Internet column
It is now some years since virtual or digital reference services became mainstream in academic and public libraries. Having taken a serious hold, and in some cases replaced the traditional service, it may be a good time to seek to evaluate the impact this move to the virtual world has had on the client, the librarian and indeed the management of libraries. It is important to be clear in our definition of digital reference because there can be many interpretations of the various terms current in the field. A definition that would be clear and succinct might read: “Digital or virtual reference is the combination of expertise, usually in the form of a librarian, digital resources and someone with an information need, all brought together in a an online networked environment where the product of their collaboration is recorded and can be used to inform and improve the service delivered”.
In order to evaluate the impact of virtual reference it may be useful to outline the perceived benefits that created the impetus for change. It is also interesting to note that the implementation of change was rarely a “clean”substitution of virtual reference to replace traditional reference; rather, as one can observe in most cases, there has been a changeover period where both types of service delivery have operated in tandem.
The benefits of virtual reference are seen, in the main, to be the improved quality of customer service through increased speed of response made possible through the use of real-time synchronous systems such as chatroom style setups and also through asynchronous systems such as e-mail and webforms. Additionally there has been an increased emphasis on the benefit of having some physical record of the reference transaction. This is because the recording system can deliver rich management information that may influence the types of materials and resources purchased by the library. Furthermore, such recorded information can be transformed into knowledge that serves many staff training and development requirements.
The evaluation of benefit is seen mostly in terms of impact on library users typically manifested through user satisfaction surveys. These are assessed by measuring the degree to which users are satisfied, not only with the end results but also with the process itself; parts of this process, for example, include speed of delivery, staff attitude and technical and functional facilities. Economic measures are of course important, and these might include cost effectiveness of digital reference, the cost per digital reference session, the infrastructure and the overall impact of these services on other library priorities and funding.
Leading on from this is the expectation that some greater economic benefit might be forthcoming, for instance, a reduced need for storage space resulting in smaller libraries. There is little evidence to show that this is the case. Indeed, public libraries within the UK are these days being built as much as iconic buildings as they were 150 years ago.
While the evaluation of virtual reference has focused mainly on user satisfaction there is probably a real need to assess what the impact has been in staff training. Looking at the wider picture of education within the profession some interesting questions are posed, the most important one seems to be whether the core skills for reference librarianship remain relevant within an increasingly virtual world.
Rónán O’BeirneInternet Column Editor Reference Reviews and Principal Libraries Officer, Bradford Libraries, Archives and Information Service, Bradford, UK
