Do virtual reference librarians dream of digital reference questions?: A qualitative and quantitative analysis of email and chat reference.

In 1984 when the internet was just a shadow of its later self, Maurice B Line noted that because of the increasing possibilities of information technology, libraries will 'devote less attention to storage and more to transmission'. (1) Perhaps the groundswell of interest in virtual reference in part reflects the prescience of his prediction.

Virtual reference comes in a number of forms. The initial variants of virtual reference included email in the late 1980s and the ubiquitous adoption by libraries of web-based forms that allowed users to send questions to reference librarians and receive a response, usually within 24 hours and often much sooner. More recent developments have allowed virtual reference services to venture into real time or synchronous methods of communication. Chat technologies that have been used primarily for social purposes have enabled librarians to conduct real time reference interviews online with patrons.

Reference librarians have responded in various ways to the advent of virtual reference services. For some it is 'the most exciting development in reference work in a long time'. (2) To others it is 'overrated, inflated and not even real'. (3) It could be the very future of reference librarianship or spell the end to it. For some it might mean less reference librarians but with higher salaries. (4)

One of the principal reasons for providing virtual reference is to increase access to the knowledge and skills of the reference librarian. To stay relevant to the needs of the 21st century student, academic libraries have gone into cyberspace and maybe the librarian has to meet the student there. McKinzie and Lauer (5) note that 'librarianship has yet to meet a technology it doesn't like' and believe that the drive behind virtual reference may have more to do with the profession's fascination with the technological possibilities than established needs existing amongst the users.

It is also important to establish the extent to which reference librarians need to adapt their existing skills to meet the demands of the virtual reference environment. Hodges reminds us, at least in regard to email and chat, that, 'There are no visual or audio cues to guide the reference interview; users become impatient and disconnect if librarians take too long, leaving librarians uncertain about the status of the interaction'. (6) Janes notes that while virtual reference may be exciting and full of potential, current technology can produce problems that are unique to the new domain of virtual reference. 'Users simply evaporate in the middle of live chat sessions'. (7)

Such concerns have also led to speculation about which types of reference services accommodate which types of questions. Jackson (8) quotes Janes as believing that virtual reference best answers ready reference and popular culture questions, whilst dealing poorly with more sophisticated research questions.

Whilst many librarians seemingly believe that virtual reference is a great idea, little has been published that investigates the genuine need for real time services. Whilst the adoption rate of virtual reference services by libraries is high, the subsequent uptake by users is typically low, at least in many academic contexts. (9)

This article reports on an investigation carried out as part of a Masters research project of some of these issues as they have been experienced by the Online Librarian, the virtual reference service delivered by Murdoch University and Macquarie University. The investigation dealt only with the transactions handled by Murdoch University and focussed on the provision of chat and email virtual reference. Software used by Online Librarian was selected because of its Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) capability. As such it is not meant to provide a complete analysis of the Online Librarian service.

The Online Librarian

The Online Librarian commenced operation on the third of March 2003. This service was developed using a consortial arrangement between Murdoch University in Perth and Macquarie University in Sydney. Macquarie has been offering a virtual reference service since 2000. The consortial arrangement saw Macquarie providing service to both campuses between 3 and 6pm Western Standard Time (WST) Monday to Thursday, and Murdoch providing service between 6 and 9pm WST. Service on Saturday and Sunday was provided between 11 and 5pm WST, again with Macquarie covering the first three hours. During the period under investigation, the Online Librarian service used designated staff, separate from the main reference desk.

Microsoft NetMeeting is used to provide virtual reference as it is available on most Windows operating systems, is straightforward to set up and provides text based chat and VoIP. Screen sharing allows a student to see web pages as the librarian visits them and associated activities such as cursor movements and typing of search terms.

The Online Librarian service is aimed primarily at postgraduate and off campus students. It is marketed as real time/real talk, for students studying at home in the evenings and weekends. Its intended focus is on the potential for instructional support offered by voice and screen sharing technologies, though as the study acknowledges, most use of the service was text based chat, associated with screen sharing. A description of the full Online Librarian service, its objectives, and an assessment of its successes, failures, and future were presented at VALA 2004. (10)

Methodology

The primary data for this study includes all calls to the Murdoch University Library Online Librarian between the period 3 March and 18 August 2003, equivalent to 119 days of…