After School and Online

Many libraries now offer chat-based live digital reference services, but few have taken the route of marketing this service directly to K–12 students as their primary audience. In the past year, Baltimore County Public Library (BCPL) and Harford County Public Library (HCPL) in Central Maryland have implemented AskUsNow! for children and young adults. This pilot service has provided a unique example of digital reference with implications for planning a broader, statewide service.

In early 2001, the coordinator of BCPL's Information Services Department, Dianne Tremere, understood that, increasingly, people were searching for information on the web without the assistance of librarians. She and others had a strong desire to put librarians online, where they could be most helpful to our customers. Unfortunately, Tremere passed away just seven months into the service, but the incredible rate of current usage is a memorial to her vision.

At the same time Tremere was forming her ideas, BCPL was planning to reach out to YAs, whom we saw as an underserved group in many communities. The two ideas—direct web-based help and support to young adults—were merged into the concept of a homework help service specifically for students who attended community after-school centers.

Getting initial funding together came down to forming solid partnerships. Tremere sought funding to form a prototype service for county residents. Harford County joined the grant request and developed a relationship with established Boys and Girls Club after-school centers there. The Maryland State Department of Education, Division of Library Development and Services, funded the grant request.

We searched for other places in the county where K–12 students would have access to the Internet after school but found few venues. With limited staffing and security concerns, most schools lock their computer labs at the end of the school day. The only other opportunities to reach students were at the local library or through home computers.

We decided to take AskUsNow! to the next level and make it available to both our target audience of at-risk kids and the general population of students across the two counties. Since this new kind of service targeted a hard-to-reach user group, we needed to let students know about AskUsNow! When the service was launched in October 2001, we started to outreach to the grant-targeted at-risk population. During the course of the fall we visited local schools, after-school centers, and other programs. These visits served to publicize the service, but they also helped us gather information about what was working and how to correct problems.

We also kicked off a promotional campaign to the general student population. Each library created its own AskUsNow! web page and developed related artwork. Bookmarks and other marketing promotions were handed out during school and programs visits. Links were prominently placed all over the library sites, including homepages and on the PCs at the after-school centers in Harford County. Baltimore County Public Schools also added links in their directory of online resources. Links were added to the BCPL catalog to accommodate students who needed assistance at that point.

To fit the needs of high-risk students from low-income families, the software needed to be flexible, giving librarians the widest variety of tools to communicate with students. To fulfill the requirements of the grant it also needed to measure if students had learned to evaluate information as a result of using the service. The software also needed to track usage, verify repeat visits, and allow the students to provide additional feedback. After we compared the software available in spring 2001, we selected LSSI's Virtual Reference Desk; it would provide the statistics, tools, and two simultaneous seats for each system to staff as required by the grant.

Existing reference staff in both systems attended onsite training provided by the vendor. These librarians were a combination of generalists and adult-information staff. Training focused on using the software but also covered behaviors and skills needed to convey reference in this new environment. Eventually other staff would be trained through a train-the-trainer model.

The hours of service were modest, with coverage weekdays from 2:30–5 p.m. When the pilot began, each system staffed its own service. By spring 2002 it became clear that combining the services could expand hours without adding staff. At that point, one librarian could meet demand at any given time. We expanded hours to 1–7 p.m.

Working with this young demographic group brings along special challenges. Although these students may pick some strange handles, they are library customers with real, specialized information needs.

How Internet savvy is the audience? Very mixed. The picture at one local after-school center in a low-income area of the county represents the experience of many of our users. Two available computers were primarily used to play games, and no one was on hand to educate students on learning Internet navigation skills. In addition, many students are just learning keyboarding and Windows skills, which the librarian must keep in mind while waiting for a reply. Students, especially younger ones, are just developing the ability to formulate a question. Some students, however, come to the service from tech-savvy homes with the latest equipment.

Technology has been a continual hurdle. BCPL offered free Internet accounts to some after-school centers, but slow connection speeds and outdated machines made it hard to make virtual reference work at several sites. In some schools there were problems getting the software to function on Macintosh computers, especially the more recent models.

The biggest challenge that many librarians find with this age group is the high number of customers who simply disappear, never to return. Poor connections could account for some of these situations, but in many cases it is evident that even in the period of one or two minutes students can become bored or distracted and move on to another site. This disconnect is demoralizing for librarians accustomed to learning whether customers have received answers to their questions. Of course, disconnects seem to happen most often right as the librarian has found ten excellent resources. With this service, though, unlike in the physical library, there is no way to seek out a student and present them with these research gems, unless he or she leaves an e-mail address.

The people who staff this service must have a strong customer service approach and be aware that unpredictability is the standard. The librarian needs to be understanding when occasionally confronted by the student's question, "Why is this taking so long?" after just a minute without chat communication. Customers who are using the service for the first time—students and adults alike—don't know what to expect, so it's important that the librarian explain the process. "Pushing" a web page, for example, is often a new technique that needs to be described before it is done.

When logging in, younger customers generally do not provide as much information about their question as adults would. In many cases students will only include the topic of their question, and librarians will have to work with them to formulate a question. Librarians should use the reference interview as a touchstone while serving students online. Besides its value in determining what the student is seeking, it also gives the librarian time to consider the request. Asking the student an open-ended question (intended to clarify the question) allows the librarian to think about the topic and begin searching. If, after clarification, the student is really looking for something a bit different, the librarian can respond, "Okay, I'll take a look for [specific clarified information need], but here is a page that talks a little about [related topic] while I keep searching."

Much of what students ask for is tied to the curriculum. The rhythm is similar to what is faced by children and young adult librarians at reference desks. One question may be popular for three days, then replaced by another just as quickly. This makes it difficult to predict what specific types of questions may come in. Except in math, of course; there will always be math questions. Online librarians should consult with their peers working with children and young adults to become familiar—and prepare for—the cycle of assignments.

When a student ends a session, a survey appears on the student's screen. Over and over again, responses to the survey reflect that users like the service as a fast way to get information and that they enjoy chatting with the librarian. Users indicate that they are happy they didn't have to come to the library to get an answer and report that they are satisfied with the outcome.

We have been surprised by high levels of requests related to unique library policy or circulation. In some cases students don't even know that we can provide information about things other than the library. A fair number of requests are for information on how to renew books online or questions about whether the library carries books on a certain topic. Many students using the service are not aware that full-text magazine articles are available online, and they often don't realize that the "card catalog" is also online. Students ask for what they think is available; we can use online reference to educate them about the range of assistance and materials that the library can provide.

If you identify a service as "homework help," kids and adults will assume that it is a form of tutoring. While most librarians are accustomed to finding facts and resources to assist students in doing their homework, they are not usually trained to teach. To respond to this need, librarians have taken advantage of web sites like Webmath, which outlines the process for such things as long division and geometry. The librarian can send screenshots, which include the solution, in hopes that the answer to one question will provide the student with enough information to do the rest. Although not as popular as math questions, language translation has been a regular request as well. Here, sites like FreeTranslation are useful.

Libraries may intend to use this kind of service to provide bibliographic instruction or to encourage information literacy. This can be a challenge. Students working on the Internet, like all online users, expect to receive results quickly, and they are not interested in instruction. When presenting a web site, especially one that a student has never visited, it can be difficult to also explain how one determines if a web site is valid—no matter how important that concept may be.

Before signing any software contract, it is important to make sure it can work with your intended user group. A complex system with all the bells and whistles isn't worth the money if it doesn't work on the technology your target audience uses. In our pilot, the worst test was with the Macintosh computers: the students would type away without the librarians ever seeing any text. When looking for software, verify that it works on a variety of platforms and in different browsers. Try it out in your potential users' schools and after-school centers.

While verifying that the software works, decide if you want to implement cobrowsing. Cobrowsing makes it possible for the librarian and student to view the same pages at the same time, almost as if they were looking at the same screen. Cobrowsing pages can be a sluggish process for customers with slow modem speeds and older machinery, however.

Also consider how you will provide students with a transcript of the session. Transcripts not only help students in their immediate work but can bolster information literacy as well. Until recently an e-mail address and account were needed to receive this. Now, the LSSI software provides a transcript of the entire transaction to the customer immediately at the end of the session.

Work closely with key people at your schools. Meeting with school media specialists in the Baltimore County Public Schools has significantly increased usage. In August 2002, I spoke with and demonstrated the service to school librarians. Everyone in attendance was impressed with the potential of the service and communicated it to their students. Letters also were mailed to each of the PTA presidents asking them to mention the service in their September or October newsletters. Our statistics reflected these efforts. In July 2002 there were 62 questions received during 108 hours of availability, but by September we received 168 questions. This trend continues. We received 223 questions in October, and on November 18, 61 questions came in over just six hours.

Finally, when targeting students, look closely at the service hours. Most students don't get home from school until at least 5 p.m. because of after-school activities. Many don't begin homework until even later. If you plan to make the service available to students working from home, evening hours should be an even higher priority than afternoons.

Since the beginning of the new school year in fall 2002, demand for the service has dramatically increased. Through continued publicity efforts, prominent link placement, and word of mouth, many more students have become aware of the service. Though the library staff have met the increased demand, this level of use is well beyond our initial expectations. One thing has become clear: students want this service.

Offering AskUsNow! has been a successful learning experience in providing chat-based reference service. The pilot has given us a chance to examine the potential of a broader service in the state of Maryland. Plans are in the works to provide a statewide AskUsNow! service, available for children, teens, and adults. This new 24/7 live interactive service will be a cooperative online project of Maryland libraries. It will use the expertise of librarians to give residents and students of Maryland educational institutions answers to questions, research guidance, and help navigating the Internet. As they have requested, students will soon be able to access library information service wherever they want it and whenever they need it.