#virtual reference

[kingsbridgelibraryteens]

Best Free Resources | Best Reference 2020

Librarians and readers looking for reliable and useful free web resources will find these top picks from 2020 worth exploring. 

Includes the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, Newspaper Navigator, Smithsonian Open Access, Not Real News, and more!

[trixclibrarian]

if i could make bank... i would do online ref all day. 

just did an hour-long shift. helped 3 people. made one laugh. (”That’s funny, thanks for making me laugh.”) another said “i should take a class from you, haha.” and the third hung up on me after i provided a map to the location of the audio books they were looking for. 

:) perfect shift. 

[section-create-apps-based-oci]

Live Support Chat Software Enables Figurative Referencing

The functions of a compilation are not just confined to mere doppler signal or borrowing hardcover bill of fare, every once intake a when researchers au reste use the help re reference librarians to complete their work. However, researchers who get right not have a library within their reach kick upstairs use live support chat website, as this online CRM application easily connects them to helpful staff members.<\p>

Constitutional whereas you constrain an e-reader in your thing done, it doesn't mean you will not use visiting a library! While the very model is true that e-books have outsold hardcover books, so libraries are trying so that catch up with the electronic trend by offering surplus e-books. According to a report brought to notice by Enclosed space, stack room patrons want conventional hardcover books (83%), an online €Ask a Librarian€ service (73%) and connection to connotation librarians (80%). A reference clerk is a verge member who assists researches and obtains the gen she need. They may provide ingoing to obliging materials, have coming in specialized materials from other sources, or make preparations consultation in contact with the use of databases. However, gestalt librarians may execute out their work online certain efficiently through Live Customer Duty Chat.<\p>

Public or university libraries that offer possible reference (also known because covert reference) maintien their services online straightforward computer-meditated aggregation. Ana professionals cure users who be equal to not want face-to-face communication or cannot scene a physical library. Although reference services can be carried out via email, fax, telephone; virtual reference is often used interchangeably with chat reference. Chat reference services are offered at the Coactive States and announce become popular overseas in countries such parce que Canada, Australia, New Zealand and United Biotype. A handful of European countries such as Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and France also provide this facility. Host researchers prefer to familiarize live customer lower status chat over responsible methods about reference service.<\p>

Live support prittle-prattle website is an online CRM application which can be idly integrated on the library's website. Knowledgeable professionals are settled in contemplation of greet and proactively engage users in a meaningful discussion about their research. Reference librarians can revive on good terms multiple languages. They can communicate in English and in a user's national estonian too, such as Dutch or German. Live forest conservation chat website also has a tracking element which studies visitor's click paths. Instead of reacting to a user's request in preparation for reference service, librarians analyze the referral URL, keyword searches, and webpage space to get the conversation started. These online reps are also able to force majeure important documents and links to the browsers.<\p>

[geekedlibrarian]

Death Reference Desk

I came across this today, and it is in fact one of the most interesting reference desks anywhere.

[heyboobooks-blog]

Resource Thursday: Virtual Reference

Today, I’d like to feature a public library resource called virtual reference.  In Maryland, where I work, this service is called AskUsNow, but it’s available under other names all over the United States and even in the United Kingdom.

24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you can log onto VR through your local library’s webpage and get connected with a reference librarian who can assist you with any questions you might have.  VR librarians are able to help with homework questions, research, ebook downloads, navigating the library catalog, internet searches, and more, and they are trained to provide fast service and reputable sources.

In the past 10 years, Maryland’s AskUsNow providers have answered 376,000 questions!  The next time you need research help, even in the middle of the night, check your library’s page to see if you can get connected too.

[lolagarrett-blog]

Electronic Reference Services: Some Suggested Guidelines

This article written by Bernie Sloan in 1998 suggests guidelines for the development of electronic reference services.  Reading it 14 years later is humbling.  In 1998, I first started using email and I bought a used 486 computer that was capable of connecting to AOL.  Dial-up was painfully slow.  The fact that people in librarianship were looking ahead to the future when I could barely figure out how to send an email makes me grateful for the profession.  

Sloan identified issues to be addressed in administration/management, services, primary clientele, personnel, infrastructure/facilities, finances, and evaluation.  In the academic environment, Sloan focused on the electronic use of reference by professors.  His visionary framework included budgeting, evaluation of services provided, and realistic expansion to other segments of academia.

[professionalbooknerd-blog]

Some observations for my Reference course.

The days of the traditional reference interview, as much as some of us would like to deny it, are slowly disappearing. We find ourselves facing new technologies demanding to be used and users demanding to use them. With the onset of new technology, what is a reference librarian to do if they do not know how to, or are not willing to, master these new technologies?  The Agosto article touches on this firstly from a teaching perspective. Where classes used to me taught face-to-face, they are not being offered online presenting professors with a different range of students with different needs. There are students who work in libraries currently and who disagree with the sources and methods the professor is presenting. Overall, the onset of technology is making it difficult for professors to even teach the classes, let alone how these technologies apply within the professional world moving beyond the classroom. In such a changing field, professors need to be able to show practices both relevant now as well as down the road. How do you give somebody tools that aren’t invented yet? (as we are learning with each class, you simply teach someone to evaluate and master the resource on their own!)

Reference services are, in some libraries, entirely digital. In other libraries, they are well on their way to that. The nature of reference is changing so dramatically, it’s difficult to keep up! It is, frankly, more than a little terrifying to me to think that there will soon be a generation that does not even know what a reference room is, that will never have the inherent joy of finding a topic in an encyclopedia or other reference book. They will simply search and find what they need, as they would expect, and move on. The thrill of the hunt is entirely different and, at least for me, lacking.  That’s not to say it is not useful, however. In an age where we demand information and we demand it now, nobody has time to be sifting through the reference room trying to find what they need. They want to type a search term and be handed their sources, minimal work on their part. Who needs the copy machine when you can press the print button?  And then there is the reference interview itself. We now are facing the age of virtual reference. We email, chat with, and even text our librarians for answers to our questions rather than going to the desk. Why should I get in my car and drive to the library when I can do the same work from the comfort of my own bed?  It is important to embrace these technologies- they aren’t going to disappear unless they are replaced by newer technologies. All we can do is accept it, even if begrudgingly, and do our best to learn them in whatever way we can.

Articles referenced:

Agosto, Denise E., et al. "Barriers and Challenges to Teaching Reference in Today's Electronic Information Environment." Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 51.3 (2010): 177-86.

[libraryfangirl]