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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
Marie Radford
Associate ProfessorRutgers University
Lynn Silipigni Connaway
Senior Research ScientistOCLC
The world’s libraries. Connected.
Where We Are Now
VRS SQA
The world’s libraries. Connected.
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
The world’s libraries. Connected.
SQA
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
The world’s libraries. Connected.
Convergence of VRS & SQA
SQA VRS
•Similar components
•Previous efforts
• Slam the Boards
• Enquire
• Rated best
answer 79% of
time
The world’s libraries. Connected.
The Study
Cyber Synergy: Seeking Sustainability through Collaboration between virtual Reference and Social Q&A Sites
SQA VRS
The world’s libraries. Connected.
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
The world’s libraries. Connected.
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.
The world’s libraries. Connected.
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?
The world’s libraries. Connected.
Project Phases
Phase I Phase II Phase IIITranscript analysis Telephone Interviews Constructing Design
Specifications
The world’s libraries. Connected.
Cyber Synergy Project : VRS Transcript Analysis
•560 transcripts
• 350 live chat
• 210 Qwidget (IM)
• 11 coding schemes
The world’s libraries. Connected.
Telephone Interviews
•50 users of QP live chat and QW
•50 users and expert users of SQA services
•50 VRS librarians
The world’s libraries. Connected.
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
The world’s libraries. Connected.
SQA Analysis
• Interviews
• Preliminary interviews
• Quality of answers
• Synergy of SQA & VRS
• Exploratory interviews
• Use & experiences in physical & digital libraries & SQAs
The world’s libraries. Connected.
SQA Interview Demographics
•10 faculty
•36 SQA users
•24 undergraduate
•12 graduate
The world’s libraries. Connected.
Preliminary ResultsVRS
The world’s libraries. Connected.
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
90%
The world’s libraries. Connected.
Librarian Interview Results
• 34 interviews conducted thus far
• Major themes
• Draft coding scheme developed
The world’s libraries. Connected.
Preliminary ResultsSQA
The world’s libraries. Connected.
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 world’s libraries. Connected.
The Takeaway
The world’s libraries. Connected.
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
The world’s libraries. Connected.
Coming Soon
The world’s libraries. Connected.
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
The world’s libraries. Connected.
Questions?
Lynn Silipigni Connaway: [email protected]
Marie Radford: [email protected]
Chirag Shah: [email protected]
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