Virtual reference in libraries: Remote patrons heading your way?
Doris Small Helfer
Searcher; Feb 2001; 9, 2; ABI/INFORM Complete
pg. 67
. I eading I ibrarie£
Virtual Reference in Libraries:
Remote Patrons Heading Your Way?
by Doris Small Helfer
Chair, Technical Services
Library
California State University, Northridge
Academic libraries across the country have been experiencing dramatic
drops in their reference statistics. The
Association of Research Libraries
(ARL) tracks service trends. While
every other area of library service
shows growth or at least no loss, reference transaction counts have dropped
2 percent 1991 to 1999. In contrast, interlibrary loan requests have shown a
healthy 84 percent increase. The primary reason seems obvious to me
from one of the most frequently asked
questions at the reference desk, "Can
I access all these databases from home
and, if so, how?" Again, ARL statistics
indicate the change in roles this represents to academic librarians with
figures on group presentations up 34
percent and the number of participants in such presentations up 32 percent [http:/ /www.arl.org/stats/arlstat/
1999tl.html].
The accessibility of information resources via the Internet has led students to take advantage of that accessibility by using the databases that the
library pays for from their home or
dorm room. By and large, this is a good
thing. It gives students access to online and electronic collections whenever and wherever they may want or
need them, not just during the physical library's open hours. But what
about those students encountering
problems getting into the library's resources, those struggling to extract
what they want from the databases
they have selected, or those not knowing which database(s) to select? What
help is available for those patrons who
use or try to use resources from home?
And what about those for whom the
databases or Internet resources do not
have the answer?
Many libraries have taken reference
questions via e-mail for years. In the
case of e-mail, typically the patron
sends an e-mail message asking their
reference question and, whenever the
next reference librarian gets time to
check the e-mail, they respond to the
question. The patron gets an answer to
their question within 24 hours, if they
have given the librarian sufficient information from which to answer their
original question. However, all librarians know that patrons don't always give
sufficient information or ask their
questions in a manner that will get
them the answer they really want. The
essential reference interview process
can frequently take several e- mails before the patron gets the information
they need. Even in the best of cases, patrons must wait for answers to their reference questions. E-mail reference is
not immediate and requires considerable time and patience by the patron.
Telephone reference, while immediate
when you can get through, is limited to
the library's hours of operation.
Technology, computers, and Internet mythology have raised patron expectations and demands. More and
more students today expect everything they want available online and
in full text. Patrons accessing library
resources increasingly don't want to
search a database just to find an article citation, even though they can
check the library catalog online to see
if the library owns the journal. But if
the library does own the journal, patrons may have to go into the library,
find the specific article, and either
copy it to read later or read the article
in the library.
Increasingly, patrons want and expect to not just find the citation, but
also the article, online. This trend can
disturb reference librarians when they
see students taking lower-quality, nonacademic articles just because they can
find them full text online. Of course,
even these are the lucky patrons, the
ones who have found relevant articles.
What about those trying to find information they need from home, but failing to find the answers that satisfy their
research needs, particularly those who
either cannot or do not want to physically come into the library?
Academic libraries feellhe heal of
burning expectations, but they are
not alone. Public libraries and special
libraries also face the challenge of rising expectations, the Web-driven mandate of24/7.
24/7 Reference Project:
A Library Approach
Steve Coffman, now of LSSI, and
Susan McGlamery of the Metropolitan
Cooperative Library System have been
concerned about this issue for nearly
2 years and have been doing a lot
February 2001---@
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about it. Coffman wrote an article in
the May 1999 issue of American Libraries entitled "Reference As Others
Do It," 1 in which he suggested the idea
of live virtual reference and intimated
that software was becoming available
to make this a reality. [For a status report on virtual reference by Coffman,
check the forthcoming March 2001 issue of Public Libraries.]
Coffman and McGlamery worked
together to develop and get a federal
Library Services and Technology Act
(LSTA) grant for what they called the
"24-7 Project." This project of the Metropolitan Cooperative Library System
[http:/ /www.mcls.org] is supported by
Federal LSTA funding and administered by the California State Library
[http:/ /www.library.ca.gov/]. The project serves a number oflibraries in California. Its goal is to provide libraries
with the tools needed to do live reference on the Web. [For more information about the project, check out
http:/ /www.247ref.org.]
Coffman and McGlamery wrote another article in the May 2000 issue of
American Libraries entitled "The Librarian and Mr. Jeeves"2. In this article they looked at existing commercial
Web reference services like AskJeeves
and Webhelp and wondered why librarians would abandon the public to
companies with a commercial interest, which access only Web-based information, and which have only a superficial understanding of how to help
people find information. Coffman and
McGlamery wrote:
If we hope to continue to serve as
honest brokers and offer a viable
alternative to theAskJeeveses and
Webhelps of the world, then we
must adopt the tools and strategies of our competitors and join
our patrons on the Web. Although
some libraries have tried developing e-mail reference services,
delivering answers can often take
24 hours or more, the reference
interview can be difficult to handle, and most library e-mail services have gotten precious little
use. That is where the 24-7 Reference Project in Southern California comes in. Scheduled to go live
by the summer of 2001, the project aims to help libraries develop
the tools they will need to provide
live, real-time reference services
over the Web 24 hours per day, 7
days per week.
The 24-7 Reference Project uses
Web line software (recently bought out
by Cisco Systems), which provides sophisticated tools well beyond "chat" to
enable librarians to interact with patrons. There are MCLS libraries such
as the Santa Monica Public Library
[http:www.smpl.org] that started using the virtual reference desk software
on a very limited basis for weekend
service to patrons.
In the Summer 2000 issue of Reference and User Services Quarterly, an
article entitled "Moving Reference to
the Web"3 by McGlamery and Coffman appeared in which they stated
the following:
The development of the Internet is finally making it possible
for libraries to realize a longstanding dream: to bring the library to the patron, rather than
bringing the patron to the library.
We want to serve our patrons
whenever and wherever they
need information, whether they
are standing in front of the reference desk, sitting in their office,
or helping the kids with homework at 9:30 in the evening. The
Internet has given us the tools we
need to realize this goal.
Commercial firms are using
Web-based technologies to provide live customer service, including text-based "live chat,"
collaborative browsing, Voice
Over IP, and "click to call me,"
among others. This software is
specially designed to improve
the efficiency and quality of
question handling on the Web.
The Metropolitan Cooperative Library System/ Santiago Library System consortium has re-
ceived a grant to purchase contact center software and test its
applicability for reference. If this
approach lives up to its promise
and reference service moves
onto the Web, perhaps then it
may be possible to provide our
patrons with access to the library
anyway, anyhow, and anywhere.
The software the consortium purchased enables staff to track and cap-
Latest Announcement
from 24-7 Project
At presstime, we received this quick
progress report from Susan McGlamery:
Through an LSTA grant, the project was able to license the software and contract with a software
developer to customize the product
for libraries. We have about 60 libraries testing the software- most
are public libraries, some are academic, and a few are special libraries. So far we have given each
library total freedom, in that they
decide what hours to offer the service, and with which staff.
In January our public library
members band together to cooperatively offer a centralized live reference service using the software.
The hours are noon to 6 P.M., Monday through Friday. The "ask a librarian" is available on several los
Angeles/Orange County public library Web sites, including los Angeles Public Library, Santa Monica
Public Library, and others. Eventually, this spring, we will expand this
service to cover these hours:
Sunday 6 P.M. to midnight
Monday-Thursday noon to midnight
Friday noon to 6 P.M.
UCLA began offering the service live to
their students in January. Other academic libraries testing the software include UC
Irvine, Cal State LA, Cal Poly Pomona, and
(soon) Caltech.
This is an exciting example of cooperative
reference in a consortia! context, and to my
knowledge this will be the first such effort, using the live reference software.
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ture details of reference questions, provides scripting to prompt reference staff
to ask certain questions for certain subjects, or refers to certain key sources,
and allows easy authentication of the
patrons so that only library card-holders can query the staff or access any proprietary databases. In addition it allows
routing of calls, so staff could work in remote locations, for example, networking a group oflibrarians from different
libraries or staff working at home. It
also permits live, real-time collaborative browsing over the Web, which lets
the reference librarian "push" the patron's browser to appropriate URLs.
The Metropolitan Cooperative Library
System/ Santiago Library System
hoped to have the software installed
by the end of last year and to go live by
the summer of 200 l.
LSSI has launched the Virtual Reference Desk [http:/ /www.lssi.com/vir
tual/) and has already sold it to the Bay
Area Libraries, Silicon Valley Library
System, the South Jersey Library Cooperative, and North Carolina State
University, among others. Steve Coffman estimates the Virtual Reference
Desk is being used in about 65libraries
to date. Coffman is traveling extensively now, responding to many libraries and library consortia looking
at installing the product.
It works fairly simply and requires a
personal computer, preferably at least a
Pentium II with 128K of memory and
the ability to execute Java or JavaScript.
When patrons come to the library Web
site looking for information, they click
on a button labeled "Get Live Help." The
button can be a button or a text link,
and the library can choose what it looks
like and how it is labeled. When patrons
LSSI's Virtual Reference Desk: click on the button at the library's Web
A Vendor Approach
site, a Virtual Reference Desk session
begins.
Patron are then prompted with
In June of 2000, Steve Coffman left
a
login
screen
that requests their name,
his position as the head of FYI, a feee-mail
address,
and the question. Libased service of the Los Angeles County
brary
staff
can
configure the login
Public Library System, to join LSSI. LSSI
screen.
Once
the
login screen form is
was interested in commercializing the
complete,
the
patron
clicks the connect
work begun by the 24-7 project for the
library market. Steve was chosen by button to transfer to a queue and await
LSSI for this effort because of his pio- the next available librarian. When the
neering efforts, knowledge, and experi- patron enters the queue, the system disence with the virtual reference desk plays an estimate of the wait time; if the
from his work on the 24-7 project. For a time exceeds a certain threshold, the
variety of reasons, Steve and LSSI chose system offers the patron the option of
to go with different software called sending an e-mail question.
Librarians monitor the queues
eGain produced by a company called
eGain Communications Corporation from a Session Inbox showing the
[http:/ /www.egain.com!]. They de- number of patrons in each queue and
cided to take software originally de- the average wait time on that queue.
veloped for thee-commerce customer Calls are answered in the order reservice/call center market, the same ceived. When a librarian answers a
software used on L.L. Bean's Web site, call, the system launches a special
and customize it for library reference browser that allows the patron and the
use. While there are many competitors librarian to work together online.
to eGain in the eCommerce Customer Once the patron is connected, the liService software market, vendors such brarian and the patron can both have
as eShare, Live Person, Live Assistant, a Web and chat-based dialogue while
Webline, and others, LSSI is, to Steve's they work to locate the information
knowledge, the only vendor that has the patron has requested.
Librarians may perform the followadopted and marketed this kind of
ing
actions with any patron:
software for library use.
• Send Web pages to the patron in
real time, either one at a time, or
through "escorting," in which the
patron's browser follows the librarian's step-by-step.
• Preview any Web page before sending it. For patrons with advanced
browsers (IE or Netscape 4.0 or better), they can do two-way browsing
(meaning the patron can push
pages to the librarian and vice
versa) and use a form synchronization feature that allows librarians
and patrons to fill out forms, like
search boxes, together.
• Send "chat" responses to the customer's questions and statements.
• Send pre-defined scripted messages and answers to commonly
asked questions.
• Capture and send screen shots
from any application running on
their computer.
• Walk the patron through slideshows
and presentations.
• Transfer or conference the call to
other librarians on the system or to
any other library using the system.
• When the transaction is completed,
the librarian closes the session and
both the patron and the librarian
are e-mailed a complete transcript
of the session, including all conversation exchanged and screens
pushed. A copy of the transcript is
also stored in the system database
for future reference and analysis.
As a hosted service, technically"installing" the Virtual Reference Desk on
your Web site requires no more than
pasting a bit ofHTML code on an icon
or a text link to make you ready to go
live. Librarians sign on to the system
through a special Web address LSSI
gives the library. There is no software to
install or set up, so the whole process
takes about 15 minutes.
Of course, some things the software
can't do for you, like plan your services,
decide on how you would like to configure it for users, and train your staff.
These are not small issues, as it does
take some time to train staff to develop
the skills to chat effectively with patrons
February 2001--@
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
online and to lead them effectively to
answer resources. To help, many librarians work to build in scripts the library
may already have covering frequently
asked questions. Most commonly the
software is used in conjunction with
chat and voiceover IP, but not video as
most networks cannot handle the
bandwidth necessary to do video, yet.
Voiceover IP allows you to use the same
phone line for talking to a librarian at
the other end.
But once the library is ready, deploying the software takes virtually no time
at all, and updating andre-configuring
the Virtual Reference Desk is equally
simple. Since the librarian's "desktop"
on the Virtual Reference Desk operates
using any Web browser, patrons and library staffers can access the network
from anywhere with a Web connection.
In fact, a number of the new online
commercial reference services have set
up "virtual call centers," where all the
agents work from home, but the computer still routes the questions to agents
logged onto the system as if they all
worked in one big "boiler room."
Implications
This software has implications beyond just dealing with our patrons.
Many libraries with remote branches
could use it for immediate access to
colleagues at the main library. And, of
course, there are potential uses for distance education and classrooms as
well. But librarians will have to deal
with issues that define their patrons
and their level of service to those patrons. If you have a service which any
and everyone can enter, are you prepared for the demand on your library's
time? If you are budgeted to serve only
a certain constituency, you will have to
ensure only those constituents have
access to your Virtual Reference Desk.
This is not hard to do, but the libraries
entering the Virtual Reference Desk
must be prepared on how to handle all
these and other situations likely to be
encountered by the library dealing
with remote patrons before the library
truly implements such a service.
While I am truly excited about the
possibilities and potential that the
virtual reference desk has for librarians and the chance it gives us to work
interactively with remote patrons as
well as compete effectively with commercial services like Ask Jeeves and
Webhelp, I sometimes have nightmare visions of myself and my colleagues tied to the virtual reference
desk 24/7. Not a pretty sight. The
thought of having to answer a patron
inquiry at 3 A.M. does not exactly excite me- or at least, not positively.
However, I do believe this development may move librarians to band
closer together in either consortia or
more informal sharing arrangements
to ensure patron inquiries get answered whenever and wherever a
need or demand arises. I suspect
some librarians will embrace the
change enthusiastically, especially
where they find staff who enjoy working late nights. Others will employ the
option on a more limited basis such
as Santa Monica Public Library does,
by offering those services during limited weekend daytime hours. I do
however believe that libraries that
wish to continue to thrive and help
their patrons cannot ignore the declining numbers in personal reference desk transactions for long. We
have made our patrons able to search
our resources from home, and we
can't abandon them there. I don't
know about you, but I've yet to get an
even remotely useful answer to my
questions when I've asked a question
of Ask Jeeves in the past.
I believe this will cause a major shift
in the way in which our profession delivers reference service to patrons. The
Internet has already changed the way
we deliver information to our customers and this just further extends
that change. I do believe that sooner
or later all librarians will embrace
these changes and the superior service
they offer our patrons.
*
Endnotes
1 Coffman, Steve. "Reference As Others Do
It," American Libraries(30)(5) (May 1999)
pp. 54-6.
2 Coffman, Steve and Susan McGlamery.
"The Librarian and Mr. Jeeves," American
Libraries 31(5) (May 2000) pp. 66-69.
3
McGlamery, Susan and Coffman, Steve.
"Moving Reference to the Web," Reference
& User Services Quarterly v. 39 no4 (Summer 2000) pp. 380-6.
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@--sEARCHER: The Magazine for Database Professionals
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