The world’s libraries. Connected. Social Q&A Meets Virtual Reference Services Convergence and...

transcript

The world’s libraries. Connected.

Social Q&A Meets Virtual Reference Services

Convergence and Synergy:

ASIS&T, 75TH Annual Meeting 30 October 2012http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/synergy.html

Chirag ShahAssistant Professor

Rutgers University

chirags@oclc.org

Marie Radford

Associate ProfessorRutgers University

mradford@rutgers.edu

Lynn Silipigni Connaway

Senior Research ScientistOCLC

connawal@oclc.org

Where We Are Now

VRS SQA

Current Model of VRS

Question•20 years

•Funding cuts

•Monolithic

•Hard to combine or extend

services

•Underutilized

•Information requests ill-suited

to service

•In-depth answers Answer

What are SQA services?

Answer Question

ANSWERS(1)

•Community-based

•Collaboration

•Publicly available

•Yahoo!Answers, WikiAnswers, AnswerBag

•Low cost

•Quick turnaround due to large community participation

•Easy build-up of social capital

•No guarantee of quality of answers

Convergence of VRS & SQA

SQA VRS

•Similar components

•Previous efforts

• Slam the Boards

• Enquire

• Rated best

answer 79% of

The Study

Cyber Synergy: Seeking Sustainability through Collaboration between virtual Reference and Social Q&A Sites

SQA VRS

Cyber Synergy

Partners

• IMLS (funding body)

• OCLC

• Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Ph.D.

• Rutgers University

• Marie Radford, Associate Professor

• Chirag Shah, Assistant Professor

• 2 year project

Why Cyber Synergy Project?

• Enables Virtual Reference Services (VRS) to remain viable despite today's environment of reduced resources

• Provide empirical data to assess effectiveness of VRS

• The reduction of library budgets increases the need to determine opportunities to share resources and generate revenue through collaboration. SQA services provide such an opportunity.

Research Questions

• What is the effectiveness of various VRS and SQA services, quality of content provided, and their relative merits and shortcomings?

• How does accuracy compare between VRS and SQA sites?

• What lessons can be learned from SQA sites that could be applied to VRS and vice-versa?

• How can VRS become more collaborative, within and between libraries, and tap more effectively into librarian’s subject expertise?

• How can we design systems and services within and between VRS and SQA for better quality and sustainability?

Project Phases

Phase I Phase II Phase IIITranscript analysis Telephone Interviews Constructing Design

Specifications

Cyber Synergy Project : VRS Transcript Analysis

•560 transcripts

• 350 live chat

• 210 Qwidget (IM)

• 11 coding schemes

Telephone Interviews

•50 users of QP live chat and QW

•50 users and expert users of SQA services

•50 VRS librarians

Telephone Interview Demographics

•Librarians

•15 academic, 19 other

•VRS/SQA Users

•56 have used both

•12 SQA only

•5 VRS only

VRS/ SQA user geographic distribution

SQA Analysis

• Interviews

• Preliminary interviews

• Quality of answers

• Synergy of SQA & VRS

• Exploratory interviews

• Use & experiences in physical & digital libraries & SQAs

SQA Interview Demographics

•10 faculty

•36 SQA users

•24 undergraduate

•12 graduate

Preliminary ResultsVRS

Transcript Analysis Results

•Dewey Decimal Classification

• Broad range of subjects

• Predominantly social

sciences & technology

•Type of Question

• Procedural & Ready Reference

are largest question types

•Accuracy

•Accuracy was high

• 90% accurate for Ready

Reference

• 75% correct with citation

included

Librarian Interview Results

• 34 interviews conducted thus far

• Major themes

• Draft coding scheme developed

Preliminary ResultsSQA

Interviews: Librarians

•Librarians• Important

• Attaining sustained user satisfaction

• Teaching search strategies• Better via electronic

media• Cite sources

•Students• Important

• Topicality• Length• Visibility• Timeliness• Clarity• Availability• Verifiability

• Relevance, quality, and satisfaction on equal planes

The Takeaway

Conclusions

•Improve underutilized services

•Understand how to leverage librarian

subject expertise through virtual

collaborations

•Develop guidelines for practice and

recommendations for evaluation of

VRS & SQA

•Inform systems design

•Connect potential users and

information seekers with SQA

services, VRS, & social media sites

Coming Soon

Next Steps

•Analysis of SQA questions

• Subject

• Question Type

• Reasons why some questions

fail to obtain any answers

•Interviews

• VRS & SQA users

• Continue librarian interviews

• Design sessions with experts

• Specifications for system

design

Questions?

Lynn Silipigni Connaway: connawal@oclc.org

Marie Radford: mradford@rutgers.edu

Chirag Shah: chirags@rutgers.edu

The world’s libraries. Connected. Social Q&A Meets Virtual Reference Services Convergence and...

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