Research into the evaluation of virtual reference services

One of my two favorite professors I had while a LIS student at the Pratt Institute, Marie Radford, is featured in a Library Journal interview that highlights the work she is doing to evaluate virtual reference services. OCLC and the Rutgers University School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, where Radford is now a professor, have received a grant from IMLS to conduct focus groups of users and librarians and to analyze chat reference transcripts. Lynn Silipigni Connaway from OCLC will be the co-investigator with Radford for this project. More details on the project can be found on the OCLC press release about it.

As a former student of and a former research assistant to Marie Radford, I am excited to hear that she is working on this. I learned so much from her about interpersonal communication in reference transactions that I've tried to carry over to my chat reference work. As an introduction to her work, I highly recommend the presentation she gave with Joe Thompson at VRD in 2004, Yo Dude! Y R U Typin So Slow? Interpersonal Communication in Chat Reference Encounters (be sure to check out the handouts from the presentation).