AskNow!--evaluating an Australian collaborative chat reference service: a project manager's perspective.

The advent of the internet, innovative technology and the increased availability of electronic resources have impacted dramatically and globally on the provision of reference and information services. As the number of people 'living online' grows, and as face to face reference declines, libraries have responded by creating virtual reference services to assist all users, both onsite and remote, breaking down barriers to information access. Collaborative reference services--local, regional, national and international-have been established in many countries including the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Canada and Australia. Chat or live reference is a significant feature of many of these collaborations.

Key features of chat reference services include the ability to interact in real time with a patron, regardless of location, to answer reference questions, to use scripted messages, to 'push' websites and to 'co-browse'--that is, librarian and patron can simultaneously view the same website. At the end of the chat interaction, patrons who have provided an email address in initial connection to the service, receive a session transcript including links to the websites suggested. Operators are also able to help several patrons concurrently and some software also has the option of screen sharing where the screen of the user can be viewed by the librarian. An added advantage of the co-browsing and screen sharing features is the opportunity they offer a librarian to teach users to become more information literate and self sufficient.

The Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL) established the Reference Issues Working Group in early 2000 to explore reference trends and to investigate the potential for collaboration in the delivery of reference services. Each of the nine libraries--national, state and territory--was already offering a range of services to remote library patrons, including telephone and email reference and the provision of web enquiry forms. Some libraries had started to investigate chat reference and were testing selected software, but had not committed funds to purchase any particular product.

At a face to face meeting of reference managers from CASL libraries in late 2001, it was unanimously decided to trial a collaborative model using chat reference software. A business plan submitted to CASL in early 2002, proposing a 12 month pilot of a collaborative chat reference service, was endorsed and the planning began.

Project Development

The first stage of the project involved establishing a team with representatives from each state and territory library. The National Library provided project management. The participating libraries were the State Library of NSW, State Library of Victoria, State Library of Queensland, State Library of South Australia, State Library of Tasmania, State Library of Western Australia, the Northern Territory Library and Information Service, the ACT Library and Information Service and the National Library.

The overall objectives of the project were to:

* define and test the collaborative service model

* test and evaluate selected interactive chat software applications

* evaluate and assess customer needs and market segments for online reference

* test and evaluate resourcing required to deliver online reference, and

* deliver a collaborative reference service.

A request for quotation was sent to a shortlist of vendors. The software was tested over several weeks in each of the libraries against the selection criteria, and 24/7 reference software from the Metropolitan Cooperative Library System (MCLS) and hosted in the United States, was selected. Initially a licence for two seats was purchased allowing two librarians to operate the service concurrently. A deed of agreement--CASL Live Reference Deed--established the consortium, outlined the management of the pilot, including the responsibilities of participating members and the National Library and the procedures applying to the negotiation and execution of the licence for the service. The service was not expected to replace other reference and information services but to supplement them, offering library patrons an additional means of communication with libraries. It was decided that questions received, if not answered immediately, would be referred on to the relevant email service wherever possible, after negotiation with the enquirer. This eliminated the need for the patron to ask the question again through email.

The deed detailed the division of costs using a three-tier system determined by the size and budget of each participating member library and it was expected that the larger libraries in the consortium would staff the service for more hours than the smaller libraries.

Project development and communication was through regular teleconferences and via an electronic mailing list. After the name of the service…