“Way Beyond Compare: A Discussion of Virtual Reference Technologies and Tools”
The RUSA MARS Virtual Reference Discussion Group hosts a discussion forum at both Midwinter and Annual ALA Meetings. There were approximately 50 librarians in attendance this year – attendance ranges from 50 to 75 attendees. I was one of the table facilitators for this Forum.
Discussion Questions-
1. Should virtual reference via the software vendors be more customizable in the vein of MySpace or Facebook profiles?
2. How are widgets changing the VR landscape?
3. How might librarians work with IT professionals to insure digital reference remain secure?
4. Are digital librarians doing enough to address library users who text message? How can VR cat and IM capture communications via texting?
5. For IM and VoIP services, how are statistics, transcripts and user feedback managed?
6. What role should Voice over IP play in the digital reference market?
Academic librarians have claimed virtual reference as their own and are working with the new technologies to remain relevant with their students and their instructors.
Public librarians have Virtual Reference email & IM or chat, but few have Facebook or MySpace accounts. Some public librarians are working with their Teen groups to set up accounts.
We use OCLC’s QuestionPoint for LCPL’s email reference and the free meebo widget software for IM chat. QP email reference transaction archives and statistics are only available to System Administrator with password. Meebo chat transactions are erased immediately. Our librarians are schedule to monitor chat and we keep statistics with hash / marks.
-Blogs are still popular but more with adults. Voice over IP (VoIP) is interesting, but takes more bandwidth.
Any comments? Do you think LCPL should try Facebook or MySpace?
2 comments:
There's probably more out there than Facebook and MySpace. Are we missing something? Are there other social networking sites that are coming up in user popularity? Here's one example that I'm seeing more of: Linked In http://www.linkedin.com/.
I'm not familiar with that one. Do you think it's a site that would work in a public library?
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