ARE WE GETTING WARMER? QUERY CLARIFICATION IN VIRTUAL REFERENCE

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ARE WE GETTING WARMER? QUERY CLARIFICATION IN
VIRTUAL REFERENCE

• Marie L. Radford
• Lynn Silipigni Connaway
• Library Research Round Table
• ALA Annual Conference
• Washington, DC
• June 23, 2007

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Seeking Synchronicity Evaluating Virtual
Reference Services from User, Non-User,
Librarian Perspectives

• Funded by Institute of Museum Library Services
  Rutgers University OCLC (10/05-9/07)
• Four phases
• Focus group interviews
• Analysis of 850 QuestionPoint live chat
  transcripts
• 600 online surveys
• 300 telephone interviews

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Would you clarify?
4
A helpful answer?
5
i dont want scuba diving classesi want driving
classes
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Do librarians clarify? Good news!
n581
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When librarians clarify

• 50 (217) asked the highly recommended follow-up
  question
• Does this completely answer your question?

n434
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What do librarians clarify?

• Topic
• Background
• Verify Their Understanding
• Search History
• Type of Resource
• Extent/Depth
• Referral
• Corrected User Misunderstanding

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Librarians ask about TOPIC

• 45 (195) sought TOPIC information
• Is there a specific animal that you're
  researching?

n434
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Librarians ask about BACKGROUND

• 31 (133) sought BACKGROUND information
• When is your paper due?
• Are you in the NYC area?

n434
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Librarians VERIFY

• 20 (87) VERIFIED their understanding
• So you are looking for the reasons why the
  Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor?

n434
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Librarians ask about SEARCH HISTORY

• 19 (83) sought SEARCH HISTORY information
• Ok, and have you checked their Web sites yet?

n434
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Librarians ask about TYPE OF RESOURCE

• 11 (49) sought TYPE OF RESOURCE information
• Are you looking for books, articles, or online
  information?

n434
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Librarians ask about EXTENT/DEPTH

• 11 (48) sought EXTENT/DEPTH information
• Were you looking for in-depth history? Or a
  summary?

n434
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REFERRAL

• 4 (16) asked a REFERRAL question
• Do you want me to refer your question to your
  library?

n434
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CORRECTED MISUNDERSTANDING

• 2 (7) CORRECTED MISUNDERSTANDING
• By the way, what I told you about the list
  being in strictly chronological order was not
  correct I'm sorry.

n434
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How about the Users?

• Users offered information about
• Topic
• Background
• Extent/Depth
• Correct Librarians Misunderstanding

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Users Clarify TOPIC

• 52 (69) offered TOPIC information
• I am doing marketing reseach on marylands
  restaurant industry

n132
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Users Clarify BACKGROUND

• 24 (32) offered BACKGROUND information
• I am in 7th grade GT Sciene and I am Doing a 2
  year research project

n132
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Users Gave EXTENT/DEPTH

• 20 (26) offered EXTENT/DEPTH information
• the thing is i need it to be simple and not to
  wordy

n132
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Users CORRECT Librarians Misunderstanding

• 16 (21) CORRECTED the librarians
  misunderstanding
• No. The form says I need the correct name for
  the position.

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Users VERIFY

• 14 (19) VERIFIED their understanding
• So the best thing is to find it on the online
  catalog is that correct?

n132
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Users Offer SEARCH HISTORY

• 14 (18) offered SEARCH HISTORY information
• I looked in the card catalogue and didn't see
  it there...

n132
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Users provide TYPE OF RESOURCE

• 9 (12) offered TYPE OF RESOURCE information
• ...And not a book, online though
• Yes, but Im looking for more historical and
  architectural resources

n132
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Users ask for REFERRAL

• 4 (5) asked for a REFERRAL
• Can you contact me with anyone from the
  Library

n132
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When did librarians users clarify?

• Surprising finding
• Two different patterns of clarification!
• Librarians clarified in beginning of interaction
• Users clarified in middle of interaction

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When did they ask for clarification?
n581
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Types of clarifying questions Open or closed?

• Percentage of all questions asked by librarians
• 66 (554) Closed Questions
• 34 (284) Open Questions

n838
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Closed or open Is it clear?

• Can you tell me more about what you are looking
  for?
• An invitation to talk, but still a closed
  question?
• Can I ask what grade level this is for so I
  dont give you something that is too technical or
  too easy?
• Ok
• An unhelpful, closed response to an ostensibly
  open question.

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Imposed Query

• Imposed queries emanate from both formal and
  informal relationships between people
  (Gross, 1999, p. 501).
• For a history project, I must do a poster
  diagram of the evolution of pyramids from
  masatbas to step pyramids to straight-sided
  pyramids.

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Self-Generated Query

• User identifies an information need and asks a
  question (Gross, 1995, p. 237).
• I want to plan a camping and rock climbing trip
  to Pilot Mountain. Do you have any
  recommendations?

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Imposed query vs. Self-generated query
(267)
(165)
(140)
(9)
(n581)
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What makes a difference for accuracy?

• Analysis of Accuracy of Ready Reference questions
  (n180)
• Does question clarification make a difference?
• Does asking a follow-up question make a
  difference?
• YOU BE THE JUDGE

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YES! Clarifying follow-up improve accuracy!
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Future Directions

• Continue to collect analyze data
• Online surveys
• Librarian survey completed
• Non-user and User surveys in progress
• Telephone interviews
• 100 with Librarians completed
• 100 Users in progress
• 100 Non-users in progress

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END NOTES

• This is one of the outcomes from the project
  Seeking Synchronicity Evaluating Virtual
  Reference Services from User, Non-User, and
  Librarian Perspectives.
• Funded by IMLS, Rutgers University, OCLC Online
  Computer Library Center, Inc.
• Special thanks to Jocelyn DeAngelis Williams,
  Patrick Confer, Timothy Dickey, David M. Dragos,
  Mary Anne Reilly, Susanna Sabolcsi-Boros, Julie
  Strange.
• Slides available at project web site
  http//www.oclc.org/research/projects/synchronicit
  y/

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Questions Comments

• Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Ph.D.
• Email connawal_at_oclc.org
• www.oclc.org/research/staff/connaway.htm
• Marie L. Radford, Ph.D.
• Email mradford_at_scils.rutgers.edu
• www.scils.rutgers.edu/mradford