Trendspotting

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Welcome!
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Trendspotting in the 21st Century An Update on
CLCs Statewide Virtual Reference Project Carl
Antonucci, Director of the Arthur C. Banks
Library, Capital Community College and Chairman
of the CLC Board of Directors Friday, October
21, 2005
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Virtuallythere National and Regional Case
Studies CLCs InfoAnytime Pilot with Community
Colleges A Statewide initiative and call for
input
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Trendspotting
Why libraries have engaged Virtual Reference
Services for their patrons.
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Case Study Fairfield University
"Fairfield is part of a virtual reference
consortium of Jesuit colleges and universities
across the country. We use Tutor.com to cover the
hours when students need help, but when
university librarians are not available." James
Estrada, Fairfield University's
Vice President for Information Services and
University Librarian
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Case Study Minor Memorial Library, Roxbury
Virtual reference is great for a small library
like ours with limited staffing. It allows us to
offer our patrons the services of trained
reference librarians anytime, even when the
library is closed." Valerie Annis, Director,
Minor Memorial Library in Roxbury
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Case Study
InfoAnyTime and the Connecticut Community College
System
InfoAnyTime is a real-time, web-based reference
service that provides live librarians to assist
students, faculty, and the public in finding
information to support their research. The
pilot program began March 13 of this year and
continues through the end of December.  InfoAnyT
ime is contracted through Tutor.com and allows
students of the trial colleges to connect to a
professional librarian 24/7.
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Case Study
InfoAnyTime and the Connecticut Community College
System
The software used for these sessions includes a
format very comfortable to todays instant
messaging, weblog blog and text messaging
consumers chat, using pushing and co-browsing
web pages as well the iCONN databases.  With no
downloads of special software required, anyone
with a web browser can access the service.  An
InfoAnyTime link appeared on the websites of
participating colleges supporting one-click
access and a combination of posters, bookmarks
and other promotional tools were developed to
market the availability of services.
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Case Study
InfoAnyTime and the Connecticut Community College
System
Professional, highly-trained librarians
provided a seamless experience, matching the high
quality standards of local service, but at a time
and method that met the needs of the students.
 At the end of each session, students and the
reference librarians at the college are emailed
transcripts of the session.  As of early August
(2 months of the spring semester and 3 months of
the summer semester) 221 session were tallied by
Tutor.com.  According to Tutor.com, the majority
of the inquiries were during the hours of 10A -
5P, with a slight peak at 8P.  A satisfaction
survey provided to each patron at the close of a
session resulted in a rating of 5.85 satisfaction
ranking out of a possible 7.
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Chat room format was familiar and comfortable for
students.
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"Students use virtual reference to get quick
information and to get started in databases that
are new to them." Randy Fournier, Director,
Manchester Community College Library
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How do outpatient MRIs relate to Virtual
Reference Services for Libraries?
Trendspotting
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.
Hospital-based MRIs offer patients limited access
to this commonly-ordered test. Hours are often
not convenient to work or school schedules and
appointments are often bumped due to in-hospital
demands. The results
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Private providers stepped in to meet the needs of
patients, costing hospitals millions of dollars
in revenue. Hospitals are now opening outpatient
centers, but with the added challenge of trying
to regain lost market share AND overcoming a
perception of bad service.
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Trendspotting What do our patrons want, who will
fulfill that need?
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Case Study New Jersey Library Network
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Case Study New Jersey Library Network
The New Jersey Library networked engaged a
Virtual Reference Library in 2001, branding it
QA NJ. Questions answered 2001
1,345 2002 27,670 2003 51,926 2004
57,979 Sunday-Thursday noon to 10 pm are peak
usage times and receive 25-30 questions per hour.
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Case Study Colorado State Library
AskColorado.org, jointly sponsored by the
Colorado Department of Education and Colorado
State Library, was launched in 2003. As of
March 2005 AskColorado.org answers 2000 questions
a month and has produced a common favorable
comment Fantastic use of my taxpayer
dollars! (From Library Journal,
v.130 no.5)
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Trendspotting What are
the next steps for
Connecticut?
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We meet the needs of the 3.5 million residents we
serve together
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We meet the needs of the 3.5 million residents we
serve before someone else does.
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Get involved in planning for statewide virtual
reference service The following
subcommittees are now forming Marketing

Randy
Fournier, Manchester Community College
860-512-3412

rfournier_at_mcc.commnet.edu Design/Authentica
tion
Carl
Antonucci, Capital Community College

860-906-5021
cantonucci_at_ccc.commnet.e
du Finance

Michael Moran, Asnuntuck Community
College
860-253-3171
mmoran_at_acc.commnet.ed
u Evaluation

Amy Terlaga, Bibliomation

800-327-4765

aterlaga_at_biblio.org
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Test drives available. Please stop by the
Tutor.com display to test drive a
virtual reference experience.
Thank you.
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