reference

Strange Librarian Julie posted thoughtfully today about IM vs our current chat reference model, customer service, and what it all implies for building relationships with our patrons.

She writes,

Perhaps the way to make sure folks are getting the best service possible is to have IM as our internet point of contact (w/ in-site widgets for those who don't have an IM client already DLed), along with email for local librarians and have a national VR service without any local brands for that 24/7 access to research help.

Julie is approaching this problem partly from a service model perspective, and she implies that we would have people online from every library, whenever that library is open. That would be an incredible start.

A big reason our collaborative virtual reference service exists is that many of our patrons don't have a "local library", so besides that snag, I think she's right that our current model doesn't always best serve patrons who have "local" questions, and when patrons click on 'Chat with a librarian', they are sometimes expecting to chat with the librarian down the street who stamps the books.

I think that this is a usability problem. Usually, we talk about web usability, and the design of websites and how we can make it easier for patrons to use them. But usability applies to anything you use, and so the problem I see here is that "the library" is hard to use.

For example, when we say "Chat with a librarian", we are most often talking about reference service. If that's not clear to almost all of patrons, if they don't know how we define that service or even that it exists, then we have a usability problem.

Sure, we take all comers, but the evidence is strong that we don't always serve everyone equally well:

The person I talked to was from MD and did not answer my question, but simply directed me to the "Contact Us" page that I found the link to the live chat on. Not helpful in answering my question at all.

Quick answers. Found a website I didn't know about. Very helpful! thanks.

I originally contacted your chat line because I was not sure how to handle unauthorized use of my library card. I couln't call at the time, and used the chat to contact someone. The librarian was not real helpful and just told me that if it was him, he would call the library. I thought that that is what I was doing, but apparently I was using the wrong avenue to do it.

i chatted with misty.s she was very helpful. she gave me all the information i needed to know. and that too within a short span of time. this service is really great.

I really wanted to get my question answered in real time, but the librarian didn't have access to databases/was busy -- so my expectations weren't met.

Steve from Multnomah County promptly helped me find a creative solution to access the information I needed. Great service. Keep it up.

Do you see the theme? Patrons are satisfied when they have reference questions, but not when they have questions that required access to circulation records, minute policies or local library databases.

There are a few gray areas - most librarians can tell you, yes, Mary Blotter and the Gruesome Inkspot is available at your library, or no, it's not, by looking in the catalog, and some patrons are satisfied because someone listened to their problem and is making sure it gets to the right person. Patrons are still satisfied over 80% of the time, by the way.

Sometimes, it's tempting to say, big deal, 80% is great, we'll never please everyone. But 20% is still pretty significant and I think there are things we can do about it:

First, help patrons choose the right service.

• John Kupersmith at the University of California Berkeley has a handy list of Library Terms that Users Understand. When we link to virtual reference services, we should take advantage of this research.
• Instead of "Chat live with a librarian", we could have separate links, "Ask a question about my library account" and "Ask a research question". We could link to a directory of Oregon libraries (oregonlibraries.net!) to help people get the right phone number or e-mail address to use.
• We currently tell patrons how many Oregon librarians are online when they click on the link to Chat with us. It could be more helpful if we told us which libraries they are from, or even their screen names.
• With the alternative online chat system we're testing out next week, it's possible to let a patron choose the person they want to talk to.

Second, promote the idea of reference, not just our virtual reference services. In 2002, the National Center for Education Statistics published results of a study ranking library usage by states, per-capita. Oregon ranked 2nd in circulation, 3rd in Interlibrary loans, 4th in library visits and 20th in reference questions. If "books" are the brand of libraries globally, Oregon libraries are worldwide leaders of that movement.

Here's what we can do:

• Slam the boards - Bill Pardue from Arlington Heights Memorial Library in Illinois is promoting the idea that as many librarians as possible log on to Yahoo! Answers, the Wikipedia Reference Desk and other Q+A sites on September 10, 2007, and show and tell the world what great reference service libraries provide.

  Read more and get involved at answerboards.wetpaint.com/page/Slam+the+Boards!.

• I've bandied about the idea with the marketing team about starting a weekly or bi-monthly column about reference service aimed at patrons. Librarians would write short summaries of reference sources on a topic, related to their own expertise or to a current event.

  I tried this once before, but ran out of steam trying to come up with ideas myself. The week I posted about newspapers available online in Oregon libraries, we got extra questions just on that topic.

  The L-net web page might look something like this mockup, and of course we'll need authors.

I know I don't have all the answers - what are your ideas for designing better services, helping patrons choose the right ones and telling them about reference?

Now and again, a patron will connect to us and ask for the librarian to send a specific site or page. Lately, many patrons have been asking to be connected to Dogpile.com, a search engine that uses results from several other search engines at the same time.

Why are patrons asking us this and how should we handle it?

I can think of three reasons that patrons ask for specific sites

1. A site is blocked from their internet connection.
2. They are testing us, seeing how far they can push us.
3. Some combination of the above.

If a site is blocked on a patron's home, school or library computer, it doesn't necessarily mean that the patron shouldn't be allowed to view it or the information it contains.

My assumption is that internet filtering software blocks a lot of information that answer reference questions. It is okay for the librarian to co-browse the site with the patron or copy and paste or otherwise send the patron information from the blocked site.

A new Oregon law will even exempt librarians from prosecution when they share sexually explicit material with minors. This usually applies to books about sex, but it would likely also protect Oregon librarians who accidentally send a page that has explicit pop-ups. The Oregon State Library recently reported that HB 2843 is waiting to be signed by governor Kulongoski and that they don't know when it will become law.

So what is it about Dogpile? Is it because the site skirts content filters and may be used by people to find pornographic material?

I think we can all agree that helping patrons find pornography is not what any of us signed up for, even if it will be legal in Oregon.

We also can't be sure that this is the issue at hand. I looked at 17 of the recent questions asking for Dogpile and observed:

• Patrons are coming from links on the Beaverton School District website. School is not in session yet, so patrons using the site in summer school or a t home.
• Many of the patrons are being pushed the Dogpile home page, without co-browsing, after which the patron disconnects. Dogpile.com does not appear to be a framebuster, so if they are disconnecting on their own, presumably dogpile.com shows up on their screen and is not filtered. "This is all I need", one patron says.
• At least one patron is asking for non-pornographic pictures of a teen heartthrob.
• If this is a single patron, she is convinced we can help her.

I am not convinced that these patrons' goals are to get to Dogpile. They want to get to Dogpile to get to something else. Will a reference interview help them get there faster?

My advice for dealing with the situation is to send the page. Afterwards, go ahead and ask,

"Did it come up? Are you asking for dogpile.com because it is blocked on your computer?"

... if dogpile is not blocked ...

Try to find out what they need/want us for. "I bet there's an easier way for you to get to dogpile.com without connecting to us. It seems to work on your computer, so maybe I can help you figure out what to do to get to it next time."

... and if the answer is yes ...

Co-browse to the site with the patron and/or tell them, "I don't think dogpile.com will work even if I send it to you, but I may be able to send you pages or pictures I find with it. What can I help you find?"

I'd love to hear how this works for everyone.

Back when we switched the name of this service from Answerland to L-net, I Googled for L-net and my favorite result was www.dd-l.net, a tribute to Daniel Day-Lewis.

Honestly, I can't think of Daniel Day-Lewis without cracking up over his emphatic line in Last of the Mohicans, "I will find you!"

In his honor, no really, in yours, I've added a new page to our site, www.oregonlibraries.net/find, a search engine of about 1,700 sites that librarians on our service have shared with patrons in more than five separate sessions.

I know that sending pages to patrons isn't the same thing as collection development, but I like what I see in my test searches: no ads, no news links, just good wholesome sites. I hope.

So far it isn't linked anywhere but here. Where should it go?

The front page?

The about page that loads when patrons connect to us?

The homework help page?

In the site banner?

Find is based on Google Coop Custom Search Engine and it lets you add new sites in bulk, but it isn't letting me add thousands and thousands at a time, which is what I want to do because Emily suggested we change the search to include sites we've sent more than once (about 6,200).

We can add the L-net Find search engine other places also, like library websites, school websites, and I even popped it into the L-net policy page for the 24/7 cooperative and I'm going to see what happens.

Luke Rosenberger gave me this idea, probably a year ago, and Dave Lankes once did a similar thing with Reference Extract.

Depending on which statistic I believe, 64-80% of our patrons are K-12 students. We've grown quite a bit in the last two years, but success is mostly localized in a handful of schools and districts. Students are often repeat users, and usually, many students with the same assignment will contact us separately. Even if 20,000 kids use L-net, we don't come close to reaching the 540,000 K-12 students in Oregon.

This fact makes me question basing our virtual reference on a call center model. In our call center, each patron/caller connects individually to a librarian. This is great for providing individual, professional and confidential service and I love that, but it is not so great for trying to serve many people at the same time, not when we can't predict when they're going to need us and when we don't have nearly enough staff to do it.

Take an example class visit, with 30 separate kids asking the same (or similar) questions, but being connected to 30 separate librarians, what we have is a mess. I think L-net and cooperative and QuestionPoint backup librarians do a fine job of serving these patrons individually, and I don't mean to deride anyone's work, but I don't think it's the best way to serve the students.

For starters, at least 10% (on average) will have technical problems. Another few will have to leave before the answer is given, a few will joke around and come back for an answer another time, and a lucky few, maybe a third, will get an answer they can use. Meanwhile, those 30 librarians aren't talking to each other while it's happening, aren't sharing resources, so we end up with a lot of duplicated work.

I don't think virtual reference services needs to be wholly re-purposed to serve our growing masses of K-12 students, but so long as that is who we are serving, I think we could apply a better model to do it.

Another strike against our call-center model is the fact that we can sustain the level of growth we've seen in the last two years. On top of that, we aren't reaching older teens (though I've been told it's normal for libraries to not reach teens), and I don't think we're doing a marvelous job reaching adults, either.

People want to find things for themselves, and self-service is a natural for the web, so and I think it's time we embraced it. We'll reach more general users and save on resources.

On the self-service web, call centers can be flattened. Sites like Yahoo! Answers, Ask Metafilter, and the Korean search engine Naver's Knowledge iN (see Wikipedia for an english-language description) allow a group of people to provide answers to questions for each other.

Libraries don't necessarily have to adopt the community-to-community model, especially if we want to relish and embellish our roles as experts. Instead, let's explore that rich, gray area in between our current private one-to-one reference services and those public many-to-many Q&A sites.

For example, we can:

• Maintain and publish a knowledgebase of question and answer pairs. Here's a search box for QuestionPoint's Global Knowledge Base:
  

• Publish completed chat transcripts (with permission from patron and librarian). Allow them to be bookmarked, downloaded, and remixed.
• Enable patrons to collaborate instead of forcing them into 1-on-1 chats. 30 students with the same question could ask a single question, together.
• Let multiple librarians collaborate on a single answer.
• Publish a directory of resources used to answer questions - use Rollyo or Google's Custom Search Engine, or collect the links on del.icio.us, tagged with keywords from the transcript.

And all of this doesn't have to be e-mail or live chat or Instant Messaging, though of course it can be if that's what patrons want.

I don't want us to give up on our individual, professional and confidential one-on-one service, but I'd love to see us expand our repertoire.

Laura Orr, one of the law librarians that helps with legal research questions on L-net has been blogging at oregonlegalresearch.blogspot.com, and she is providing some great information about legal research in Oregon.

Today, there is a post on legal resources for teens and their parents.

If you're like me and can't keep track of all these resources, it's important that you still remember that this kind of thing exists and that someone is an expert in it.

When you get a legal research question on L-net, you can always refer it to our group of law librarians by opening the question in QuestionPoint and then choosing Refer to and then subscription partner and then Oregon County Law Librarians.