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, participating libraries 6 other projects

Seattle Public Library Jefferson County Library Ellensburg Public Library Timberland Regional Library King County Law Library City University University of Washington Washington State Library Virtual Reference in Washington Sno-Isle Regional Library Pend Oreille County Library Stevens County Library Spokane Falls CC Spokane CC Washington State University Whitman County Library Skagit Valley College Grays Harbor College WSU-Vancouver Clark 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 ed 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. (7 th 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

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

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: DSL Expectation: “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 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: Modem Expectation: “… 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: DSL Expectation: “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