1 Does it always make sense …? National Library of The Netherlands International collaboration and ‘global’ knowledge bases in electronic reference services A European, ‘other language’ perspective Josje Calff head user services division VRD-conference Chicago November 11-12, 2002

2 National Library of The Netherlands 1. National Library of the Netherlands 2. Collaboration 3. Knowledge bases 4. Geographical aspects 5. Language 6. An example 7. Making sense... Agenda

3 National Library of The Netherlands 1. National Library of the Netherlands 2. Collaboration 3. Knowledge bases 4. Geographical aspects 5. Language 6. An example 7. Making sense... Agenda

4 National Library of The Netherlands  The Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), National Library of the Netherlands, offers based reference service since 1993  Software since mid-2002: Magic Total Service Desk (MTSD)  Chat-service starting in January 2003 National Library of the Netherlands (1)

5 National Library of The Netherlands Ambition to support collaboration:  Back office for ‘Dutch cultural heritage’: public libraries reference-network  Participation in consortium of academic libraries using MagicTotal Service Desk  Linking Dutch libraries to the global reference community: QuestionPoint National Library of the Netherlands (2)

6 National Library of The Netherlands National Library and collaboration Academic & Higher Education Libraries using MTSD © ( (public libraries)

7 National Library of The Netherlands 1. National Library of the Netherlands 2. Collaboration 3. Knowledge bases 4. Geographical aspects 5. Language 6. An example 7. Making sense... Agenda

8 National Library of The Netherlands 1. National Library of the Netherlands 2. Collaboration 3. Knowledge bases 4. Geographical aspects 5. Language 6. An example 7. Making sense... Agenda

9 National Library of The Netherlands  Internet = new opportunities to reference services: new patrons, more questions, capacity problems  Collaboration is imperative to live up to expectations (e.g. 24/7) and to provide (cost)effective, efficient services Collaboration … a must

10 National Library of The Netherlands  “Is the library open tonight?”  “Do I have internet connection using my laptop in the Reading Room?”  “Can I order photocopies of this 17th century manuscript?”  “Is it possible to get color prints from the microreaders?” But... some questions are ‘local’

11 National Library of The Netherlands  No clear distinction between ‘ordinary’ information questions and ‘real’ reference questions  ‘Local’ questions tend to recur more often than ‘other’ questions  Recurrent and ‘local’ questions & answers should be in our local knowledge base Collaboration is not always an option

12 National Library of The Netherlands 1. National Library of the Netherlands 2. Collaboration 3. Knowledge bases 4. Geographical aspects 5. Language 6. An example 7. Making sense... Agenda

13 National Library of The Netherlands 1. National Library of the Netherlands 2. Collaboration 3. Knowledge bases 4. Geographical aspects 5. Language 6. An example 7. Making sense... Agenda

14 National Library of The Netherlands  The usefulness of knowledge bases depends on the recurrence of questions  All extra efforts are a waste of time - if questions / answers are never re-used Knowledge Bases

15 National Library of The Netherlands 1. National Library of the Netherlands 2. Collaboration 3. Knowledge bases 4. Geographical aspects 5. Language 6. An example 7. Making sense... Agenda

16 National Library of The Netherlands 1. National Library of the Netherlands 2. Collaboration 3. Knowledge bases 4. Geographical aspects 5. Language 6. An example 7. Making sense... Agenda

17 National Library of The Netherlands  “Do you have any statistics on teen pregnancy on file?”  “Consumption of red wine is said to be twice as high as of white wine. Is that true? And what could be the explanation?”  “How many National Parks are there?” Geographically ‘biased’ questions

18 National Library of The Netherlands 1. National Library of the Netherlands 2. Collaboration 3. Knowledge bases 4. Geographical aspects 5. Language 6. An example 7. Making sense... Agenda

19 National Library of The Netherlands 1. National Library of the Netherlands 2. Collaboration 3. Knowledge bases 4. Geographical aspects 5. Language 6. An example 7. Making sense... Agenda

20 National Library of The Netherlands  90% of ‘our’ questions are in Dutch  50% of our clients prefer the answer to be in Dutch as well  We can handle questions in Dutch, but also in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portugese Language (1)

21 National Library of The Netherlands  Is collaboration in reference similar to shared cataloguing and inter library loan?  The role of language in reference is more important Language (2)

22 National Library of The Netherlands  Questions & answers should be in the language in which they are most likely to reoccur  … and also in English - if relevant Language & knowledge bases

23 National Library of The Netherlands 1. National Library of the Netherlands 2. Collaboration 3. Knowledge bases 4. Geographical aspects 5. Language 6. An example 7. Making sense... Agenda

24 National Library of The Netherlands 1. National Library of the Netherlands 2. Collaboration 3. Knowledge bases 4. Geographical aspects 5. Language 6. An example 7. Making sense... Agenda

25 National Library of The Netherlands Example from the QuestionPoint Knowledge Base Q: Can you provide me with one or more reviews of this book: Geert Mak, “De eeuw van mijn vader” A: This looks like a good review. Just click on this address and you’ll have it: 1: 2: You can also go to the web and type in “ulbe bosma”...

26 National Library of The Netherlands History in Titles: online Dutch bibliography on European history Q: mak eeuw vader 6 Reviews: in Dutch, general, historical and literature journals (all paper only)

27 National Library of The Netherlands A high quality, library based knowledge base ... global ... on all subjects ... for all educational levels ... in all languages...? Is it possible?

28 National Library of The Netherlands 1: “De eeuw van mijn vader” mak 2: You can also go to the web and type in “Ulbe Bosma”... (3:) By the way … this is (the only) one in English The world wide web and Google

29 National Library of The Netherlands 1. National Library of the Netherlands 2. Collaboration 3. Knowledge bases 4. Geographical aspects 5. Language 6. An example 7. Making sense... Agenda

30 National Library of The Netherlands 1. National Library of the Netherlands 2. Collaboration 3. Knowledge bases 4. Geographical aspects 5. Language 6. An example 7. Making sense... Agenda

31 National Library of The Netherlands Making sense … (1) We should do both:  Provide url’s from selected quality websites  And also: information found in specialized library materials, (licensed) databases, books et cetera

32 National Library of The Netherlands Collaborate, but do it smart, and...  be more aware of language!  be more aware of geographical aspects: the best answers can often be given “on site” Making sense … (2)

33 National Library of The Netherlands Smarter collaboration?  Can we give our consortium partners access to our own (local) knowledge bases, and vice versa?  Can we provide answers from our own specialized (licensed?) databases to clients of other libraries? Making sense … (3)

34 Does it always make sense …? National Library of The Netherlands Comments? Questions? Josje Calff