Session 611 - Thursday Feb. 1/07
Real time virtual reference services for Ontario
OLA is always a joy to go to. There is lots to see and hear about - new and wonderful things that are happening in the library world. The session that I enjoyed the most was the last session of the day put on by AskOntario/Knowledge Ontario.
They asked a few questions - Do Ontarians want or need a province-wide virtual reference service? Are their needs being served by existing services? What about communities and groups that aren't well served? If such a service were developed, what form should it take? Who is going to staff such a service?
There was a panel of four different people with one being from British Columbia. They all gave insight into what has been created for their library system. I am just going to mention two of the panels at this time.
Ottawa Library has created IM a Librarian - chatting on the cheap. They are a small library system. They also did not have money to put into a virtual reference site. What they have set up is a virtual system that is like the library with set hours that they are on-line. At these times there is a Librarian there to answer all the questions that you might have.
AskAway: B.C.Province-Wide Virtual Reference. They are a bigger library system. They have created a province wide virtual reference system so there is a Librarian on-line all the time to answer whatever questions you might have anytime of the day or night.
With more and more people, especially the young generation, using MSN and other on-line chat lines, this is going to be an up and coming thing in the Library world.
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1 comment:
Becky,
When I was in a class from ALA, last year, many American libraries have the IM reference. they think it is wonderful. It is hard work and you have to think fast but it can be very rewarding.
Do you think you would be interested in IM reference?
catherine G.
P>S> Not on the same scale but ASKMPL is a little look into possible reference questions. this service is underused and mostly directional questions but does sometimes have interesting questions.
You can look at the questions that were asked by logging onto sent messages.
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