ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 58| August 2002
Online
Answers Australia-wide
![]() |
|
Sue
Morris, Reference Librarian, Information Services (left) and Fran
Wilson, Project Manager, AskNow
|
From September 2002, a new, Australian live, interactive chat reference service, AskNow, will be available from the web sites of the National Library and Australia’s State and Territory libraries. The service will enable members of the public, wherever they may be, to chat online, in real time, with a reference librarian.
AskNow is a collaborative service, staffed, on a time-share basis, by librarians from the National Library of Australia, the State Library of Victoria, the State Library of New South Wales, the State Library of Queensland, the State Library of Tasmania, the State Library of South Australia, the State Library of Western Australia, the Northern Territory Library, ACT Library and Information Services. Some Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL) are providing an opportunity for selected public libraries in their States to trial the service.
AskNow will be available 9am Eastern Standard Time to 5pm Western Standard Time, Monday to Friday. It is initially being run as a 12-month pilot.
What
is a 'chat' reference service?
Virtual reference desk/live reference/chat/web based reference?
All these terms refer to the provision of a live immediate response to an enquiry
via the Web using interactive chat software.
Key features of the live reference/chat software, which distinguish it from email transactions, are that the online transaction occurs in real time and it provides the facility to ‘push’ web pages to the user and ‘co-browse’. Users can be guided through their search, as inquirer and librarian view the same web pages. Help in searching library catalogues, the Internet, and eventually online databases, becomes more useful and efficient. The technology can also have a valuable impact on information literacy development and its role in lifelong learning.
A by-product of such a service is the potential for the development of a knowledge base. This could be used to save repeated staff effort in responding to frequently asked questions and perhaps offered as a searchable database to users in the future.
In the last two years, interactive chat software applications have increasingly been used in the library environment to service existing users in a more timely manner, to build relationships with new users and demonstrate that library staff skills are transferable to the online environment. It is important that leading Australian libraries enter this new realm of reference service delivery.
Clients
and service levels
AskNow will increase service provision to clients
and is being offered as an additional service to the on-site, email, letter/fax
and telephone reference services already provided by the participating libraries.
Access is open to anyone, wherever they are located.
Clients of the service are entitled to expect a consistent, high-quality and professional service within an appropriate response time, but with the usual proviso that most AskNow libraries do not do in-depth or ongoing research for patrons. AskNow will respond to both ready-reference and complex questions. Staff will attempt to answer ready-reference questions within 10 minutes. Complex questions, or ones requiring more time or resources, may be referred to an email service for further assistance and a fuller response.
Enquiries will be treated confidentially and service providers will ensure the client’s right to privacy.
Reference librarians operating the service will receive appropriate training for this new mode of delivery. Suggestions from clients and staff on possible improvements to the service will be fed back into the service for the term of the pilot.
Reference
Issues Working Group
AskNow is a product of the Reference Issues Working
Group (RIWG) of the Council of Australian State Libraries. RIWG was established
in February 2000 to explore collaborative approaches to reference issues. Information
technology has brought new opportunities for the provision of information, and
clients have new expectations of how and where reference services should be
delivered. While the National, State and Territory libraries have responded
to the challenges, CASL recognised that there could be cost benefits in working
collaboratively in these areas.
One of its terms of reference specifically asked RIWG ‘to monitor and share information on current developments in the concept of the “Virtual Reference Desk” and assess the potential for collaboration’.
Each of the CASL libraries has independently investigated the development of virtual reference services. The National Library actively participated in the Library of Congress’ pilot international Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS). The Library also participated in beta testing QuestionPoint, the replacement to CDRS, and is now a subscriber to this new service being offered through OCLC. State and Territory libraries have been involved in collaborative ventures in their own domains. New service models have been developed, such as‘Ask-A-Librarian’, the pilot email reference service run by Libraries Online, involving the public library network in Victoria. New technologies such as customer management software, Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), knowledge-base software and various chat software packages have been tested. RIWG libraries have collectively been able to share and benefit from these experiences.
In November 2001, CASL approved a proposal for a collaborative interactive reference service. The State Library of Victoria was given the task of formulating a business plan, in consultation with the other participants. Subsequently, detailed time-schedules, service level guidelines and a formal deed of agreement were developed which set out the responsibilities and obligations of all participants. The Project Manager for the AskNow pilot is Fran Wilson at the National Library of Australia, assisted by Kristen Ritchie.
The
future
The State Library of New South Wales will conduct a formal
evaluation of AskNow mid-way through the pilot and again in August 2003.
It will include assessment of service sustainability; issues of standards and
best practice; assessment of staffing levels, skills and training; participant
and user feedback; analysis of service use; and potential partnerships. Opportunities
for other libraries to join the service will be considered after the mid-term
evaluation.
The nine participating libraries are excited about providing the first nationwide
collaborative chat reference service. It is new territory for all of us and
adds a new dimension to the Australian library scene.
—Bet Dracoulis
Director, Reader Services, and Convenor, Reference Issues Working Group
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: gateways@nla.gov.au