Users and Librarians Reveal

Critical Factors for Virtual

Reference Service Excellence

Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Ph.D.Marie L. Radford, Ph.D.

Best Practices in Collaborative Virtual ReferenceALA 2009 Annual Conference

July 11, 2009

“Way Sweet” or “Just Wrong:”

Seeking Synchronicity: Evaluating Virtual

Reference Services from User, Non-User,

& Librarian Perspectives

IMLS, OCLC, & Rutgers University funded project

Four phases:

Focus group interviews

Analysis of 850 QuestionPoint live chat transcripts

Online surveys

137 VRS Users

Telephone interviews

76 VRS Users

Online Surveys &

Telephone Interviews

• Descriptive statistical analysis

– Demographics

– Multiple choice (surveys only)

– Likert-type (surveys only)

• Qualitative analysis

– Open-ended questions

– 2 critical incident (CI) questions

VRS Users: What’s Hot

Word of Mouth

Recommendation

Interviews N=76 (Adult N=55, Net Gen N=21)

VRS Users: What’s Hot

Give Me the Facts

–Answer the Question

–Accuracy

Survey N=129 (Adult N=71, Net Gen N=48);

Interviews N=64 (Adult N=42, Net Gen N=21)

VRS Users: What’s Hot

Be On Target

Be Quick

Be Convenient

Survey N=129 (Adult N=71, Net Gen N=48);

Interviews N=64 (Adult N=42, Net Gen N=21)

VRS Users: What’s Hot

Know Your Stuff

Survey N=68 (Adult N=38, Net Gen N=30);

Interviews N=34 (Adult N=26, Net Gen N=7)

VRS Users: What’s Hot

Be Personable

Be Friendly

Survey N=129 (Adult N=71, Net Gen N=48);

Interviews N=64 (Adult N=42, Net Gen N=21)

VRS Users: What’s Not

Negative Closure

Survey N=68 (Adult N=38, Net Gen N=30);

Interviews N=34 (Adult N=26, Net Gen N=7)

VRS Users: What’s Not

“Did you already

check the

catalog?”

Survey N=68 (Adult N=38, Net Gen N=30);

Interviews N=34 (Adult N=26, Net Gen N=7)

VRS Users: What’s Not

Grumpy Librarians

Survey N=68 (Adult N=38, Net Gen N=30);

Interviews N=34 (Adult N=26, Net Gen N=7)

VRS Librarians: What’s Hot

Leveraging Complex & Specialized

Knowledge

Survey N=143; Interviews N=86

VRS Librarians: What’s Hot

Information

Access to

Remote Users

Survey N=143; Interviews N=86

VRS Librarians: What’s Hot

Positive Feedback

Survey N=143; Interviews N=86

VRS Librarians: What’s Hot

Tell Me More…

Survey N=143; Interviews N=86

VRS Librarians: What’s Hot

Morphing Modes

Survey N=143; Interviews N=86

VRS Librarians: What’s Not

Convoluted or

Confusing Questions

Survey N=124; Interviews N=71

VRS Librarians: What’s Not

Imposed Queries

Survey N=124; Interviews N=71

VRS Librarians: What’s Not

Co-Browsing

&

Other Pesky Software

Survey N=124; Interviews N=71

VRS Librarians: What’s Not

Grumpy Users

Survey N=124; Interviews N=71

VRS Librarians: What’s Not

Unrealistic Expectations

Survey N=124; Interviews N=71

VRS Librarians: What’s Not

Disappearing Users

Survey N=124; Interviews N=71

What We Learned

VRS Users Want

–Access to electronic

information

• Convenient

• Accurate

• Timely

– Interact w/ friendly

librarians

What We Learned

VRS Librarians Want

– Clear questions

– Query clarification

• User feedback

– Positive User attitude

– Resolved software issues

– Ability to serve diverse users

What We Can Do

Provide

• Convenient,

authoritative, reliable

services

• Accurate information

• Positive attitude

End Notes

This is one of the outcomes from the projectSeeking Synchronicity: Evaluating Virtual Reference Services

from User, Non-User, and Librarian Perspectives

Funded by IMLS, Rutgers University, & OCLC

Slides available at project web site:http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/synchronicity/

Special thanks to Patrick Confer, Jocelyn DeAngelis Williams, Timothy J. Dickey, and Erin Hood

Questions & Comments

Lynn Silipigni Connaway

connawal@oclc.org

Marie L. Radford

mradford@scils.rutgers.edu