Digital, Cooperative, and Live

1
Digital, Cooperative, and Live Reference
Service in Taiwan

• Hao-Ren Ke, Ph.D.
• Associate Library DirectorNatl. Chiao Tung
  University, Taiwan, R.O.C.
• claven_at_lib.nctu.edu.tw

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Outline

• Survey on Taiwan Internet Usage
• Survey on Reference Service in Taiwan Libraries
• Live Digital Reference in Traditional Chinese
  NCTU Experience

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Survey on Taiwan Internet Usage

• A survey conducted by TWNIC from
  2004.12.01-2005.01.10
• Effective sample size 3,001 (Sampling error
  1.79(95 confidence interval)

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Demographics

• Population above 12 years old (2004.10)
  19,177,033
• Internet users 12,300,000 (64.14)
• 77.4 of these people use ADSL
• Broadband users 10,310,000 (53.78)
• Number of families (2004.10) 7,134,270
• Internet families 4,600,000 (65.02)
• Broadband families 3,820,000 (53.62)

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Ratio of Internet Users (Ages)
6
Ratio of Broadband Users (Ages)
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An Informal Survey by KUSOS

• KUSOS is a portal site for entertainment
• 98.4 of KUSOS users have the experiences in
  using IM (instant messaging) softwares
• The most popular IM softwares include MSN
  messenger, Yahoo! messenger, ICQ, YamQQ, Skype

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Short Summary

• Taiwan has built very excellent Internet
  Infrastructure
• All schools (from elementary schools to
  universities) in Taiwan are Internet-ed by TANet
  (Taiwan Academic Network)
• About 65 of Taiwan families are Internet-ed
• Internet connection by broadband technologies,
  including ADSL and cable modem, is prevalent
• More than 75 Taiwan people have the Internet
  experiences
• IM is popular for people ranging from 10 to 40
  years old
• Now should be an opportune moment for
  implementing live virtual reference in Taiwan
  libraries

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Survey on Reference Service in Taiwan Libraries
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Overview

• Effective samples 84 (Total samples 90)
• Nation libraries, public libraries, data centers
  11
• Medical libraries 23
• 11 medical school libraries
• 12 hospital libraries
• University libraries, college libraries 34
• 11 national university libraries
• 12 private university libraries
• 11 technical college or university libraries
• Specialized libraries 5
• Research institute libraries 11

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Survey Results

• Number of reference librarians (FTE)
• The maximum number of reference libraries 7.5 (1
  library)

• Number of reference services per month

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Survey Results (Cont.)

• Types of information requests (from maximum to
  minimum)
• Directional questions
• Instruction to database use
• Ready reference
• Technical or administrative problems on computers
  and networking
• Subject-specific advice on sources or reading
  for a certain subject/topic
• Research-oriented in-depth research on a
  specific subject/topic

• Reference holdings (paper- or electronic- based)

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How to Conduct Digital References
Live virtual reference
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Survey Results (Cont.)

• Number of digital reference services per month

• Types of digital information requests (from
  maximum to minimum)
• Instruction to database use
• Technical or administrative problems on computers
  and networking
• Ready reference
• Subject-specific advice on sources or reading
  for a certain subject/topic
• Directional questions
• Research-oriented in-depth research on a
  specific subject/topic

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TCDRS (Prototype)

• Supported by the National Central Library
• Goal Study the possibility of conducting
  cooperative DRS in Taiwan
• Functionality
• Web-form based DRS
• Query routing
• Knowledge base FAQ
• User authentication
• Ah Its pity that only 12 libraries use this
  system, and six of them are heavy users

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TCDRS (Prototype)
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Survey Results (Cont.)

• Have you experienced TCDRS?
• Yes 26 (32)
• No 55 (68)
• Do you think that it is necessary to cooperate in
  the reference service?
• Yes 63 (77.8)
• No 3 (3.7)
• Not sure 15 (18.5)

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Survey Results (Cont.)

• Why is CDRS not popular in Taiwan?
• Librarians lack discipline backgrounds 52.4
• Increase workload 44.0
• Difficult to decide the cooperation model 76.2
• No leading organization 70.2
• Requirement not much 42.9
• 41 (48.9) of the respondents consider that
  having a leading organization is essential

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Short Summary

• Unlike libraries in USA, in Taiwan libraries
• Reference librarians are few
• Most of these reference librarians lack
  discipline backgrounds
• Directional questions, instruction to database
  use (or information literacy), and ready
  reference are tops of information requests
• Librarians in Taiwan consider that cooperation in
  reference service is necessary
• But the usage of TCDRS is very low
• Having a leading organization for this
  cooperation is essential

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Live Digital Reference in Traditional Chinese
NCTU Experience
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Overview

• NCTU subscribes to QP24/7 from this May
• NCTU experimentally launches 24/7 on 13th June
• Technical issues in inputting Traditional Chinese
• Language Coding BIG-5 and Unicode
• Input method Mandarin Phonetic symbols (??????),
  Cang-Jie (?????), Taiwan Tongyong Romanization
  (????), Hanyu Pinyin (????)
• Many words/phrases may have identical
  pronunciation
• A user must choose the correct words/phrases,
  which may slow down the input

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Cold Joke
Who is this guy?
Why?
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24/7 in Traditional Chinese
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Co-browsing Chinese Web Site
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Some Problems

• Chinese scripts and Chinese canned messages
• Transcripts in Chinese
• The QP interface can display transcripts in
  Chinese, but Emails cannot
• Should wait for one more ENTER to send messages

• Now is in input mode.
• One ENTER key will confirm the input, but
  should allow the user to input more words
• But when I press ENTER, 24/7 confirms the input
  and sends out the message as well

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Thank you for your attention