Academic Libraries Test Web-Based Reference

A preliminary report on real-time, web-based, 24/7 reference service by a collaboration of eight Illinois academic libraries surprisingly reveals that online usage follows a pattern similar to in-person reference usage. The Ready for Reference service is being piloted by libraries in the Alliance Library System: Black Hawk College–East Campus, Kewanee; Bradley University, Peoria; Eureka College; Illinois Central College, East Peoria; Illinois State University, Bloomington-Normal; John Wood Community College, Quincy; Quincy University; and Spoon River College. This spring was the project's first semester of operation.

Bernie Sloan, a Ph.D. student in the School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, evaluated the project. While Sloan was surprised at how the service seemed to mimic traditional library hours, he was equally surprised at the diversity of the questions. Libraries debate providing frequently asked questions (FAQs) online, but in Sloan's preliminary estimation, FAQs would rarely address the questions Ready for Reference received. More information about the nature of the queries will be included in the final report.

The busiest one-hour time slot was 2–3 p.m. Half of all activity took place between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., and 80 percent of all usage occurred between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. Evening use was higher than morning use. The early morning hours of 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. generated only 2.2 percent of all activity. Tuesday and Thursdays were the busiest, and weekends were the quietest. There was a steady growth in the number of sessions over the semester, seeming to parallel the increased use of academic libraries as the semester progressed.

Library Systems and Services, Inc. (LSSI), which also supplied the Ready for Reference software, offered backup for hours the libraries could not cover. Two and sometimes three librarians monitored the queues of incoming questions. Answers were expected within ten minutes.

One outcome of the project is the need for institutions that collaborate on reference services to share with one another their policies and procedures, especially in the area of access to electronic resources. The report recommends a project web page to allow librarians quick access to this information.

The Illinois State Library funded the project via a Library Services and Technology Act grant. The project web site is www.rsa.lib.il.us/ready. Sloan's preliminary report is at www.lis.uiuc.edu/~b-sloan/ready4ref.htm.—Reported by Brian Kenney