No one mentioned MPOW, AskUsNow!, as part of their credentials.

Now, i’m not too shaken about this as the two people on the ballot who are AskUsNow! librarians are applying to be MLA Treasurer and AskUsNow! might be unneeded wordage as it doesn’t help in the screaming of “Hey! I can handle money!” but it got me thinking…

How many times have i seen bios, resumes, or kudos mention that the person does AskUsNow!, or virtual reference. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but I’d want to plug all the cool things i knew how to do/was involved in. If i was looking at 2 identical-on-paper librarians, i’d be more interested in the one who called out that they did virtual reference reference in various modes. Yes, yes, it’s all reference- but that’s only from the customer’s perspective; There’s a whole other skill set involved with non-f2f reference than with f2f reference. Okay, maybe not the reference part, but the connection, rapport/relationship building, and communciation part absolutely.

Is it that traditionally, and by-and-large, it’s a hard time for librarians to applaud themselves and the awesome things they do? Perhaps we see vr as “that thing we have to do” and not worthy of special attention, applause, or “hey look what we can do!”? Do we fail as coordinators of such services for not making sure people are only involved when they want to be, reminded of the excellent work they do, and shown all the wonderful comments from customers who continued to be astounded by us? Or am i reading too much into this because people combine “virtual reference” into standard duties of librarians these days?

You tell me…

possibly related posts:

1. it’s not virtual reference or how not to be a robot
2. In progress: Reference 2.0 discussion

I had the great pleasure of being Publicity Chair, a presenter, and the chair/moderator of a panel presentation. Overall, i’m highly impressed with how well everything went for it’s inaugural event. We had 508 attendees and with 6 tracks and 6 sessions, there was a lot of great stuff to choose from.

After 8/20 all the presentation slides/handouts will be available on the detailed schedule page of the conference website.

Here are the highlights from the sessions I attended:

Monday, Aug 4th

Keynote Address: Reference in the Age of Wikipedia, Or Not…
David W. Lewis, Dean of the University Library, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis

• Google = the next bubonic plague?
• libraries organize and protect the cultural imprint. It’s all always been “user created” but now there’s so much more!
• The value proposition for disruptive (versus Sustaining) innovations is entirely different. An organization can’t disrupt itself, you need to remove the innovation from the organization in order to let it happen; it can’t be “crammed” into the existing values and processes of the organization, it’ll be stunted. You need to have a separate organization to do the innovation.
• don’t invest all your resources on the first try.
• 7 years ago, though the library was inconvenient and hard to use, students dealt with it until something more convenient came along (the internet)
• Don’t ask customers what they want. Watch what they do.

Session 1
Getting Better All the Time! Improving Communication and Accuracy in Virtual Reference
Presenters: Marie L. Radford, Ph.D. Rutgers University and Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, OCLC, Inc., OH

• Don’t be a machine. Create that connection. Listen. Answer the actual question asked and be aware of the sub-questions that might be there. You’re not just passing off information, you’re creating relationships.
• there is an assumption that people use chat because they’re in a rush. Usually not. And they’re willing to wait if you set up the expectation of how long it’s going to be. Knowing it will be 1 minute, that minute goes fast. Not knowing when someone will help you, 1 minute can seem like an eternity.

Expanding Service and Enhancing Learning: Preliminary Report on a Novel Virtual Reference Collaboration
Presenters: Andrea Wright, Thomas Cooper Library, University of South Carolina and Feili Tu, Ph.D., SLIS, University of South Carolina, SC

Come Together: Melding IM with an Existing Virtual Reference Service
Presenter: Samuel R. Stormont, Abington Library, Penn State University, PA

Session 2
Everyone is One: Customer Service or Retail Reference?
Presenter: Diana D. Shonrock, Iowa State University

• Everyone has their story, the one you remember when you’re having a bad day.
• You don’t need to have all the answers, just be willing to help them on their journey to finding the answers
• MySpace, Meebo, Facebook, Twitter. You don’t have to live in all these places as a librarian or as part of the library, but you DO have to be able to explain them and help people get started on them.
• Experience Economy > the 4 E’s
  • Education
  • Aesthetics (sic)
  • Entertainment
  • Escapism (allowing the customer to take a role)
• The 4 E’s of Leadership
  • Envision
  • Enable (the tools to make the vision a reality)
  • Empower (towards a common goal)
  • Energize
• Ideas:
  • have art from local artists for borrowing on a rotating basis (ie, “check out” a painting for 3 mos)
  • sponsor a car show
  • give out / sell passes for local venues/events
  • Victorian Day in the Park
  • Douglas County Libraries.org won an Emmy for their PSA

Session 3
Ready, Set, Go! 90 Minutes to a Collaborative Virtual Reference Service
Presenters: Beth Cackowski, Project Coordinator, QandANJ, NJ; Laura Osterhout, Western New York Library Resources Council, NY; Vince Mariner, Statewide Coordinator, Ask Here PA, PA; Julie Strange, Operations Supervisor, Maryland AskUsNow! MD

• see the slides, notes, and other related links at askusnow.info/denver08

Tues, Aug 5th

Session 4: Sculpting Services: Models for Creative Change
Neo-Reference — Looking for Real Change
Presenters: Susan Beatty, Head, Information Commons, University Library, University of Calgary, Canada and Helen Clarke, Head, Collection Services and Electronic Resources Librarian, University Library, University of Calgary, Canada

• customers put a value on their independence. where do we fit in this model? How do we help?
• how to you keep the discovery / serendipitous finding?
• library as creative studio.
• go beyond knowledge transfer to a new learner outcome (creation)
• We’re not here to make it hard. So make it easy.

Meeting User’s Needs Through New Service Models
Presenter: Kay Cassell, Ph.D., Rutgers University, SCILS, NJ

• people make assumptions about the kinds of questions they can ask at desks.
• Address the customer before addressing the screen (how do you apply this to VR??)

The Medium is Not the Message: A Model of Networked Reference for the 21st Century
Presenter: Bruce Brigell, Skokie Public Library, Skokie, IL

• Check out the book “Understanding Media: The extensions of Man” by Marshall McLuhen
• Jill Lepore. Our own devices: Does technology drive history? New Yorker, 5/12/08, pg 122
• Jeff Pomerantz. RUSQ 46 #1, 2006, Collaboration as the Norm in Reference work
• it’s about the service, NOT the intake medium! Do not succumb to the limitations of the medium!
• Local expertise network> wiki. utilize the expertise of the local.
• why disclaim wikipedia? learning versus unauthoritative knowledge transfer.

Session 5
Libraryh3lp: Building a Next-Generation VR System
Panelists: Josh Boyer, North Carolina State University, NC; Jean Ferguson, Duke University, NC; Eric Sessoms, Nub Games, Inc.; Pam Sessoms, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC; Amy VanScoy, Ph.D. Student, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Librarian North Carolina State University, NC

• meebo is invisible to screen readers. LibraryH3lp isn’t and can also be used on the Wii and the iphone.
• files can be sent both ways
• customers have an idea of “library” as a big box without sub sections. While it’s not true, we shouldn’t just say it’s not true while trying to mold them to our thinking. don’t make customers conform their perceptions of reality; make them reality.
• can have people monitoring “zero queues” for the purposes of being available for transfer only.

Plenary Session Panel
Theory Meets Practice: Educators and Directors Talk
Presenters: R. David Lankes, Ph.D., Syracuse University; Jamie LaRue, Douglas County Libraries; Marie L. Radford, Ph.D., Rutgers University School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies; Carla J. Stoffle, Dean of Libraries and Center for Photography, University of Arizona

• “Reference is an island of order in a sea of chaos” (david lankes)
• don’t point. help make sense of the stuff you point to.
• be subversive change agents!

• its not about the technology, it’s about the service and the customers’ needs
• stimulate learning, don’t wait for someone to realize they need to learn
• are your customers on your committees?

• be aware of what is behind the question.
• “we’re not ready to sunset anything,” Bill Pardue
• it’s OUR job to figure out our professional roles.

• communication is the most important skill
• find some way to touch the customer. in a “study” those customers who got books weren’t blown away. those customers who got books and the librarian had lightly touched them on the arm, we’re BLOWN away by the service. It’s the acknowledgment of another human being that makes the interaction so much more pleasing. (How do you “touch” someone in VR?)
• go find the questions no one is remembering to bring you

• calling customers “members” makes them a part of “you” not “you” vs “them”
• start where they are. don’t make them start where you are.
• put upwards pressure on people to get deeper and deeper into the community.
• trust. risk. honest discussion at all levels.
• if you have something to contribute, speak up.

Session 6: Reworking, Reinventing, & Road Tripping
Milner Library on the Go: Taking Reference on the Road
Presenter: Sean Walton, Illinois State University, IL

• students/tutors are assigned a librarian.

Reworking Reference: A California Project
Presenters: Rosario Garza, Metropolitan Cooperative Library System, CA and Stacey Aldrich, California State Library, CA

• as the number of questions are going down, the cost per question is rising.
• interview question: what about the future of libraries keeps you up at night?
• think about data + consider trends = transformational scenarios
• it’s about quality, not quality. People can find the easy things on their own now (thank you, Google), so we’re open for the harder, meatier questions you need a human liaison for.

Scheduling Software: check out whentowork.com… can schedule people and has opps for ppl to interact.

Check out Yale Text messaging… library.yale.edu/science/textmsg.html

possibly related posts:

1. it’s not virtual reference or how not to be a robot
2. using humor with customers

On Wednesday, June 18th, David Lankes spoke at UMCP. “If libraries fail, is (our) fault. no pressure.” Here are some of my notes:

The Question you ask is important.
What is the future of libraries?
What should be the future of libraries?
What should be the future of libraries and librarians?
What should be the future of libraries and librarians in a democracy? (especially in a time of the Patriot Act and habeas corpus. You want to live in a land of freedom? It’s not because of what we shelve, but because we tell the truth.

We need to stop talking about whats going to happen TO us and start talking about what we are GOING TO DO. We need to be proactive, not reactive, in defining our roles. Librarians aren’t done- we’re redefining, reimagining, reworking who we are and what we do.

We spend too much time worrying about process. We need to think about the end goal and let the processes and technology help, not hinder, those goals. What is our fundamental and recognizable contribution? (market this!)

Conversation is exchanging language (meaning and symbols) seeking agreements. [library jargon- how much accommodation do we have for people who don't know our language?]Knowledge is created through conversations. Libraries are the memory holder of the human story/cultural record. Are we capturing these conversations? No! By the time they come to us, they’re inviting us into the conversation but very late in the game, not starting the conversation WITH you! How awesome would it be to be able to say, “conversations around this topic tend to go here…” instead of “here’s a mound of resources with no context for you to look at.” Access isn’t the answer and is insufficient for knowledge creation. Context is just as important, if not more so, than content. Context is lost in things like databases- articles don’t appear within the whole of their journal, and there’s no e-margin writing! We need to capture the context and the conversations, not get in the way of them. We need to worry about their long term storage!

A syllabus is a map of a conversation. Academic libraries- are you saving them?

Libraries are in the “knowing business” and that spans disciplines. Instead of library usage statistics, we should be analyzing the conversations that are happening in our community (inside and outside of our physical and virtual doors).

Public and academic libraries need to partner up to even out the bumps in learning.

Don’t create another vision statement, just go out and change the world.
If you chase, you will only ever be 2nd.
Don’t ride the wave, be the wave machine. Function as your community does. Are your librarians your customer’s interface? Know your communities.
Who are you serving? What is their language? Where are there? Are you there?

You have to care. You have to have a voice. Manage up. Lead up. We need to teach people how to be change agents (here’s the admin, here’s how to win them over or overthrow them). Dysfunctional innovation = looking to the young kid who knows about wiki but has no idea about the politics of the organization. There needs to be a communal conversation.

possibly related posts:

1. ReferenceExtract: missing the point
2. Foresight 2020- Scenario Planning: Learning to Think in the Future Tense

Research shows* using a first name to identify yourself (as well as using their first name back to them) helps to build rapport and reminds the person you’re chatting with that you aren’t a robot (hmm, Robobrarians? Robrarians?…). Our policies/guidelines as well as those of the (now international) 24/7 Reference cooperative reflect the need to use a first name as well.

Here at AskUsNow!, while we require you to use a “realistic-sounding first name” we don’t require it to be your real first name. I respect when one of my librarians want to use a name that isn’t their own, but I’ve come to realize that I don’t necessarily understand it.

I tried to think about situations where I wouldn’t want to use my real name. Sometimes it is for selfless reasons (i sign those $1 balloons for cancer (or whatever) as Santa because it doesn’t matter that *I* donated). Sometimes it is because I want to be free to do things that I don’t want to be connected to my real world reputation (hmm, i can’t think of an example.. ;-)). Sometimes it’s to protect myself (the witness protection program come to mind).

Even more interesting to me than the desire for people to not use their real name, is the desire for female librarians to use a male pseudonym. As of yet, I’ve had a handful of females switching to male names and (shocker) no males switching to female names.

Why is this? Well, without delving into the psyche of the librarians who chose this option, we may never *really* know but here’s my theory:

Men have traditionally been the symbol of power (gr, patriarchy). This may mean they get less flack less often in chat from customers who are frustrated or playing around. They may be perceived as a more authoritative source than a woman might be. Are we trying to protect ourselves from customers by doing this? (update: They may want to reduce the frequency of come-ons usually directed to female names.)

If that’s the case, whatever people’s issues are around the perceptions of male/female power, isn’t the best way to change the stereotype to represent a different position under the same label? For instance- the only way we’re going to change the librarian stereotype (you know the one, old woman w/ glasses who loves to shush… libraries as books only) is to a) not fit the description of old, unhelpful shushing woman and b) be out in the community as a librarian, representing as one, and talking up the awesomeness that are libraries and librarians. So if you use a male screen name, are we reaffirming something?

And if my librarians think they need “protection” from customers- where did i fail them?

I totally and without question, support whatever name my librarians want to use (providing it sounds like someone’s first name- Donald Duck doesn’t cut it. Donald, Don, or Donna are perfectly fine) but i’m curious as to the reasons people don’t want to use their own real name.

I use my real name because i have no reason not to- I want to be recognized for the good work that i do. I want to build relationships with the people that i help and perhaps (if it was possible w/ this software/coop set up we have) be able to help repeat customers who come back to *me*. Plus, it’s easier to recognize at a glance who’s who when looking through surveys or transcripts. You start to see the same names after a while.

I’m sure i have more to say on this issue, but i think this is a good start. What do you all think about using a pseudonym or a different gendered pseudonym?

*Unable to find at the moment the thing I want to link to, this works just as well (thanks Laura!) “Assessing the Virtual Reference Success using the Revised RUSA Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers“, page 17-18.

possibly related posts:

1. how do you control quality in a consortium of many orgs?
2. In progress: Reference 2.0 discussion

Pecha Kucha (peh CHAK sha) is Japanese for “the sound of conversation.” Originally designed as a way for designers to chat up their work, it’s now sweeping other industries as a way to avoid “death by power point” (a very, very good goal). Here’s the basics- you get 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide (it’s also referred to as the 20×20 format- and for good reason). The slides advance automatically and they’re to be used in a creative, non-bullet-point way. Pictures that highlight themes are good if you’re not talking about the art itself.

It was my first time doing a Pecha Kucha, only having seen my first at CIL this past April.

Janie twittered me after CIL and asked if i’d be interested in doing a Pecha Kucha night with them at PPL. Sure! Why not! It looked like fun!

And it was! The evening’s lineup was excellent- Romina Gutierrez (specialized search engines), Janie Hermann (social networks), Bob Keith (What I Learned from Gaming), John LeMasney (sharing things online), myself (virtual reference) and Peter Bromberg (skeptic).

I had been nervous about how I’d interact with the automatic slide advancing. As it turns out, it acts like and should be treated as a co-presenter or completely ignored. Not quite understanding these options before the presentation, i opted for a more “ahem, slide change please” approach that might have detracted from the flow i had so carefully practiced beforehand. Apparently i speak a lot faster during a presentation than i do in practice.

I was also unsure that the audience would give a hoot about my topic but everything was very well received! I think people were mostly curious about the presentation style and less about the topic, but I was able to sell VR on a few people! :-)

If you’re interested in doing your own Pecha Kucha style presentation check out Pecha Kucha Nights and Beer: a Sober Guide to Better Presentations, a guide that really helped me.

If you want to see my presentation- check this out!
Also, check Blip.tv for the video of my portion!

possibly related posts:

1. Press: CIL presentation
2. Back to back presentations

Because librarians are huge on cooperation, we see its greatness, but i’m not convinced our customers do.

Customers log in to the chat because it was a link on their local library’s “contact us” or “get help” page and all of a sudden they’re chatting with a librarian from another state who, while cool, has no resources or access to answer the customer’s pin # question. (Policy pages are great, but without local access, the customer still has to “contact their local library” even though they already thought that’s what they were doing.)

The focus for me, and all of us, should be our customers. We should think of ourselves as businesses, our patrons as customers, and make sure they’re getting the best service possible. In the interest of “the best possible service” we should be “moving the question, not the customer**” when we can’t answer something ourselves. Currently, when we can’t answer the question, we refer it somewhere else. We either move the person by telling them to call x, y, or email z, or we mark the session “Follow up by Patron’s Library” (apologies if you don’t have QuestionPoint, as this is local lingo) for someone else to contact the person with their answer (hopefully).

To move the question, requires a vast intergalactic network of librarians, subject specialists and other such folks who can answer just about any question that comes down the pike. A question about locating a 5th century Asian war map? No problem. A question about resetting a pin number? Fuggedaboutit! The customer “comes in” to the library however they choose (face to face, email, phone, fax, text, im, chat, or courier pigeon) and we, their local librarians, are able to answer it for them (with the help of this stellar network we have at our disposal).

This also speaks to a big thing in every business’ customer service plan: limit the number of people a customer deals with. It makes them feel better, happier, and gives both of you the opportunity to build a relationship.

Being able to build a personal relationship with repeat customers is another huge part of the customer service thing. Getting to know your customers enables you to help them better than a stranger could. My parent’s generation has stories about the guy who ran their local soda shop (or whatever) who gave them a free float when they passed their big test. My generation doesn’t have that. We don’t have relationships with store owners; I can’t even find a company i’m willing to be loyal to!

We need to build relationships with our customers. Relationships change lives. Relationships create fan clubs, folks who are willing to help you out when you’re in a bind (like when your library needs $$, or an individual is going through a crisis). The only thing that can build relationships (besides, actually caring to), is “face to face” time; if you don’t have contact with someone more than once, how can you build a relationship with them?

I want all libraries to have huge fan clubs full of folks who have individual stores of how their local librarian helped them and how it changed their lives, or at least their day. I want to be able to walk up to just about anyone on the streets and have them be able to tell me an awesome story about how a librarian touched them (no gutter comments, please).

Through our current system no fond memories will be built of me- and I’m one of the good librarians who use their real name, try to build rapport with her customers, and talk to them like their my best friend! Even if the same customer is on the same time i’m monitoring, with that huge network, there’s very little chance I’d be able to pick the person out of the queue, or get to them first (less chance assuming their not from my state or local library, as there are rules, you know). We’re pieces in the big reference cog- it’s no wonder so many ppl get caught up in the robotics, mechanics of it all and end up coming off as curt or rude to the customers.

What am I saying? I swear I have a point. In the interest of customer service, and moving the question, not the customer, our vast network should be behind the scenes (ppl should know about it, but not be smacked in the face with it).

This is a huge vote for IM in the IM v chat debate (the way it currently stands). As we all know (since we’ve all looked), there is currently no way to provide IM collaboratively. Perhaps this isn’t a bad thing. Perhaps this is the light bulb moment we should be looking at sideways, instead of straight on.

Perhaps the way to make sure folks are getting the best service possible is to have IM as our internet point of contact (w/ in-site widgets for those who don’t have an IM client already DLed), along with email for local librarians and have a national VR service without any local brands for that 24/7 access to research help. Through IM, local folks would be able to answer the local questions like “what’s my pin #” or “i can’t seem to renew my books.” When we aren’t on IM (it’s okay not to be 24/7… leave your IM on, with an away message used as a resource guide, or note of library hours or phone numbers), customers would be able to find their pin info on our very easy-to-navigate, full-of-information websites that had been user-tested out the wazoo. If they can talk to anyone, our nationally-branded service is available 24/7.

Having a national service (which is what we basically are anyway, local branding just confusing things) also has another benefit- standardization. Yes, the 24/7 coop has standards, best practices, and policies, but since we’re all also our own local brands, it’s really hard to make everyone who’s in the coop pay attention to these rules. (I think MD does a great job, but is it so hard to listen when the coop says “don’t reject sessions?”). Standardization helps quality which helps customer satisfaction. It’s all connected, folks.

Okay, so I’ve got ideas on the customer end, how about this intergalactic network of awesomeness I keep talking about? I know the Global Reference Network exists, and no offense to those folks who spent time and effort growing that, but i don’t think it works to my streamlined purposes. Nothing exists yet that would make me feel good about abandoning our local brand chat service and start up IM and a nationally branded VRS.

** Moving the question instead of the customer is a note i wrote during Caleb Tucker-Raymond, Diana Sachs-Silveira, and Vince Mariner‘s presentation on “the state of VR” at the Collab VR Symposium in Denver a few weeks ago… my apologies if i was quoting someone, for I can’t remember. Kudos to me if it was a semi original thought. :-)

possibly related posts:

1. Good Customer Service is never saying “no.”
2. Changing screennames or Fembrarians want to be Guybrarians?

My panel presentation on Tuesday went very well! While no one had any questions for me (most of the questions were reserved for the Second Life and MySpace portions, understandably), no one walked out during my portion (that I noticed), and I had the eye contact of mostly everyone in there. I was a little worried though that I didn’t give enough time to how to start a VRS. Somehow, the breakdown of stuff the panel came up with to speak on ended up differing from the promo of the panel (which I noticed at the last minute) so I’m afraid not enough time was given to what ppl might have come for.

Regardless, it was fun!

If you’re interested, you can find my portion of the panel on my presentations page and on the Maryland AskUsNow! presentations page.

possibly related posts:

1. Press: CIL presentation
2. why last-minute is still my friend

Does it matter that not all states have a statewide VRS project? Would it matter that we’re not all using the same software? (and -though sort of unrelated- how come the VRD.org list doesn’t mention any of our general statewide services?)

While watching my laundry tumble around, I came up with a mock up. Whether you like it or not, I hope you comment.

A customer would click on their state (or perhaps the state to which their question may pertain) and be taken to a list of the services (or one service) that the state they chose has:

If the chosen state had no statewide service, and no library within that state providing a VRS, they would see a list of either a) all services by state, b) all services by subject, c) services in states nearest the one they chose, or d) something else I haven’t thought of (perhaps just being routed to a “no affiliation” queue of any given software so librarians monitoring “globally” can grab them.

At this point I don’t think it matters that not everyone providing VRS currently uses the same vendor- once a state is chosen, and a service is clicked, that person would be routed directly to the log in page for that service (here’s Maryland’s for example).

4 steps would be all it took to get to a librarian. 1) Go to USAnswers.org (not taken yet). 2) Click on State 3) Click on service 4) Chat with librarian. A better model would be if we could get it down to 3 steps- go to USAnswers.org, click on state, chat with librarian. This would mean that there would have to be one “queue” per state with whatever software… a zipcode authentication might then route the customer to the right local library, but they would only be doing 3 steps.

Okay, laundry is done tumbling. Discussion… go!

possibly related posts:

1. IM versus Chat: What’s better for customer service?
2. Anticipating our customers (or Winter weather gets me thinking)

Thought #1: Old News
Even though my service had 43611 session requests from Maryland customers and 28372 sessions picked up by Maryland librarians, evey time I mention AUN (which I always mention to outofstaters is “the Maryland version of InsertYourStatesVRServiceHere”) no one seems to know what i’m talking about! It’s discouraging, really. We go to conferences and rave about how awesome we are in front of other librarians and library service providers but no one outside library world knows what the heck we’re doing.

The people who know about library services are the people who use libraries. If people don’t use the library, the library is the last thing that comes to a persons mind when they need a book, a cd, a movie, information, or a place to bring their kids, or get some quiet time. VR is a library service. That apparently no one knows about.

Libraries need to think like businesses and market themselves as such. As individual libraries, systems, and as an industry. Without our customers, we will cease to exist. I promise.

I call upon the library powers that be to step it up a few notches and change the image in the minds of the public of libraries and librarians- to reimagine ourselves and brand ourselves into the hearts and minds of the American public. I want to be able to stop 10 people on the street one day and have 9 of them at least KNOW where their library is and what it provides (though preferably I’d like for them to USE us too).

Thought #2: Widescale VR
I’m wondering if VR could use an overhaul. More people know about Yahoo! Answers and Google Answers (even though it’s been retired) than they do about their local or state virtual reference service- or even about VR as a concept.

Regardless, we are getting a lot of use (though it could be more). The people who use us, however, don’t understand how the current VR system works (and that’s our fault)- that some of us are connected through a cooperative (like the 24/7 Reference Cooperative) and even though customers come in through a specific library or state’s service. My assumption is that if people knew we were this awesome (though potentially moreso) system of links and whatnot, we might have a better chance of getting people on the bandwagon.

My thoughts are still rather scattered, as you can tell, but I imagine VRS being this incredible thing where the software is wonderous and fluid, every library is connected, excellent service is given so everyone gets an answer or a path to follow and people use us as much as they use Google (whos market share is rising).

More thoughts as they come…

possibly related posts:

1. Anticipating our customers (or Winter weather gets me thinking)
2. Changing screennames or Fembrarians want to be Guybrarians?

One of the local supervisors for my service brought a session to my attention today and I wanted to share. All identifying information has been scrubbed because i’m a responsible cut & paster:

Patron: Chat transcript: will you marry me?
Librarian [name of librarian] has joined the session.
Librarian: Welcome to [name of vr service] I’m reading over your question and will be with you in just a moment.
Librarian: Well, [customer name], are you rich?
Patron: Patron is no longer connected.

If you’ve been providing virtual reference for more than a day, you’ve run across a session where the assumed kid is either testing you out before they ask a question or is simply there to play around. Some simply test our patience and others test our ability to remain calm and professional.

Whatever your comments on how the librarian handled this customer, I applaud her. I would have liked to see the customer stick around though… he might have had a question.

possibly related posts:

1. it’s not virtual reference or how not to be a robot
2. IM versus Chat: What’s better for customer service?