Annoying the librarian

This past month has seen nearly a half dozen chat sessions where the user asked for help finding naked pictures of women or if there were any sexy librarians around (aren't we all?) What is truly annoying about three of these chats was that the user was sitting at a computer on the main floor of the library within sight of the reference desk. (The service we use allows us to see the IP address of the user, so if the IP address is from our library, we'll know what computer it is.)

Every time I got a chat from the little creep, I immediately sent him (and I'm pretty sure it is a him) a scripted message that tells him that this chat is inappropriate and that he is violating CUNY's computer use policy. By this point, he logs off.

I keep thinking that the next time I get a chat like this (and I am sure the user is chatting from a library PC), I'll try to keep him on the line as long as possible so that I can figure out what computer he's at and let our public safety officers deal with him. This strategy came to mind when I recalled the cliche of TV and film where the criminal calls the police, FBI, victim, etc. while the phone line is tapped; there's always some guy in these movies or shows who, stationed before a bank of electronic equipment and with headphones on, is desperately trying to trace the call and is screaming, "Keep him on the line! I almost have it!"

Were such a strategy to work out for me, I can also picture a public safety officer rushing up to the computer where the user was just sitting and finding an empty seat and a mouse dangling off the edge of table, swinging by its cord and still warm to the touch.

Online training for chat reference librarians

The folks at the Statewide Virtual Reference Project in Washington have put together an interesting online course that will help prepare librarians to staff chat reference services. You don't have to register to view a lot of the great material that has been prepared for this course, such as:

- tips for chatting online (PDF file)

- guidelines for marketing a digital reference service (PDF file)

- a checklist of internet competencies for librarians monitoring chat reference services (PDF file)

The creators of this course have done a good job of putting together their own training materials. Each page offers links not only to the creator's materials but also to relevant reports, articles, etc. on other web sites. If you wanted to teach yourself about chat reference services, this is a great place to begin.

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.

Old promo for New York Public Library

Thanks to Basic Hip Digital Oddio for this fun little MP3 of an old promo for the New York Public Library.

Another buying guide

While looking at the website of one vendor of chat reference software, I found another purchasing guide article to recommend. This article, first published in the summer 2003 issue of Medical Reference Services Quarterly, has been republished in its entirety on the website for Docutek, whose VRLplus software is described in the article.

Guide to buying software for chat reference

The May 2004 issue of Computers in Libraries has a good article by Olivia Olivares on what to consider when purchasing software for a chat reference service. The text of article isn't available from the magazine's site, but it is online in most of the major full-text databases.