The virtual reference experience: Integrating theory into practice

Abstract

Virtual Reference is an online question-and-answer service occurring in real time, often also known as live digital reference. Sponsored by the United States Department of Education, the Virtual Reference Desk (VRD) is a project dedicated to the advancement of digital reference and the successful creation and operation of human-mediated Internet-based information services. VRD organizes conferences on digital reference issues for information professionals. The Virtual Reference Experience: Integrating Theory Into Practice is a collection of papers presented at the annual VRD Conference held in San Antonio, Texas, November 17-18, 2003. The publication attempts to address the current issues and latest theories and practices behind digital reference.The recent publishing boom in books and articles about virtual reference points to its growing popularity among library users. Many of these publications are in the handbook or how to format, including one by the American Library Association entitled Going Live: Starting & Running a Virtual Reference Service. This conference publication, however, goes beyond the how-to method and explores the practical and ethical challenges facing today's practitioners. Arranged in four sections, the book addresses: patrons of virtual reference services, virtual reference librarians, virtual reference services and policies, and broader context of virtual reference.Part I describes the kinds of patrons that use virtual reference and highlights various methodologies that can be used to understand such users. Chapter 1 analyzes the findings of four surveys of users of AskERIC e-mail reference service. AskERIC is one of the first AskA services, created in 1992 as a project of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology (part of the Educational Resources Information Center). It was a personalized Internet-based service providing education information to teachers, librarians, counselors, administrators, parents, and others interested in education throughout the United States and the world. The analysis of the surveys, which were conducted between 1998 and 2002, not only provides sample questions and ways to conduct comprehensive studies, but also describes the pitfalls of such studies and the service itself. For instance, one of the limitations of such surveys is the lack of stored data. The author warns of the problems behind deleting library data in order to prevent users' personal information from being revealed. He recommends that data collected from a digital service be anonymized by removing any information that could identify the patron or user before storing data. Although this seems good advice, it may not be practical or easy for a library to do this. It should also be noted that the AskERIC Service that was studied allowed educational researchers and practitioners to ask questions via e-mail or the Web, but was limited to asynchronous interactions. The same methodology, however, can be applied to synchronous services. Most importantly, the author warns that a longitudinal ...