desire to provide accessible reference to your
  users.
• What are you doing thats more important than
  being available to your users?
• The actual staff time involved is minimal when
  compared to the benefit received this is
  particularly true in larger cooperatives where
  everyone pitches in for a greater good and
  enhanced coverage.

10
Common Issues

• Virtual Reference is just the next new thing.
  If we get involved with this fad, our users will
  expect us to join the next fad, and the next
• Its called progress or not getting left
  behind.
• I agree, you should make sure that its in the
  service of your users whenever you implement
  something new.
• Chat isnt new anymore. At all. Its not like
  were asking you to use SMS, or Twitter, or to
  play video games with your users.

11
Benefits (A Laundry List)

• You often get much more out of a virtual
  reference service than you put into it. An
  average library in Ask-WA might provide 400/year
  and 2 hours/week staff time for a 24/7 complete
  reference solution.
• Statistics are built-in. Reports are included.
  You can monitor transcripts for quality control.
• You can add your F2F questions then their
  statistics will be built-in too.

12
Benefits (Yep, there are more)

• You may consider face-to-face to be the preferred
  method of communication, but chat can be better
  in numerous situations
• Assisting your ESL users who have a hard time
  speaking or understanding spoken English, but
  have a higher level of competency with written
  English. Some services are also ADA-Compliant.
• Allowing people to ask questions anonymously
  helpful for people who are embarrased about their
  questions (or afraid of librarians SEE Library
  Anxiety).
• Two words Distance Education.
• Two more words Rural Users.

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Benefits (I could go on forever)

• Great tool for ongoing staff development.
• Its where the real reference questions are
  happening. Really.
• Virtual questions can be routed / shared / and
  remixed (its all very Web 2.0!), offering some
  great opportunities for mash-up-ing and
  collaboration!
• Community buy-in tends to be high. Everyone likes
  the idea of doing more with less.

14
Statewide Cooperation (its the thing to do)

• Were all in it together. Hundreds of librarians
  sharing expertise and knowledge.
• Super subject experts from the State Law
  libraries and other partner institutions.
• Move the question, not the patron. The question
  can travel worldwide, so the user doesnt have
  to.
• The more people involved, the cheaper it gets for
  everyone.

15
Okay, so what do I need to do?

• Getting a VR service started at your library just
  requires ONE person to really own the project
  (and convince key stake-holders to let them).
• Staffing VR requires three main skills
• A decent ability to type
• An outstanding reference interview (and the good
  personal skills that go along with that)
• The ability to find reliable information from
  credible sources, online.
• Theres a lot of good training out there. Dont
  feel like you have to reinvent the wheel.

16
If you want to succeed

• Dont hide access (and dont let your IT people
  hide it) make CHAT with a librarian prominent
  on EVERY page your users might need help (find
  other creative pages to put it on).
• Dont limit the service or deter its use.
  Statements like factual questions only plz or
  well try to respond within 2 weeks will lower
  your use considerably.
• Find (or create) some good success stories, and
  share them with reluctant librarians and admins.
  If you get good feedback from users, share that
  too!
• Talk to other libraries doing VR and find out
  whats working for them. There are a lot of good
  ideas out there that you can take advantage of.

17
Recommended Reading

• Francoeur, Stephen. My Workshop on Effective
  Chat Reference. http//www.teachinglibrarian.org/
  weblog/2009/04/my-workshop-on-effective-chat-refer
  ence.html.
• Hirko, Buff, and Mary Bucher Ross. Virtual
  Reference Training The Complete Guide to
  Providing Anytime, Anywhere Answers. Chicago
  American Library Association, 2004.
• Kern, M. Kathleen. Virtual Reference Best
  Practices. Chicago American Library
  Association, 2008.
• Lankes, R. David. New Concepts in Digital
  Reference. San Rafael, CA Morgan Claypool,
  2009.
• Various Authors. Reference Renaissance Current
  and Future Trends. Speakers Presentations.
  http//www.bcr.org/referencerenaissance/presentati
  ons.html.
• Lots more via Marie Radfords Virtual Reference
  Bibliography _at_ Rutgers http//vrbib.rutgers.edu/.
  

18
Face-to-Space

• Creating Buy-In for New Reference Mediums
• _at_ Your Statewide Cooperative

Ahniwa Ferrari Project Coordinator for
Ask-WA The Washington State Virtual Reference
Cooperative Washington State Library Office of
the Secretary of State aferrari_at_secstate.wa.gov
360-570-5587 http//www.secstate.wa.gov/library/li
braries/