CSU Live/Web Reference Task Force

Pilot Project Final Report/Recommendations

May 2003

 

This report  presents recommendations from the CSU Live/Web Reference Task Force for a CSU-wide live/web reference service based on knowledge gained during a pilot project for AY 2002/2003 involving nine CSU libraries and two products, 24/7 Reference and Convey OnDemand .  Included are recommendations on software, a plan of action, and a system-wide workshop.   In addition, the report includes final use stats and comments from the pilot libraries.

 

I. Software/System Recommendation -- 24/7 Reference

           

• Software includes a full range of features, but currently excludes the more problematic ones, like video and voice over IP.
• Offers flexible service models and can adapt to CSU needs
• Provides a range of useful statistics and full transcripts of sessions
• Provides excellent online support for active sessions
• Offers web-based email follow-up to questions
• Provides online and in person training
• Offers web-based scheduling
• Enables access to databases through EZProxy, Innovative Web Access Management, or through a CSU server

 

24/7 Reference Proposal to the CSU:

 

Consortium Price:  $20,000/year for all CSU libraries.  No charge for set-up.

CSU Contribution to the 24/7 Reference cooperative:  4 hours per week per library

 

Future Plans for 24/7 Reference: Statement from Susan McGlammery

 

24/7 Reference is funded in part by an LSTA grant, administered by the California State Library.  We have been told by the State Library that we will receive partial funding in the next grant year (the year beginning July 1, 2003 and ending June 30, 2004).  The State Library strongly supports this project. 24/7 Reference will continue to provide a 24 hour reference service through libraries in California.  Although we may at some point use different software, the service itself will continue.  Currently we develop and maintain our own 24/7 Reference software.  Because of cost considerations, we may at some future date use software from another vendor, rather than continue to support and develop our own software.  We will continue to utilize our own software until such time that another vendor is able to provide the full functionality and features that our libraries currently enjoy, at less cost.  If this happens, then we will cease our development and use the other vendor's software. 

 

II. Task Force Recommendation on CSU Service Model/Plan of Action

 

• Offer the service 24 hours per day with the help of the 24/7 Cooperative;
• Participate in the 24/7 Reference cooperative in the initial stage of the CSU service in order to retain skills and build experience.  Staffing requirements per library will be four hours per week for the cooperative.  A participating CSU library may offer more hours per week to their students, if they wish;

 

• Transition to CSU service as our student use and our experience increases.  Staffing requirements per library will be more than four hours per week, depending on the number of participating CSU libraries.   24/7 Reference staff/cooperative libraries could respond to questions when the CSU libraries are off duty,  likely for an increased fee;
• Develop a CSU identity for the service that all participating CSU libraries would adopt and market to campus communities.  This includes a common name and logo, common basic scripts, etc.; and
• Maintain a coordinating committee/task force to oversee and guide the service.

 

III. Task Force Recommendation on a System-wide Workshop

 

The Task Force recommends a full day and a half workshop as a kick-off for the CSU live/web reference service.  The workshop is intended accomplish at least the following:

 

• Share results and experiences of the pilot libraries
• Demo the current version of the 24/7 Reference software and service
• Share best practices and techniques
• Surface concerns and propose solutions
• Gather marketing ideas, including names for the service

 

Johanna Alexander from CSU Bakersfield has agreed to chair a group to organize the workshop. With Gordon's permission, we have booked Kellogg West at Pomona for October 23-24, 2003.   With two people per campus, we expect approximately 70 people.  Costs for the facilities are $91.28/person.  Room rates are reasonable, around $80/night.  

 

IV. Final reports from the Pilot Libraries

 

Please refer to the Interim Report for details on the two products tested.  Pilot library final reports support the task force recommendation on software for a system-wide service.  The information presented below is extracted from the final submissions of the pilot libraries and focuses on use, satisfaction with the service, types of questions asked, and marketing. Reports from the libraries differ somewhat in content and that is reflected in the extracts below.  I did not receive a final report from SJSU, and Chico concluded its participation at the time of the Interim Report.

 

Northridge: As participation in the pilot was voluntary it is hard to gauge where the entire library faculty place the importance of virtual reference.  It seems safe to say that we know that this is where are services need to go in order to meet our users online and share the searching process and reference interview together.

Use: 473 CSUN sessions from project inception through April 14, 2003 – all containing transcripts with attached resolution codes. Users largely login for advice on the most applicable resource for a research topic, help locating a journal/periodical, obtaining library hours, locating institutional services (Learning Resource Centers), finding statistics, and locating guidelines for citation material.  In general the questions from our transcripts mirror the kinds of questions we get at the physical reference desk.  In some instances questions tend to be more focused and concise than the physical reference interview queries. An analysis of transcripts (473) suggests that CSU librarians answered most of our questions when a CSUN librarian was not available.

 User Satisfaction: Overall users appear to be very satisfied with access to this service and were very pleased with the web based chat format.  Most frustration came from

technological glitches (co-browsing was down, browser froze etc).   Additional frustration also occurred if a collaborating library had not provided thorough library policy pages to help librarians unfamiliar with their web pages and policies answer user queries.  Users would like to see a more pronounced unity to the service – who is helping them and why.  This is where it appears that a CSU marketing scheme for the Virtual Reference service would come in handy.

 

Long Beach: Librarians that have volunteered for this new delivery of reference have enjoyed the interaction with customers. We strongly support 24/7 Reference for consideration by the CSU.  With additional promotion opportunities, students, faculty and staff will engage in this type of service.   Based on what our current users have learned from their experiences, 24/7 Reference provides collaborative assistance for all library customers.

Use:  The total use during the pilot period was 552 sessions. CSULB Librarians answered 98 out of 552 sessions. Based on the data available from 24/7, 467 sessions originated from the CSULB library web pages.  We received assistance from other CSU Libraries, MCLS, and the academic consortium members.  A review of the transcripts indicate that we received a variety of questions -- directional, hours, database searching suggestions, or just informational.  We did not observe any inappropriate behavior by our users when asking for assistance.

 

Monterey Bay: After the meeting in Hayward with Susan McGlammery, our staff felt more

comfortable with the software (24/7 Reference) and we are still enthusiastic about its

potential role in reference and instruction, especially with the upgrade.  Our main problems/reservations are our small size and limited staffing (6 librarians), which makes it difficult to cover the in-person and virtual desks, do instruction, etc.

Use: CSUMB has had 79completed sessions between Sept. and April 15.  It's not always possible to tell which library answered CSUMB questions--looks like much of the time (~30 transactions) they were handled by MCLS librarians.  Other CSU libraries answered 16 questions.  During the 3 hours per week that CSUMB librarians were staffing the virtual desk, questions were most often received from SJSU, FIU and the BLC.

 

Pomona:  Live/web reference is well accepted at Pomona and staffing has not been a burden.  Participation is part of the job responsibility and most people would like to continue with the service.

Use:  Pomona had 328 total uses of the service from September 1, 2002 through April 15, 2003.  The majority of questions from Pomona users were answered by MCLS librarians and the rest answered by CSU librarians and the Boston Library Consortium.   Pomona librarians answered questions from other CSU libraries, academic libraries in-state and out-of-state, non-affiliated state residents, but rarely from CSU Pomona students. Half of questions answered were standard reference questions, about 30% were related to library policies and technical problems with databases, and the rest know item or quick look-up questions.   User satisfaction with the service seems to be based on speed of response and quality of response.  More users were satisfied with the service than not satisfied.   

Marketing: Pomona did little marketing this academic year, and lots of it last year when we initiated the service.  Links to the service are located our library home page and one catalog search pages.  We believe that marketing is important and will participate in a CSU-wide effort to market the service.

 

Hayward: Overall acceptance of the service among the library staff is good. The ability to offer our users chat reference 24 hours a day, 7 days a week while only committing ourselves to 5 hours  per week of monitoring the service is seen as a very reasonable trade-off. We found the structure of 24/7 and the level of staffing commitment needed to provide this service so attractive that we had decided to continue our participation in 24/7 even before knowing that the task force would be recommending it as the CSU chat reference service. The refresher session with Susan McGlamery was very welcome; unfortunately, traffic on the service during the hours we monitor has been so low since the session that we really haven't had a chance to put many or her insights and recommendations to use as yet.

            Use:  79 question from October 1, 2002 through April 15, 2003. Half of the questions were research questions and half were library-specific questions or problems. We did not receive any frivolous questions.   Less than half of our questions came from participating CSU libraries. 

 

Fullerton: Ten librarians participated in the pilot project.  The enjoyed the process, but there was not enough business.

Use: The final numbers for CSU Fullerton are: Fall (Oct 9-Jan 22) 29; Spring (Jan 23-Apr 15) 72; Total: 10.  Use jumped almost 2.5 times from the fall. The data shows that usage was fairly constant throughout the hours service was offered, 2-3 being the most popular by a slight margin. However, there was a difference in usage by day: Monday and Tuesday were at least 25% less busy than Wednesday and Thursday.   Based on observation (no data analysis), questions were heavily academic reference, with some dealing with software problems (access to databases).

Marketing: We put the chat icon on all computers in the reference research (ER) area, the main student computer lab (Titan Lab) and at the El Toro satellite library. We also used a wall projection system to advertise chat. We included other library programs and information in this 15 minute recycling PowerPoint program. It was considered highly successful since students were often seen standing watching the program. Again, Chat was promoted in instruction sessions.

 

San Diego: There is a high degree of acceptance of Live Reference by reference librarians at SDSU.  Workload issues have been almost non-existent for us.  Since each librarian involved in the project only contributes 2 hours per week at the virtual reference desk, scheduling has not been a major problem.  We agreed early in the project that the librarians involved in Live Reference would be “credited” with those hours toward their weekly quota of reference desk time.  This has worked well for all involved, primarily because of our flexible staff of reference librarians.

            Use: 132 live reference questions from September 2002 through April 15, 2003.  All of our questions were answered by SDSU Reference Librarians.  We are gradually finding more acceptance of live chat reference among our students as well as our librarians.  The relatively low volume of questions will surely increase if we move to a more collaborative approach to virtual reference.  In any event, I have confidence that in the coming years, virtual live chat reference will play an increasingly more important role in the array of services that reference librarians offer to students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community patrons.

Marketing:  We publicized the Live Reference service in a variety of ways: in  library instruction sessions and to departments and faculty; press releases and articles to various campus organizations and publications; paid advertisement in the daily campus student newspaper; links to the Live Reference service on several key pages of the Library Web site; on the library's Home Page. It is too early to tell how effective these marketing efforts have been.

 

 

 

 

Report prepared by

Kathleen Dunn, Chair

CSU Live/Web Reference Task Force

4/24/2003