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Electronic Reference Services
As with so many of our other daily activities, technology has become a part of providing help services to library patrons. From digital voice mail systems to instant messaging to chat, a small but growing number of library patrons benefit from electronic or digital reference services.
In the not-so-distant past, amy routinely handed out her email address to any patron who might be in need of a little assistance further down the road. Then libraries moved into departmental email addresses to handle electronic requests, and then online email form. And then instant messaging started becoming a part of reference services, followed by chats shared by library consortia to share staffing and expertise.
Some libraries have taken a while to move forward with some of these technologies due to fears that they will be overwhelmed by a huge demand for their services. Now amy doesn’t want to be a naysayer, but this just hasn’t been the case in her experience. Most questions tend to be relatively brief factual questions or citation assistance.
Quality electronic reference services requires consideration with regards to:
Clientele restrictions – if you only have the staff to answer questions from a particular client group, then say so, and perhaps provide a message or link for assisting users in finding libraries in their own geographic or institutional area…
Ask a Librarian - chat or e-mail Library of Congress subject-specialists
24/7 - live reference from public library systems
Question or service parameters – if you can only provide brief, factual electronic reference, then let your users know this and recommend an in-person or telephone session if they require in-depth assistance. In addition, there are online “advice experts” who may be able to assist…
AllExperts - About.com volunteer-experts
Ask A+ Locator - experts selected by Virtual Reference Desk
SourceNet Experts - experts useful to journalists
Sources and Experts - maintained by news researcher (FL focus)
Integration with other library services – providing a recognizable logo on all library publications and Web pages. Simply creating a flyer or Web page about electronic reference services is not sufficient – they should appear on database access pages, catalog pages, FAQs, etc.
Response times – ensure that users are clear about turnaround times for electronic reference services, as many users may assume that electronic reference services are available 24/7. Libraries need to develop tracking systems to ensure that all electronic reference inquiries receive a timely response, even if the response is that more time is needed.
Educate wherever possible – if your library believes in empowering in-person users to be able to locate information, then there is nothing wrong with continuing this in electronic reference services. If the person doesn’t seem aware of a particular tool that can help answer their inquiry, guide them to the tool whenever possible. (amy’s instruction background is creeping out)
As far as concerns about being overwhelmed by hordes of online users, amy just hasn’t seen it happen. Far more often then not, libraries simply end up trying to get people to use their new services. There are not hundreds of people out there just dying to talk with a librarian. Let’s face it , the number of people asking librarians questions in-person is fairly small to begin with, and the group wanting to do this using electronic reference services is even smaller.