Our Best Practices in Cooperative Virtual Reference Panel at ALA (Chicago 2009) featured researchers Lynn Connaway (OCLC Office of Research) and Marie Radford (Rutgers University) as well as practitioner and statewide coordinator Natalie Tagge (AskAway Illinois).
Here is more detail about the presentations and our speakers:
"Way Sweet" or "Just Wrong": Users Reveal Critical Factors for Virtual Reference Service Excellence
What do virtual reference service (VRS) users think are the best and worst practices in live chat? The final phases of the Seeking Synchronicity grant project involved online surveys with 137 VRS users and in-depth phone interviews with 76 VRS users. Use of the Critical Incident Technique identified important factors in users' perceptions of success and failure. This presentation provides an overview of these findings with numerous candid examples from the users. We asked, they definitely answered. Be prepared to hear about the good, the bad, and the ugly in users' perceptions of live chat.
Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Scientist at OCLC Research whose research areas include the study of information-seeking behaviors, query log analysis, and data mining to provide evidence for making informed decisions for the development of library services and systems.
Marie L. Radford, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Rutgers University and a leading researcher and consultant in evaluating virtual reference and in investigating interpersonal communication in library contexts.
Presentation:
Sustainable Virtual Reference: AskAway IL's Best Practices for Future Quality of Service
The last year has been full of changes for the AskAway IL project: The IMLS grant that funded the AskAway IL project ended, budget cuts made travel for training and outreach unfeasible and AskAway IL will no longer have a full time coordinator in the near future. So woe is the AskAway IL project, right? Wrong! Find out how AskAway IL through the dedication of the over 200 libraries that participate in the project, the Illinois State Library's continued support and the hard work of a Statewide Virtual Reference Advisory Board have met goals for sustainability and continued quality to serve Illinois users.
Natalie Tagge is Illinois Virtual Reference Coordinator at the Illinois State Library. She is in charge of the AskAway Illinois virtual reference cooperative. In other lives, she worked on a dairy farm, taught high school and waited tables, all of which she finds relevant to her current profession.
Presentation:
Feel free to post comments or questions to this Blog, and look for a new Best Practices panel at the ALA Midwinter conference in 2010!
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