Title: Why is the sky blue Implementing a collaborative virtual reference desk project
1Why is the sky blue?Implementing a collaborative
virtual reference desk project
- Kitty Mackey
- Roxanne Dimyan
- Cannell Library, Clark College
Linda Frederiksen Nicole Campbell WSU Vancouver
Library
2Outline
- Introduction Grant Information
- Technical Information
- Assignments
- Lessons Learned
- Conclusions / Q A
3LSTA Demonstration Grant
- Background
- 7 grants - 30,000
- 23 participating libraries
- 6 other projects
4Virtual Reference in Washington
Pend Oreille County Library
Skagit Valley College
Stevens County Library
Jefferson County Library
Sno-Isle Regional Library
University of Washington
Spokane Falls CC
Seattle Public Library
Spokane CC
City University
King County Law Library
Washington State Library
Whitman County Library
Grays Harbor College
Ellensburg Public Library
Timberland Regional Library
Washington State University
WSU-Vancouver
Clark College
Information provided by the Statewide Virtual
Reference Project, Washington State Library
5WSU Vancouver Clark College Project
- Why we did it
- Geographic proximity
- 22 model
- Grant proposal
- Grant period
- Grant requirements
6Ask A Librarian
- Formalizing collaboration
- Interagency agreements
- Budgets and accounting
- 24/7 software
7Where we are now
- Status of Washington State Library and LSTA funds
in the state - Current number of transactions
- Where we hope to be by the end of the grant
- How will we evaluate virtual reference service
8Initial Setup
- Setup and servers
- Library Websites
- Branding
- Scripts
9Training
- Initial training by 24/7
- Test Qs
- Practice practice practice
10Policies
- Determining user population
- Students, staff faculty
- Community
- Hours Scheduling
- Authentication
- Communication
- Confidentiality
11Troubleshooting
- Technical
- Dropped patrons
- Clearing cache
- Staff
- Are you monitoring?
- Test and preview pages
12Assignments
- If you give an assignment, they will go online!
13Assignments WHY?
- Nothing was happening online
- Needed to practice
- Wanted a control group for feedback
14The Process
- Met with faculty, designed assignment
- Met with classes, described assignment
- Emailed details to Virtual Reference list
- Students turned in transcripts to instructor
- Met classes, students completed evaluations
15How We Picked Courses
- Instructor interest
- Assignment met course outcomes
- Different skill levels
- Web experience
- Library experience
-
16HDev116 College Success
- One specific question Please tell me where to
find information on (fill in career of their
choice). - One specific answer Librarians escorted
students to specific source (CIS and WOIS). - Created scripts for repetitive instructions.
17CSA185 Intro to Using the Internet
- Seven questions, they choose one. (7th was your
choice) - Several answers, but specific
- sources -- periodicals
- databases.
- Student reactions led to
- evaluations.
18Evaluation Questions
- What type of connection? (gave us a clue)
- What kind of service did you expect to receive?
- How did your experience compare with your
expectations? - Additional comments
19What Type of Connection?
- Dial-up 22
- Cable/DSL 15
- On-campus 8
20Students Expectations
- Sorted into three types
- Instructional Someone who could help me find
my way around - QA A question answer service
- Drive-Thru Reliable, fast service!
21Evaluation Tallies
- Experience?
- Positive 30
- Negative 10
- Neutral 4
Expectations? Instruct 10 QA
13 Drive-thru 9 Neutral 12
Comments? Positive 17 Negative 9 Neutral
3
22Student Responses - Negative
23Student Responses - Negative
Connection ? AOL Expectation I wasnt
sure. Experience It sucked because it messed
up. (twice) Comments Too slow!
24Student Responses - Negative
- Connection Cable
- Expectation Reliable, fast information
- Experience Below my expectations.
- Comments Because there were several technical
problems during my session, the librarian
couldnt guide me to the web page she/he found.
And the transcripts were incomplete. Only
showed my question.
25Student Responses - Positive
26Student Responses - Positive
- Connection Cable
- Expectation Reliable, fast service
- Experience It was better than I thought. I
mean, it had some problems, like glitches here
and there, but I got my information. - Comments Still need to work on the program,
figure out the problems, but otherwise good
program.
27Student Responses - Positive
- Connection DSL
- Expectation I had no expectations. I thought
it would just be busy work, but it was more
helpful. - Experience Librarian was patient and more than
helpful especially since I had never been in a
chat room. I got email of sites visited, which
was helpful. - Comments (Couldnt get on 2nd time, called
reference desk at Clark.)
28Student Responses - Positive
- Connection DSL
- Expectation basically good service, sending
me directly where I wanted to go. - Experience librarian not familiar with
assignment, but triedfollowed up next day w/o
being asked, sent me more info. I was very
impressed with his service - Comments More hours of operation
29Student Responses - Positive
- Connection Modem
- Expectation exactly the type of service I
received. Ask a question and get an answer that
is both helpful and interesting. - Experience excellent service and the person
that I spoke to was very informative, and to boot
was very courteous. Dont find that too much
with automated information systems. - Comments should be made a permanent
feature.
30Student Responses - Positive
- Connection HP thru AOL
- Expectation Pretty general service.
- Experience It was great. They asked good
questions and led me to very specific websites
for information. - Comments They responded quickly when they
were busy, asked if I wanted to wait.
31Student Responses - Positive
- Connection DSL
- Expectation I was kind of unsure about what to
expect. I figured it was some kind of search
engine but was surprised it was an actual
librarian. - Experience BLEW IT OUT OF THE WATER! KABOOM!!!
? - Comments THANKS ? ?
32Conclusions
33Assignments - Conclusions
- Keep assignments simple.
- Build scripts to match assignments.
- Do pre-and post evaluations.
- Students should get credit for assignments.
34Lessons Learned
- Statistics
- Marketing
- Staffing
- Service hours
- Policies and procedures
- The virtual reference librarian
- Online help guides
- User populations
35Lessons Learned
http//www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/campbell/onlinenw
2003/