clavenlib'nctu'edu'tw

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• ??????????claven_at_lib.nctu.edu.tw

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Outline

• Overview
• Technology
• From Digital, Live, to Cooperative
• Conclusion

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Overview
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What is Reference Service?

• William Katz
• Reference librarians answer question
• Reference librarians interpret the question,
  identify the precise source for an answer, and
  with the user, decide whether or not the response
  is adequate
• Reference librarians, when asked, will instruct
  the user on how to find information in an
  electronic or printed reference source
• Reference librarians are information mediators
  who determine what is useful, what is needed, and
  what can be rejected

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Varieties of Reference Services

• Information
• Ready-reference questions
• Interlibrary loan and document delivery
• Information and referral services
• Guidance
• Readers advisory services
• Term-paper counseling
• Selective dissemination of information
• Instruction
• One-to-one instruction
• Group instruction

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Types of Reference Questions

• Directional question (?????) 3050
• Ready reference (?????) 5060 in pubic
  libraries
• Specific search(?????????)
• Research (???????)

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What is Digital Reference?

• VRD Definition (http//www.vrd.org)
• Digital reference, or "AskA", services are
  Internet-based, human-mediated question/answer
  and referral services that connect users with
  experts and subject specialists who can answer
  questions and give pointers to other sources of
  information

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General Digital Reference Model
??
Pomerantz, et al.
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Some Descriptions of Digital Reference

• DR is a librarian in a small town offering to
  follow up a reference question at her desk with
  an e-mail message because she cannot quite
  satisfy every part of it right there on the spot
• Its an academic library taking inquiries from
  its academic community via a Web form and
  responding by e-mail or calling or faxing or
  sending materials or setting up an appointment
  for a research consultation or all of these in
  whichever combination seems to make the most
  sense
• Its also Ask Joan of Art!, answering e-mail
  questions about American art

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Some Descriptions of Digital Reference (Cont.)

• Its a collaborative arrangement of several
  libraries working together and using call-center
  software to provide live, synchronous, chat-based
  service to their patrons
• Its even QuestionPoint (QP), trying to build an
  international framework to support the highest
  caliber of information services
• Its people in a variety of commercial
  ask-an-expert services, such as Google Answers,
  About and AskMe, Yahoo!?? ??, answering
  questions for fee or free because they want to
  and can

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Technology

• From Joseph Janess Introduction to Reference
  Work in the Digital Age

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E-mail

• The first and simplest technology
• Advantage
• Easy to use and understand lowest common
  denominator
• Cheap to build and maintain
• Possible to keep copies of what was received and
  sent
• For analyzing kinds of questions, response time,
  quality and accuracy of the responses
• Can attach documents, results of searches, URL
• Provide extra time to tackle difficult or
  challenging questions, compose responses in a
  thoughtful way
• Combine with telephone, real-time chat to provide
  higher-quality, follow-up answers

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E-mail (Cont.)

• Disadvantage
• Thin connection
• Difficult to conduct strict a good reference
  interview
• Time lag
• Askers may not fill out necessary information you
  want

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Web Form

• Usually for the intake of questions
• The usual paradigm is the use of a Web form to
  solicit the question and e-mail to respond
• Share most of the advantage and disadvantage of
  e-mail-based services
• Need to run and maintain a Web server
• Can demand askers to input specific information

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Web-Form Based Virtual Reference
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Chat and Instant Messaging

• Designed for back-and-forth, synchronous
  conversations, via typing of text, among two or
  more people
• Example ICQ, MSN, SkyPE
• Some are very simple tools that allow for quick
  communication
• Others are much more fully featured, allowing for
  customization and personalization, the capture of
  transcripts, the pushing of Web pages
• Advanced feature integrating voice and video,
  via Web cam, into chat or IM sessions

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KANAnswer Chat An Example of Live Virtual
Reference
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Chat and Instant Messaging (Cont.)

• Advantages
• Simple to use and have a large installed base
  (e.g., MSN)
• Attractive for librarians serving communities of
  users who are already using these tools
• Relatively quick to learn, but not the best
  option for casual, one-time users
• Transcript options might yield some of the
  benefits described above for e-mail traces
• Interviewing may be more natural and more
  conversational than it is via e-mail or a Web form

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Chat and Instant Messaging (Cont.)

• Disadvantages
• If only text, potential for misunderstandings and
  time-consuming clarification might be high
• A slow typist can be very frustrated
• Accuracy in typing is not necessarily required
  many users dont find that problematic at all

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Videoconferencing

• Extension of the Web-cam notion, but increasing
  in sophistication, bandwidth, image quality
• Enable one- or two-way direct, visual
  communication
• Excellent for reference interview
• Are you shy of staring into a camera?
• The lack of a textual transcript
• Very large expense for software and hardware

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Call-Center-Based Software

• Example OCLC QuestionPoint, LSSI 24/7
• Enable a librarian to handle requests in an
  integrated way
• Most provide for some sort of live interaction
  with the user, via a chat window most likely
• Take advantage of the synchronous nature of the
  interaction, trying to replicate or supplement
  whats possible in a face-to-face encounter
  around a browser window
• Easy on the user, although some require users to
  download applications to support the chat or
  other functions
• Quite expensive, but large systems or
  cooperatives can share the cost

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Call-Center-Based Software (Cont.)

• Scripts canned messages
• Page pushing sending of a URL to the users
  machine and having the page displayed in the
  users browser window
• Form sharing both the librarian and the user
  see the same form and, as the librarian fills it
  in, the user is able to see how thats down
• Application sharing both can use the same
  software package, such as a word processor or a
  spreadsheet
• Co-browsing (escorting) either party might take
  the lead in showing the other through a Web
  search
• Evaluation by sending a brief form

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24/7 in Traditional Chinese
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24/7???
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Co-browsing Chinese Web Site
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????Co-Browsing??
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Other Technologies

• ?? (????????????????????????)
• ???

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From Digital, Live, to Cooperative
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Live Virtual Reference

• ????????
• Live virtual reference is a virtual reference
  that uses chat or text-messaging attempt to move
  to a closer simulation of traditional
  face-to-face reference for users who are
  increasingly virtual and not physically present
  in the physical library Meola and Stormont
  (2002)
• Chat and instant messaging, video conferencing,
  call-center-based software
• Supplement the email service some patrons need
  quick and instant information

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Suitable applications of LVR

• Directional questions Where is the library in
  the campus?
• Co-browsing and page pushing for showing Web
  sites (electronic resources) directly to patrons
• Distant patrons Ah, it may be expensive for
  calling up

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??????

• Cooperative Digital Reference Service (CDRS)
• Why CDRS?
• Matching of patron queries to the most
  appropriate expert
• Cross-service archives of question and answers
• Combine the power of local collections and staff
  strengths with the diversity and availability of
  libraries and librarians everywhere, 24 hours a
  day, 7 days a week
• Example OCLC QuestionPoint

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???? (From OCLC QP)
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???????????
http//cdrs.e-lib.nctu.edu.tw/admin.php
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The Future of DR and CDRS

• A mix of synchronous and asynchronous
• Ready reference quick, factual answers to
  specific questions will have a diminishing part
  of librarianship
• Play to our strength
• Concerns about evaluation and quality of
  information sources, sophisticated tools and
  techniques for searching
• Understanding the nature of users, their
  communities, their needs and situations
• Compiling and organizing and packaging
  information resources for their use
• Helping them to understand how to help themselves
  and how to use and evaluate information
• Step by step

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References

• ???,????????????????,?????????????,
  74,?90.12,?44-55?
• ???,?E-Reference--?????????????????????????,?????
  ??,904(?90?),?90.11,?5-9?
• ???,?????????????,???????,912(?92?),?91.5,?15-18?
  
• ???????,??????????????--???????????,???????,913(?
  93?),?91.8,?7-13?
• Adelaide, Joyce. Live Virtual Reference.
  http//www.consal.org.sg/webupload/resource/brief
  /attachments/7B4EC07544-D1E4-4A2C-9B91-BC0CC71FA4
  537D.pdf
• Beatty, Mark. 2003. A Grant-less Multi-type
  Virtual Reference Consortia. Virtual Reference
  Desk Conference 2003. http//www.vrd2003.org/proce
  edings/presentation.cfm?PID147.
• Hansen, Eric. 2003. KANAnswer A Kansas
  Collaborative for Virtual Reference. Virtual
  Reference Desk Conference 2003.
  http//www.vrd2003.org/proceedings/presentation.cf
  m?PID157.

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References (Cont.)

• Boop, Richard E., and Linda C. Smith. 2001.
  Reference and Information Services An
  Introduction. 3rd ed. Englewood, Colo.
  Libraries Unlimited.
• Janes, Joseph. 2003. Introduction to Reference
  Work in the Digital Age. Neal-Schuman
  Publishers.
• Katz, William A. 2002. Introduction to Reference
  Work. 8th ed. 2 vols. New York McGraw-Hill
• Kresh, Diane, and Arret, Linda. 2000.
  Collaborative Digital Reference Service Update
  on LC Initiative. Digital Reference Service in
  the New Millennium Planning, Management, and
  Evaluation (Edited by R. D. Lankes, J. W. Collins
  III, and A. S. Kasowitz), Published by
  Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., pp. 61-67.

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References (Cont.)

• Lafrance, Helene, and Smith, Monica. 2003. The
  Ups and Downs of Virtual Reference in a
  Collaborative Environment. Virtual Reference
  Desk Conference 2003. http//www.vrd2003.org/proce
  edings/presentation.cfm?PID191.
• Lindbloom, Mary-Carol. 2001. Ready for
  Reference Managing a 24/7 Live Reference
  Service. Virtual Reference Desk Conference 2001.
  http//www.vrd.org/conferences/VRD2001/proceeding
  s/lindbloom.shtml .
• Meola, Marc and Stormont, Sam. 2002. Starting
  and Operating Live Virtual Reference Services.
  Published by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.
• Virtual Reference Desk. About VRD.
  http//www.vrd.org/about.shtml
• Pomerantz, J., Nicholson, S., Belanger, Y.,
  Lankes, R. D. (2004). The Current State of
  Digital Reference Validation of a General
  Digital Reference Model through a Survey of
  Digital Reference Services. Information
  Processing Management, 40(2), 347-363.