Making Waves Without Upsetting The Boat

1
Making Waves Without Upsetting The Boat

• Integrating virtual reference into existing
  workflows
• DeAnne Luck, Elaine Berg, Lori Buchanan
• Austin Peay State University

2
The Situation

• Provision of virtual reference is vital
• E-mail reference has been successful for years
  with limited staff
• Chat reference creates new staffing challenges

3
Best practices for instituting virtual reference

• Many larger organizations and consortiums have
  described their successful implementations of
  virtual reference.
• University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (Stemper,
  2001)
• North Carolina State University (Boyer, 2001)
• CDRS (Kresh, 2001)

4
Best practices (U of Minn)

• Received grant to develop service
• Formed planning committee
• Prioritized concerns expressed by staff
• Created detailed policies procedures such as
  defining types of questions and routing through a
  tiered structure
• Started service with staff dedicated solely to
  virtual reference

5
Austin Peay State Univ

• No time
• No additional staff
• Little money
• Smaller organization
• more flexible can evolve as we go
• Librarians work as committee of the whole, so
  policies and procedures are more informal
• Realistic practices

6
Austin Peay background

• 5770 FTE
• Designated as TBRs liberal arts univ
• One off-campus center other off-campus sites
• Majority of students are commuters
• Many non-traditional students
• Increasing number of online classes

7
APSU virtual reference

• E-mail reference started June, 2000.
• Staffed by 5 librarians who check account at
  reference desk
• Basic policies and procedures
• 34 questions in October 2001
• Chat reference started July, 2001
• Use LiveAssistance software
• 22 questions in October

8
Staffing issues options

• Effective use of staff (handle all questions at
  reference desk?)
• Unpredictability of demand (juggling multiple
  modes is difficult!)
• No additional staff
• How to balance?

9
APSU staffing

• Planned for a mix of coverage from reference desk
  and offices.
• All librarians and reference desk staff
  participate
• Can cover additional hours by leveraging staff
• Use staff willing to work from offices
• Use staff who are unable to staff reference desk

10
Staffing survey

• Staffing location for chat reference
• Academic Libraries
• 3 office 2 desk 3 office and desk
• Public Libraries (5)
• None staffed from desk, all used offices and
  consortium
• Three libraries used staff from home

11
Staffing survey (staff type)

• No libraries used staff that do NOT usually work
  the Ref desk
• 43 used paraprofessionals
• Compensation for staff time
• 2 shifted staffing from the Ref desk to virtual
  reference
• 5 count virtual ref as regular desk hours
• 4 gave no reduction in Ref desk hours
• Work from home counts as regular work hours

12
Ideal model?

• NCSU Off-Site Services Desk
• Handles chat, e-mail and telephone
• Located near the Ref desk
• Requires increase in staff

13
Present future

• Present Low chat use, reverted to staffing from
  Ref desk
• Future Looking at more equitable distribution of
  all public service hours among librarians
• Mix of office staffing (day) and Ref desk
  (evenings)
• Weekends staffing from home?

14
Training approaches

• Professional trainer
• Training manuals
• Classes, workshops, seminars
• New staff
• Existing staff

15
APSU training issues

• How to use the software
• Getting staff accustomed to the chat/live
  communication environment

16
APSUs specific approach

• Minimal training from vendor
• Train the trainers
• Articles
• Group demonstration

17
APSUs specific approach

• Handouts on chat tips
• One on one training
• Discuss sessions via email or reference round
  robin at library faculty meetings
• Part of information desk orientation

18
Future issues

• Reference interview in a virtual environment
• Accuracy of answers
• Formalized training program
• Core competencies

19
APSU library use trends
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APSU ask a librarianpurpose and policies

• to provide research guidance and brief factual
  information of an academic nature to members of
  the APSU community.
• Who may use this service?
• Who will receive my question?
• What kinds of questions are appropriate and not
  appropriate?
• How fast will I get an answer?

23
Evolving service issues

• Conducting effective reference interviews
• Collaborating with users to find answers
• Facilitating development of information literacy
  competencies
• Ensuring quality reference service

24
The Reference interview

• Traditional reference skills are still needed
• Different skill set is also needed
• Users exhibit different traits online

25
Collaborating with users

• Expect students to frame good questions
• Use co-browsing, form sharing, meeting room and
  whiteboarding chat features to connect with
  students
• Develop knowledge bases and response templates of
  frequently sent instructions

26
Facilitating information competency development

• Work with users to establish their need
• Teach search protocols
• Include evaluative criteria when possible
• Provide transaction logs which include
  strategies, tools, and search terms

27
Ensuring quality service

• Adhere to tenets of quality service
• Start with a well-designed entry point and
  question form
• Share virtual reference experiences

28
Future virtual reference policy

• Treat all modes of reference as equal, so that
  all users have the opportunity to receive similar
  services
• Capitalize on this new modes potential for
  developing information literacy competencies in
  students who may never be encountered otherwise