“You don’t want to be a dead-end” VRS Librarians on Collaboration & SQA

1. iConference 15 February 2013http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/synergy.html Chirag Shah Assistant ProfessorRutgers University chirags@oclc.org “You don’t want to be a dead-end” VRS Librarians on Collaboration & SQA Lynn SilipigniConnaway Senior Research ScientistOCLC connawal@oclc.org Marie L. Radford Associate ProfessorRutgers University mradford@rutgers.edu

2. Cyber Synergy: Seeking Sustainability through Collaboration between Virtual Reference & Social Q&A Sites Possible collaboration with SQA community Evidence to model new library collaborative services Sustainability vital Three phases Transcript analysis 1000 Yahoo Answers Q&A pairs 500+ QuestionPoint chat/Qwidget transcripts 150 Telephone interviews & analysis Construct design specifications

3. Librarian Interviews – Preliminary Results 50 Total interviews - VRS librarians 25 Interviews analyzed for preliminary results Phone interviews 8/12 - 9/12 Responses analyzed 10/12 - 11/12 Analysis - constant comparative method & Critical Incident Technique Themes Difficult reference encounters Collaboration Social Question & Answer (SQA) VRS and SQA compared

4. Difficult reference encounters WITHIN librarian’s expertise Librarian usually able to answer (only 4 referrals) Answering question convenient due to librarian’s subject knowledge or familiarity with technological resources User seemed satisfied Librarian able to instruct & connect with user

5. Difficult reference encounters OUTSIDE librarian’s expertise Librarian usually ended up referring user Difficulties were due to: - Librarian or user’s lack of subject knowledge - Unfamiliarity with technological resources - Lack of time to answer question

6. Collaboration Results Demographics Frequency hard to track - some more VRS than others Most collaborated more than once a week Modes of collaboration: e-mail, FtF, chat, phone Collaboration themes FtF most often reported, then e-mail, then chat Reasons for collaboration More comprehensive answer Lacks expertise Lacks time Sometimes followed up (8 of 25)

7. Collaboration (cont.) Reasons to collaborate Librarian: lacks expertise, not local librarian, referral seen as option or easy/convenient User: needs more information, has sufficient time Facilitators & barriers Seen on individual or organizational level Facilitators: willingness to help, know who to contact, other librarians available Barriers: unwillingness to collaborate, insufficient time, do not know who to contact

8. Crowd-sourcing? Consulting experts acceptable if: Expert is authoritative Question requires objective answer Convenient Question type suitable for SQA? Ready ref., experience or opinion based, starting point for in-depth research VRS is _______ and SQA is not (comparison) Authoritative Complex Objective Synchronous

9. Next Steps

10. Next Steps • Continue interviews • VRS librarians • VRS/SQA users • Further analysis SQA questions • Subject • Question Type • Questions failing to obtain • answers • Design sessions with experts • Specifications for system design Nee help with English please? Answer Question ANSWERS(0)

11. ? ? Marie L. Radford: mradford@rutgers.edu Lynn SilipigniConnaway: connawal@oclc.org Chirag Shah: chirags@rutgers.edu ? ? Questions? ? ? ? ?