April 16, 2003
SYRACUSE---Onondaga County Public Library kicks off National Library Week, April 6 to 12, by announcing a new tool for fulfilling its goal of forging more connections between libraries and communities. The Ask A Librarian digital reference service, reached from the OCPL Web site, lets people with tough questions get live, online help finding answers 24 hours a day.
The OCPL Information Services staff likes the challenge of tough questions and is excited about the new service. “Chat is a major feature of the service, but it's only the tip of the iceberg of what we can actually do for patron,” said Information Services librarian Holly Sammons.
Or rather, with the patron. The connection is set up to allow the librarian in one location to co-browse Web sites and Internet resources with the patron in another location — essentially walking the patron through the search via instructional conversation and demonstration.
Ask A Librarian is just one of several access points to OCPL reference services, with e-mail and phone reference also available to remote users, noted Katie Whitney, head of Information Services. The Ask A Librarian service differs from e-mail reference in that the real-time interaction between patron and librarian can help the patron refine the questions and search technique.
“The more ways we have to answer questions, the more benefits there are for everyone — customers and librarians,” Whitney said.
To offer this round-the-clock service to county residents, OCPL joined a national library consortium started by Metropolitan Cooperative Library Systems in Southern California. MCLS developed the 24/7 Reference product suite, including software, which forms the heart of the service. Each participating library tailors its digital reference program to its own community while agreeing to contribute to the nationwide service, as well. OCPL has initially signed on to provide the consortium 10 hours a week of real-time reference service.
One day recently, Sammons picked up a live question from a student working in his college dorm room. Sammons and the student “chatted” a couple of minutes to help Sammons determine the real intent of the question and what the student needed from an answer. Meanwhile, she located the college library home page and caused it to appear in the student's browser screen. Through the real-time chat function, Sammons led him through his own library's resources, not only helping him find an answer, but instructing him, informally, in search strategies.
Education is a main goal of librarians, after all, and a critical form of community connection. Support National Library Week—go to www.ocpl.lib.ny.us , click on Ask A Librarian, and ask the tough questions.
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