The Zombie Stack Exchanges That Just Won't Die
What kind of benefits and issues do you have experienced with your users with the chat and/or SMS application at the information desk in your library?
Would you recommend introducing it?
Regula Cosandey
At my old institution has a chat box on ever page of their website and catalogue, using libraryh3lp.com's chat client. It's right below the library's open hours, which helps draw attention to it right away.
The reference librarians had two types of shifts, regular reference and VRef where they manned the chat bot. The software let them use Adium or other desktop clients so they didn't have to stay logged in to some web site to answer questions. It let them get work done such as cataloguing while being available for questions.
The chat client lets users send files to the operator and have a transcript of the chat sent to them via e-mail. I don't know if it increased the reach of the library overall or if it just let people ask questions at home who would have come into the library otherwise, but we were happy that it provided another avenue of access for patrons.
This past year we contemplated using the service.
We first started with Meebo, but decided that we couldn't have multiple users on the same account. Then we tried Pidgin and that worked better for libraries using multiple accounts.
We incorporated the chat reference on the site, but didn't get very much traffic. It might be that we are too rural of an area to make the service with it? I'm not sure, but it was easy to do and to monitor. It is also an easy way to have multiple libraries working together.
There is a good set of guidelines on the RUSA site: http://www.ala.org/rusa/resources/guidelines/virtrefguidelines
and there is a list of all the chat clients a library could use here: http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Online_Reference
My library used to participate in the OCLC's QuestionPoint service, fielding chat reference questions from around the country (and the UK) during our assigned hours. Each of us was assigned for one-hour shifts, and we did not have any additional desk duties at that time. We found that most questions were:
The rest of the time, we had few questions at all, and very few of those were questions that required our knowledge base and materials. The software was buggy and there were times when we were engaged in productive questions but unable to complete the interaction. We ended our participation in the service, and in a statewide facsimile, well over a year ago.
However, I do think there is a place for chat reference on a local level (perhaps region-wide?), as well as for text-based reference services, given that more and more patrons come to us with book titles and information on their phones.
We have a chat reference system using libraryh3lp. Instead of playing email tag chat allows us to quickly clarify what the user is asking and answer instantly.
The system allows you to transfer chats so occasionally I will use the internal IM system to check if the specialist wants to answer and if so I transfer it to him.
Responses has being excellent with users praising the service during the transaction, some even wrote in to praise the system when we were in beta.
Off peak we get about 200 chats a month during office hours 8-5 peak periods 600 chats. The key is we positioned the embedded chat boxes at strategic parts of the website from FAQ to catalogue and eventually the front page of the home page itself.
We intending to put it at databases , wallpapers of pcs I campus etc
We have a chat reference service (Meebo, and like a lot of other people, we're exploring other options right now).
We staff ours during the school year approximately 9am to 9pm with a break in the late afternoon (not over the summer, though there are some summer classes, not over vacation breaks, not on weekends.) It's generally staffed by whoever is on the reference desk. (the late afternoon break is because reference is often handled by our Access Services desk at that point, and making sure they don't miss chats is one thing too many - even with a beep for a new chat, it's possible to miss it.)
We don't get a huge response (I don't have our stats handy, but I think it's under a handful a week), but the people who do use it are very grateful for it. Sometimes we get full-blown reference questions, sometimes a "Hey, how late is the library open?" or "If I came down now, could someone help me with X?"
Since the discontinuation of meebo, the small academic library where I work has chosen not to offer chat services any longer -- patrons prefer texting (which we offer) anyway.