Great new article on chat reference

I just finished reading a fine article by Steve Coffman and Linda Arret in the July/August 2004 issue of Searcher, which is available free in full text here. One of the great things about this article is that it takes a few steps back from the minutiae of chat reference service (how our library did it, software choices, staff training tips, service evalulation, etc.) and instead looks at the big picture. Coffman and Arret offer a nice thumbnail history of chat reference (where the idea came from, where the software came from, what the early days were like, etc.) They also suggest that most services aren't really making much headway in stemming the decline of numbers of questions asked in reference services, a problem libraries have been witnessing for the past six years.

Given the low usage of most services and the disappearance of online services that librarians used to fear as competitors for their patrons (WebHelp.com, AnswerPoint, etc.), it is fair of the authors to question whether our services are worth the money and effort. The article is actually a two-parter, with the second installment coming in the next issue of the Searcher. In light of the somewhat bleak picture they paint of the current state of chat reference, I'm very eager to see what the authors' thoughts are on the future of these services.