Why is the sky blue?Implementing a collaborative virtual

reference desk project

Kitty Mackey

Roxanne Dimyan

Cannell Library, Clark College

Linda Frederiksen

Nicole Campbell

WSU Vancouver Library

Outline

Introduction & Grant Information Technical Information Assignments Lessons Learned Conclusions / Q & A

LSTA Demonstration Grant

Background 7 grants - $30,000 23 participating libraries 6 other projects

Seattle Public Library

Jefferson County Library

Ellensburg Public LibraryTimberland Regional Library

King County Law LibraryCity University

University of Washington

Washington State Library

Virtual Reference in Washington

Sno-Isle Regional Library

Pend Oreille County Library

Stevens County Library

Spokane Falls CCSpokane CC

Washington State University

Whitman County Library

Skagit Valley College

Grays Harbor College

WSU-VancouverClark College

Information provided by the Statewide Virtual Reference Project, Washington State Library

WSU Vancouver – Clark College Project

Why we did it– Geographic proximity– 2+2 model

Grant proposal Grant period Grant requirements

Ask A Librarian

Formalizing collaboration– Interagency agreements– Budgets and accounting

24/7 software

Where we are now

Status of Washington State Library and LSTA funds in the state

Current number of transactions Where we hope to be by the end of the grant How will we evaluate virtual reference service

Initial Setup

Setup and servers Library Websites

– Branding– Scripts

Training

Initial training by 24/7 Test Q’s Practice practice practice

Policies

Determining user population– Students, staff & faculty– Community

Hours & Scheduling Authentication Communication Confidentiality

Troubleshooting

Technical:– Dropped patrons– Clearing cache

Staff:– Are you monitoring?– Test and preview pages

Assignments

If you give an assignment, they will go online!

Assignments: WHY?

Nothing was happening “online”

Needed to practice

Wanted a “control” group for feedback

The Process

Met with faculty, designed assignment

Met with classes, described assignment

Emailed details to Virtual Reference list

Students turned in transcripts to instructor

Met classes, students completed evaluations

How We Picked Courses

Instructor interest

Assignment met course outcomes

Different skill levels

Web experience

Library experience

HDev116: College Success

One specific question: Please tell me where to find information on … (fill in career of their choice).

One specific answer: Librarians “escorted” students to specific source (CIS and WOIS).

Created scripts for repetitive instructions.

CSA185: Intro to Using the Internet

Seven questions, they choose one. (7th was “your choice”)

Several answers, but specific sources -- periodicals databases.

Student reactions led to evaluations.

Evaluation Questions

1. What type of connection? (gave us a clue…)

2. What kind of service did you expect to receive?

3. How did your experience compare with your expectations?

4. Additional comments

What Type of Connection?

Dial-up: 22

Cable/DSL: 15

On-campus: 8

Students’ Expectations

Sorted into three “types”

Instructional: “Someone who could help me find my way around”

Q&A: “A question answer service”

“Drive-Thru”: “Reliable, fast service!”

Evaluation Tallies

Experience?

Positive: 30

Negative: 10

Neutral: 4

Expectations?

Instruct: 10

Q&A: 13

Drive-thru: 9

Neutral: 12

Comments?

Positive: 17

Negative: 9

Neutral: 3

Student Responses - Negative

Student Responses - Negative

Connection: ? AOL

Expectation: “I wasn’t sure.”

Experience: “It sucked because it messed up. (twice)”

Comments: “Too slow!”

Student Responses - Negative

Connection: Cable

Expectation: “Reliable, fast information”

Experience: “Below my expectations.”

Comments: “Because there were several technical problems during my session, the librarian couldn’t guide me to the web page [she/he] found. And the transcripts … were incomplete. Only showed my question.”

Student Responses - Positive

Student Responses - Positive

Connection: Cable

Expectation: “Reliable, fast service”

Experience: “It was better than I thought. I mean, it had some problems, like glitches here and there, but I got my information.”

Comments: “Still need to work on the program, figure out the problems, but otherwise good program.”

Student Responses - Positive

Connection: DSLExpectation: “I had no expectations. I thought it

would just be busy work, but it was more helpful.”

Experience: “Librarian was patient and more than helpful – especially since I had never been in a chat room. I got email of sites visited, which was helpful.”

Comments: (Couldn’t get on 2nd time, called reference desk at Clark.)

Student Responses - Positive

Connection: DSL

Expectation: “…basically good service, sending me directly where I wanted to go.”

Experience: “…librarian not familiar with assignment, but tried…followed up next day w/o being asked, sent me more info. I was very impressed with his service…”

Comments: “More hours of operation”

Student Responses - Positive

Connection: ModemExpectation: “… exactly the type of service I

received. Ask a question and get an answer that is both helpful and interesting.”

Experience: “… excellent service and the person that I spoke to was very informative, and to boot was very courteous. Don’t find that too much with automated information systems.”

Comments: “… should be made a permanent feature.”

Student Responses - Positive

Connection: HP thru AOL

Expectation: “Pretty general service.”

Experience: “It was great. They asked good questions and led me to very specific websites for information.”

Comments: “They responded quickly & when they were busy, asked if I wanted to wait.”

Student Responses - Positive

Connection: DSLExpectation: “I was kind of unsure about what to

expect. I figured it was some kind of search engine but was surprised it was an actual librarian.”

Experience: “BLEW IT OUT OF THE WATER! KABOOM!!! ”

Comments: THANKS

Conclusions

Assignments - Conclusions

Keep assignments simple.

Build scripts to match assignments.

Do pre-and post evaluations.

Students should get credit for assignments.

Lessons Learned

Statistics Marketing Staffing Service hours Policies and procedures The virtual reference librarian Online help guides User populations

Lessons Learned

http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/campbell/onlinenw2003/