by Beth Staats
Quick Summary
At last week's MLA Conference, I attended a session that included presentations by four metro area librarians, all of whom are very familiar with virtual reference services.
At last week's MLA Conference, I attended a session that included presentations by four metro area librarians, all of whom are very familiar with virtual reference services. Erin Callahan, the QuestionPoint Administrator with Hennepin County Library, Kimberly Feilmeyer, Reference and Instruction Librarian with Hamline University, Wanda Marsolek, the Virtual Reference and Digital Media Coordinator with the U of MN, and Carla Pfahl, AskMN Coordinator with Minitex, each presented the benefits and challenges involved with virtual reference services at their institutions. Virtual reference service has changed within the past ten years from a simple email form to online chatting using, in most cases, QuestionPoint, which is an OCLC product that is available if your library particpates in the AskMN Cooperative.
Virtual reference, currently, is moving toward the concept of helping patrons, whereever and whenever, and customer service is key. If library patrons are searching a library database or the library catalog, then we should offer a chat widget there. Providing eacy access to chat service on all library sites, guides, or any online resource that allows for a chat connection is where libraries should strive to get. Strategic placement of chat widgets on library websites will increase traffic and chat widgets tend to promote more usage then chat forms. In the future, library users will still need help and librarians will develop better and more intuitive tools to identify the patrons point and type of need.
