In the beginning . . . Virtual Reference in Washington State Nancy Huling University of Washington Libraries Oregon/Washington Library Associations Annual Conference 18 April 2008

First Steps In 2001, Jan Walsh called together interested librarians to discuss virtual reference in the state Gauged interest in pursuing statewide virtual reference collaboration Decided to allocate LSTA funds to virtual reference project Buff Hirko hired as coordinator early in 2001 First WA Virtual Reference Steering Committee meeting held on 6/28/2001 Jan Walsh – now State Librarian – was at that time the Assistant State Librarian for Customer Services

WAVRS Project Goals to provide all Washingtonians access to a range of electronic reference services to address their informational and educational needs to provide Washington libraries significant cost savings by cooperating together for Virtual Reference Service (VRS) development and testing of best practices to focus on developing best practices, methods, and standards for virtual reference using LSTA funds

Collaboration rare in the state of Washington, so the idea was to encourage cooperation from the ground up, rather than initiating a statewide virtual reference service from the top and then trying to get libraries to join. Overarching Goal to foster collaboration among Washington libraries in order to enhance the delivery of information services to Washingtonians.

Next Steps Inventory of WA libraries indicated readiness and need for VR Steering Committee identified priorities for grants, established criteria, and issued a call Grants sub-committee handled the application process Eight $30,000 grants available the first year Application favored cooperative projects Again, idea was to encourage cooperative growth from the ground up Rather than proceed with selecting software and implementing a statewide service which libraries could join, it was decided to offer small grants to libraries – encouraging cooperative projects – to model cooperation, especially given the state’s inexperience with cooperation. A grants program would allow groups of libraries to explore areas of cooperation in all aspects of virtual reference

Grants - 2002 Marketing Guidelines: UW & KCLS Chat service: WSU-V & Clark College Chat service: SFCC, SCC, Pend Oreille, Stevens,Whitman Chat service: Skagit Valley & Grays Harbor CCs Shared email: SPL, KCLL, UW Health Reference delivery for distance courses: Tacoma & Highline CCs Marketing plan & materials: Whitman, Pend Oreille, Stevens Counties

Grants 2003 Shared email: WSLL & UW Hort Library joined SPL, KCLL, UW Health Shared chat: five high school libraries joined Skagit & Grays Harbor CCs Shared chat: Neill Public, Asotin, North Central joined the SFCC, et.al. service Cooperative marketing: Whitman, Neill Public, Asotin Service to distance students: WSU Shared email: North Olympic, Jefferson, Port Townsend, Peninsula CC

Other WAVRS Activities Training Assessment LII Index for Washington State (WaLII) Beta tested QuestionPoint (March 2002) Unanticipated opportunity arose with the creation of QuestionPoint: some libraries tested both the email & the chat (KCLL, SPL), while others (UW) implemented the email/webform & stuck with 24/7ref. for chat. QuestionPoint became an integral part of our VRS project, and libraries testing the software met regularly to discuss experiences and to provide feedback on the software.

Products Anytime, Anywhere Answers curriculum -- Virtual Reference Adventure Going Virtual Workshop Virtual Reference 101 Workshop Virtual Reference Services: Marketing Guidelines VET: Virtual Evaluation Toolkit Anytime, Anywhere Answers was developed by Mary Ross, along with Daria Cal and grad student Emily Keller. Designed as a one-day overview workshop, followed by 5 weeks of online activities and discussion. Program has been redesigned. Now lives on the RUSA website and is coordinated by the RUSA Virtual Reference Committee. Self-paced – I’ve used pieces of it when I teach the principles of information services course in the iSchool at the UW. (http://cs.ala.org/ra/vr_adventure/) Going Virtual: an overview for decision-makers thinking about offering virtual services Virtual Ref 101: aimed at staff members at libraries not currently offering a live service These two workshops were given in several venues – Eastern WA as well as in Puerto Rico! VET: involved peer transcript reviews and other activities – toolkit was tested in several libraries (http://vrstrain.spl.org/textdocs/VETmanual.pdf)

Washington VR Summit Held at SPL on 9 February 2005 Develop proposals for replacing LSTA funded project with mechanisms to continue coordination and growth Joe Janes provided framework Susan McGlamery discussed collaboration Sources of funding not identified Establishment of Advisory Council recommended Nurture a “culture of collaboration” Joe raised questions to consider for the future of VR in Washington State Susan noted that cooperation is key to success if libraries want to be useful to their communities – each library can bring unique skills and knowledge that result in a stronger service Steering Committee given the task of exploring funding models – at end of project, steering committee would be replaced by the Advisory Council

Current situation 19 active cooperative members Washington State Library funds three QuestionPoint accounts: Public, Academic, State Library Several libraries participate in the cooperative, but have their own full subscriptions WSL subsidizes membership in QuestionPoint 24/7 cooperative Advisory Council established to oversee the cooperative and promote growth Would like additional Washington State Libraries to join!! – it’s a deal! * 4 –four year academics; 3 – community colleges; 9 public library systems; 2 law libraries; State Library We do have an Advisory Council – members come from the different types of libraries. Wish we’d done differently: worked more assiduously to grow the cooperative and get more libraries involved – although our intention was ground up, we think we could have done more to form a statewide cooperative earlier, while still using grants to research various aspects of virtual reference. I’ll talk a little more about the benefits of our cooperative when I focus on our service at the UW

More information . . . Complete information on the Washington State Virtual Reference project: Hirko, Buff. “Building networks, building trust : Statewide virtual reference.” Advances in Librarianship 29 (2005): 59- 186.