Traditional reference libraries used to be the focal point for accessing information resources. But using a physical reference library’s resources in today’s fast-paced society can pose a challenge. Increasingly, users can now choose to go directly to the information source provider, either via the People’s Network or, at their convenience, from the internet at work or home.
The wealth and range of information available online is astounding, including such reference library staples as National Statistics, company annual reports, telephone directories, Acts of Parliament, etc. And the majority of the population has access to the internet: ‘[by] the third quarter of 2004, 52 percent of households in the UK (12.9 million) could access the internet from home, compared with just 9 per cent (2.3 million) in the same quarter of 1998.’ 1
Reference libraries, therefore, must cater for the increasing number of users who prefer to access information outside the physical library’s boundaries, at any time of the day or night. Librarians also need to bridge the gap between the infrastructure access point (the internet) and the desired destination (high-quality content). Virtual reference services address these needs.
The virtual library and virtual librarians provide complementary services to the physical library. The two services can be seen as an integrated ‘hybrid library’. A physical reference library consists of print, as well as trained information professionals and support staff who provide enquiry services. Applying the blueprint of the concrete library to the virtual library should lead to the formation of web directory gateways and electronic reference books and periodicals. Virtual services extend the scope of the traditional reference desk so that enquiries can be made by email or online chat, 24 hours a day.
Electronic reference books and periodicals
A core element of traditional reference stock – periodicals and a range of reference books – can be offered virtually. The cumulative collection of available reference material is vast. Proquest Information & Learning (provider of KnowUK and NewsUK) estimates that its archive includes more than 5.5 billion pages of information, spanning 500 years of scholarship, in formats that range from print to microform to digital.2 Digital publishing allows any printed books and periodicals to be converted to accessible online digital resources. Market forces such as demand and cost-effectiveness dictate which popular reference materials become available online.
Library members can gain access remotely to a virtual extension of the reference library by entering their library card number. For library authorities, remote access substantially increases the subscription cost, but offers outstanding value and benefit to library members. The average cost of each of the nine electronic reference subscriptions in Westminster Libraries (seven of which can be accessed remotely) was £3,230 per subscription for the 2004-05 financial year.
Through remote access library members can now access information that otherwise would be available only on microfilm at a library authority’s central reference library, such as 200 years of the Times newspaper from the Times Digital Archives. Other electronic resources to which Westminster Libraries allows 24-hour remote access include:
- Xreferplus – a searchable database of more than 100 reference books including titles such as Who’s Who, Black’s Medical Dictionary, Debrett’s People of Today;
- Britannica Online – the entire contents of the Encyclopedia Britannica and multimedia content;
- The Times Digital Archive – searchable facsimile of the Times newspaper, 1785-1985;
- The Dictionary of National Biography;
- Contemporary authors;
- KnowUK – includes a wide range of reference books including Whitaker’s Almanac and the Civil Service Yearbook;
- NewsUK – a database of regional and broadsheet newspapers as well as magazine options such as the Economist, Spectator and the New Statesman.
Website subject gateways
Both traditional general reference collections and internet websites cover a whole spectrum of knowledge and interests from the familiar to the obscure. But while hardcopy reference stock tends to be carefully selected by library professionals, the same levels of quality control have not been applied to websites found by search engines.
Results from search engines depend much upon the skill of the searcher, so neither the quality nor the relevance of the retrieved websites can be guaranteed. How can libraries address this problem?
Websites can be as good as the equivalent book or magazine. For example, the BBC website,3 a resource in itself, covers diverse areas such as homework, gardening, health, job hunting, and more. In the health section, multimedia images sit side by side with informative text written by qualified doctors.
A multitude of other websites with similar levels of content and authority exist. How do library members ensure they always find this treasure trove? Library users from home and work will need to become savvy online information consumers. In the same way that consumers consult the popular Which? magazine to choose products that have been tested against several criteria, they can use recommended websites that have been tried and tested by information professionals for their reliability, authority, usability and content.
Information professionals choose and select links to web resources on subject web gateways, providing the virtual equivalent to reference stock. One such is the Westminster Libraries Gateway.4
The gateway’s weblinks, like book reference stock, are maintained by Westminster Libraries’ Information Development Librarians.
Because of the dynamic nature of the world wide web, any gateway requires regular maintenance, as websites may become defunct or require registration, etc.
The gateway is an important tool that is already widely used by staff to support all types of enquiries, whether by email, desk or telephone. It offers a starting point for most subjects, with reliable content – as expected from the physical library. From the gateway, anyone, 24 hours a day, can find free, useful websites for almost any purpose. They can check national rail timetables,5 consult telephone directories in Argentina,6 translate a Chinese/German web page into English,7 and much more.
Virtual enquiries: email
In the past, libraries responded to written enquiries via post, progressing to fax and, ultimately, email. In 1997, Project Earl (Electronic Access to Resources Online), the UK public libraries networking initiative, established enquiries by email with the launch of the Ask-a-Librarian scheme.8 The service is currently administered by the Cambridge-based Co-East regional libraries partnership.9 The scheme operates through the use of an enquiry form, through which anyone can pose a question at any time of the day, receiving an answer from a professional librarian within two days. The service is run electronically through an automated mailing list, with a rota of 70 participating library authorities in the UK (from Aberdeenshire to West Sussex). The enquiries are automatically forwarded on a daily basis to the mailbox of the designated library for that day.
When Westminster Libraries participated in March, questions were asked on a wide range of topics, including the biographical details of US poet Shel Silverstein; the history of the union workhouse of Leytonstone; special needs learning; the Atlantic slave trade; family history, etc.
Statistics for the 15 months to March 2005 reveal the popularity of the Ask-a-Librarian service:
- average hits per month – 34,500;
- average visits per month – 6,000;
- daily visits – 250;
- questions asked – monthly average of 650.
The service has been indexed in worldwide search engines, and attracts global participants. Questions have originated from at least 103 different countries. The service is staffed completely by UK participating library authorities, yet a large percentage of users originate outside the UK (31 per cent from the US, 13 per cent from the rest of world).
Communication via email is unlikely to support probing questions that might be posed in live reference interviews to clarify the user’s information needs. If the live reference interview style is applied to email enquiries, answers will be inevitably delayed due to the time lag of two parties responding to follow-up questions at their convenience, at different times. Instant answers are not guaranteed for the enquirer. Ask-a-Librarian laid the foundation of using the internet for collaborative working and enquiry service provision. Building on this, the next-generation enquiry service will try to address these questions.
A customer-focused reference service must complement the convenience of the internet with necessary guidance whenever and wherever the user requires. By incorporating a virtual enquiries desk, a librarian’s guidance is only a click or two away. With the aid of internet software, librarians around the world can collaborate to provide a service that is open all hours.
Questionpoint,10 library-oriented software that facilitates live chat and collaborative working, was originally pioneered by OCLC-Pica, based in Dublin, Ohio.
OCLC-Pica also continues to maintain 24/7ref,11 the world’s first 24-hour co-operative reference service, which uses US libraries across states in different time zones, such as Hawaii, California and New York. The service started in June 2001.
In the UK, Somerset Libraries launched Answers Now, the first global multinational enquiry co-operative, in November 2002, in collaboration with three libraries from South Carolina (US), Brisbane (Australia) and Christchurch (New Zealand).
Questionpoint’s knowledge and library policies databases are the tools that facilitate this 24-hour international library collaboration. Questionpoint’s knowledge database allows participating libraries and users to benefit from past and commonly asked enquiries. It contains a database of searchable enquiries, complete with referral websites for further information.
The library policies database requires participating libraries to enter frequently asked questions about the service – the catalogue, opening hours, services. The database allows libraries in the US to answer local questions from library authority users based in the UK. When the user enters into a chat, the ID of the library authority that the user originates from is highlighted, allowing the librarian access to the relevant answers to local services.
Additionally, questions that require subject specialist help (business, art, etc) or particular languages (French, Spanish, etc) can be forwarded to specialist librarians.
People’s Network Online Enquiry Service
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), in partnership with Co-East, aims to bring the real-time enquiry service to UK libraries. Recently, the partnership’s People’s Network Online Enquiry Service12 was tested among several library authorities in the UK. The service aims to connect librarians to users of the People’s Network to guide them ‘in their pursuit of knowledge online’.13
The People’s Network Online Enquiry service now provides a 24-hour service. At the close of business in the UK, enquiries are automatically routed to the US and Canada where partner libraries take up the enquiries. The service was launched on schedule in May 2005.
Customer care must also be transferred to the virtual enquiry desk. The same level of customer service expected at a physical enquiry desk should consistently be met virtually. Internet users are accustomed to fast response times from search engines/websites. It has been emphasised during the pilot period not to ‘keep the patron hanging on, not knowing if you are still there’.14
Another way of ensuring quality control is through Questionpoint, which allows the saving of dialogue transcripts between the librarian and the user. The transcripts provide the user with a good referral sheet of recommended websites and suggestions from the librarian. The transcripts can also be used by the local library for training purposes and for improving the service.
Library services are evolving, providing resources that are neither fixed in location nor time, but instead are available at the point of need, offering complete convenience to the user.
As information professionals, we must integrate our core strengths to provide information expertise and guidance to an ever-growing virtual library community. In providing a personal virtual service, we must not lose sight of the high standards of customer service and satisfaction provided in the physical library.
A model of an integrated modern reference library and librarian is emerging to offer key reference services online, complementing existing services. This new integrated service will transform the way society and future generations will view the library.
References
1 National Statistics (www.statistics.gov.uk).
2 Proquest Information & Learning, Proposal by Proquest Information & Learning to the London Libraries Development Agency for KnowUK and NewsUK, Aug. 2004.
3 www.bbc.co.uk
4 Westminster Libraries Information Gateway (www.westminster.gov.uk/libraries/gateway.html).
5 nationalrail.co.uk
6 www.infobel.com/teldir/
7 http://babelfish.altavista.com/
8 Ask-a-Librarian (www.ask-a-librarian.org.uk/).
9 www.co.east.net
10 Questionpoint (www.questionpoint.org).
11 24/7ref (www.247ref.org).
12 www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/services/chat_form.html
13 Linda Berube. People’s Network Online Enquiry Service: Virtual Reference Manual, Draft C. Co-East Consortium, 2005.
14 Linda Berube. People’s Network Online Enquiry Service: Service Summary December 2004 to February 2005. Co-East Consortium, 2005.
Ben Chan has held a number of posts with Westminster Libraries. Until early May he was an Information Development Librarian at Marylebone Information Service. He now works for the Ministry of Defence Information Service. Look out for a profile in July/August Update. Ben would like to thank James Cavanagh, Antony Clayton, Michael Lightowlers, Chris Lally, Westminster Libraries; Adeline Mckenzie, Joanne John, Linda Berube (Co-East); and Susan McGlamery (OCLC-Pica).