TY - JOUR
T1 - Not dead yet! A longitudinal study of query type and ready reference accuracy in live chat and IM reference
AU - Radford, Marie L.
AU - Connaway, Lynn Silipigni
N1 - Funding Information:
A number of additional longitudinal analyses are being conducted with the 2004 to 2006 and 2010 VRS transcript datasets. The authors and Chirag Shah, Ph.D., from Rutgers University have obtained additional funding of $250,000 for a two year period (2011 to 2013) from IMLS, OCLC, and Rutgers University for the grant project, Cyber synergy: Seeking sustainability through collaboration between virtual reference and social Q&A sites ( Radford, Connaway, & Shah, 2011–2013 ). One phase of this project involves in-depth analysis of VRS transcripts, as well as analysis of questions and responses from SQA sites, like Yahoo! Answers, including: subject analysis using the Dewey Decimal Classification schedules ( Dewey, 2011 ), question types, query clarification, interpersonal communication, generational differences, level of difficulty of queries, wait and session times, presence and type of instruction, and referrals. Another possible area for future research is to investigate answer accuracy to queries other than ready reference questions. Since the majority of VRS questions continue to be other query types, creation of a data-derived taxonomy of accuracy for subject searches and procedural queries would be of particular interest and importance to the VRS community. The OCLC and Rutgers research team's investigation to analyze the presence and type of instruction in VRS may be a first step in this process. With regard to others doing similar research into question types and accuracy, it is highly recommended that scholars use established taxonomies, such as the ones adapted from the work of Katz (1997) and others so that standardization of categories can be achieved to enable valid longitudinal comparisons. 10
Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the contributions of Patrick Confer, Alyssa Darden, Jocelyn DeAngelis, Lisa DeLuca, Timothy Dickey, Dana M. Dragos, Erin Hood, Hannah Kwon, Stephanie Mikitish, Heather Mouleson, Mary Anne Reilly, Susanna Sabolcsi-Boros, Julie Strange, Janet Torsney, Susan Wengler, and Jaqueline Woolcott in data coding and transcript analysis for this paper. Support for the research study, Seeking Synchronicity: Evaluating Virtual Reference Services from User, Non-User, and Librarian Perspectives, was provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , and OCLC, Inc . The funding sources themselves had no direct involvement in study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, in the writing of the report, or in the decision to submit this article for publication. Marie L. Radford is chair of the Department of Library and Information Science and Associate Professor at the School of Communication, and Information, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ. Prior to joining Rutgers, she served as acting dean at Pratt Institute, School of Information and Library Science and was a department head at the William Paterson University of New Jersey library. Radford earned a Ph. D. in communication, information, and library studies from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and a master of library science degree from Syracuse University. Her research interests include interpersonal communication in reference services (traditional and virtual), qualitative methods, assessment of library services and programs, cultural studies, and media stereotypes of librarians. She is co-principal investigator of the grant-funded project Seeking Synchronicity and Cyber Synergy , gives frequent keynote speeches and scholarly papers at international, national, and regional library and communication conferences, and has published in numerous scholarly journals. Her latest books include: Leading the Reference Renaissance (Neal-Schuman, 2012), Reference Renaissance: Current and Future Trends , with R.D. Lankes, (Neal-Schuman, 2010) and Conducting the Reference Interview , with C. S. Ross and K. Nilsen (Neal-Schuman, 2009). In 2010, she was awarded the ALA, Reference and User Services Association's Isadore Gilbert Mudge Award for “distinguished contributions to reference librarianship”. She and her co-authors were awarded the RUSA Reference Service Press Award for 2011 for “Are We Getting Warmer?” Query Clarification in Live Chat Virtual Reference. Lynn Silipigni Connaway leads the OCLC Research User Behavior Studies & Synthesis activities theme. Her responsibilities include research projects that directly involve OCLC libraries and users, such as WorldCat data mining projects; JISC-funded investigations of digital information seekers, users in the virtual research environment, and—with the University of Oxford—digital "visitors" and "residents"; and IMLS-funded grant projects to study virtual reference services and the behavior patterns of college and university information seekers. She earned her doctorate in library and information studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her master of library science degree from the University of Arizona. Prior to joining OCLC Research, she was the vice president of Research and Library Systems at NetLibrary and was also director of the Library and Information Services Department at the University of Denver. She is the co-author, with R. Powell, of the last two editions of the text Basic Research Methods for Librarians (ABC-CLIO, 2012) and was awarded the 2011 RUSA Reference Service Press Award for her co-authored work “Are We Getting Warmer?” Query Clarification in Live Chat Virtual Reference.
PY - 2013/1
Y1 - 2013/1
N2 - Research reveals that users of virtual reference services (VRS) value accurate answers to their queries and a pleasant interpersonal encounter. Findings from a longitudinal study compare two sets of randomly selected VRS transcripts, one of 850 live chat sessions from 2004 to 2006, and the second of 560 live chat and instant messaging (Qwidget) sessions from 2010. The investigation of the international QuestionPoint (OCLC, 2012) transcripts includes comparisons by query type (e.g., ready reference, policy and procedural, subject search) and by accuracy of answers to the subset identified as ready reference (e.g., fact-based queries). Findings indicate that percentages of ready reference queries are remaining stable, having increased slightly from 27% (243 of 915 queries found in 850 transcripts) in 2004-2006 to 31% (179 of 575 queries found in 560 transcripts) in the 2010 dataset. Additionally, accuracy of answers was found to have improved. The percentage of correct and complete responses with citations given by VRS librarians or staff members answering ready reference questions was found to have increased from 78% (141) in 2004-2006 to 90% (151) in 2010.
AB - Research reveals that users of virtual reference services (VRS) value accurate answers to their queries and a pleasant interpersonal encounter. Findings from a longitudinal study compare two sets of randomly selected VRS transcripts, one of 850 live chat sessions from 2004 to 2006, and the second of 560 live chat and instant messaging (Qwidget) sessions from 2010. The investigation of the international QuestionPoint (OCLC, 2012) transcripts includes comparisons by query type (e.g., ready reference, policy and procedural, subject search) and by accuracy of answers to the subset identified as ready reference (e.g., fact-based queries). Findings indicate that percentages of ready reference queries are remaining stable, having increased slightly from 27% (243 of 915 queries found in 850 transcripts) in 2004-2006 to 31% (179 of 575 queries found in 560 transcripts) in the 2010 dataset. Additionally, accuracy of answers was found to have improved. The percentage of correct and complete responses with citations given by VRS librarians or staff members answering ready reference questions was found to have increased from 78% (141) in 2004-2006 to 90% (151) in 2010.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84873523898&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84873523898&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.lisr.2012.08.001
DO - 10.1016/j.lisr.2012.08.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84873523898
SN - 0740-8188
VL - 35
SP - 2
EP - 13
JO - Library and Information Science Research
JF - Library and Information Science Research
IS - 1
ER -