I. Mission Statement:
The AJCU Virtual Reference Service is committed to providing high quality
online reference service to students, faculty, and staff of all the
participating Jesuit institutions.
II. Service Overview
The AJCU Virtual Reference Service provides online reference help to
the primary clientele of the participating Jesuit institutions 24
hours a day, seven days a week. The collaborative virtual reference
model will allow the institutions involved to extend standard hours
of operation by distributing the staffing of the service across multiple
libraries and multiple time zones.
The service uses the Tutor.com software which allows
the librarian to chat and co-browse databases and electronic resources
with the
patron. From 9 am
to 9 pm (in all time zones) the service is cooperatively staffed by AJCU librarians.
At other times, questions are answered by librarians hired by Tutor.com’s
Librarians by Request service.
Each participating Jesuit institution is required to
contribute a certain number of librarian hours (determined by the size
of the institution).
III. Service Philosophy
The AJCU Virtual Reference Service was created in order to provide
a new method of delivering reference services to the clientele of
the participating Jesuit institutions. It is an additional way to
reach users, particularly students, who use chat software in their
daily communication with others. This additional way of providing
reference enhances the traditional service philosophy of academic
libraries which consider instruction and teaching an integral part
of providing reference assistance. During online sessions with patrons,
librarians should emphasize teaching over simply providing information.
The co-browsing function of the software helps support this philosophy
by allowing librarians to instruct the patrons in the use of particular
databases.
IV. Clientele Served
The service is available to current students, faculty, and staff of
the participating Jesuit institutions without restrictions. Patrons
accessing the service will be asked to identify the Jesuit institution
with which they are affiliated . When a non-affiliated patron accesses
the service, the librarian may do a brief reference interview and
point the patron to freely available web based resources, or may
refer the patron to a local public institution using available scripted
responses. The librarian may also choose to answer the question if
no other patrons are waiting, but proprietary databases should not
be used to aid unaffiliated patrons.
V. Service and Performance
Standards 1) Scope of service
Each library must contribute a certain predetermined
number of hours to the AJCU virtual reference service. During these assigned
shifts,
the librarian online will answer questions from all participating libraries.
At other time, an individual library may choose to offer the service
only for its own clientele.
There is no time limit for answering a question, although the librarian
should keep in mind that other patrons might be waiting. If a question
requires more than 15 minutes, referral to a local librarian may be
more efficient.
The librarian on duty is not required to answer more
than one question at a time. If a second question appears in the queue
while the librarian
is already answering a question, it will be routed after a few minutes
to another online AJCU librarian. If no other AJCU librarian is online,
the question will be picked up by the Librarians by Request staff (Tutor.com).
2)
Type of question answered
The type of questions that will be answered may include:
A specific piece of information (examples: a fact, a date, spelling
of a name) or verifying citations.
Suggestions for appropriate electronic or print resources
to help find information for a project or research
paper or help in constructing
a search statement.
Assistance in the use of electronic resources.
For in-depth reference questions or if detailed research assistance
is needed, the librarian on duty can choose to follow up by email or
can refer the question to a librarian from the patron’s host
institution.
The service is designed to answer reference questions, but general
circulation or directional questions may be answered using the library
policy pages provided by each institution and available on the AJCU
Virtual Reference web site.
3) Reference practices
As a general rule, the reference service provided in an online environment
should:
· Be of the same quality as in-person reference service. (e.g.
conducting a quick reference interview, using authoritative/quality
resources, etc)
·
Focus on online resources as this is a virtual service (online catalogs,
databases, electronic journals, online reference books, and appropriate
web pages)
·
Make use of databases and resources available at the patron’s
host institution. Patrons should be asked to authenticate to access
any proprietary databases.
4) Follow-up/Referral Procedures
Librarians on duty should try to answer each question to the best of
their abilities. If they determine that a question would be better
answered by a local librarian, they can refer the question to the patron’s
host institution. If a librarian from the patron’s host institution
is simultaneously online, the question SHOULD be transferred immediately.
In certain cases, the librarian can negotiate with the patron to continue
the transaction by e-mail if it is necessary. At the moment, the service
doesn’t include faxing, photocopying or mailing materials for
patrons.
VI. Database Access Policy
It is important that librarians adhere to the licensing agreements
for any electronic resources and databases used. As a general rule,
the librarian on duty should use the databases and electronic resources
available at the patron’s host institution and ask the patron
to authenticate before access is granted. The librarian can then co-browse
and instruct the patron in the use of the databases. Librarians on
duty should only provide patrons access to databases that are accessible
via the patron’s host institutions.
Each institution will provide a barcode number or other means to access
their databases in case legitimate users are having problems authenticating.
These barcodes/logins will be available to the Librarians by Request
staff and the AJCU librarians staffing the service, but should only
be used as a last resort.
VII. Scheduling
At the beginning of each semester, a schedule will be created using
a scheduling software. Each institution will be asked to sign up
for a required number of shifts. The scheduling coordinator will
make sure that all shifts are covered and will resolve conflicts.
Every effort will be made to accommodate individual institution’s
preferences.
If a library is unable to staff the service at its regular scheduled
times, they should first request a shift trade through the scheduling
software. The scheduling coordinator should be notified if a trade
is not possible.
VIII. Quality Control
Providing virtual reference service in a consortial environment means
that librarians staffing the service answer questions for patrons
from institutions other than their own. This means they will be using
online resources they might not be familiar with. In order to maintain
the highest standards of quality, all library staff involved need
to familiarize themselves with the policy pages and the electronic
resources of the participating institutions.
The coordinators at each institution are responsible for notifying
consortium members of any changes in policies or any specific things
that could affect the virtual reference service via the AJCU Virtual
Reference discussion list.
Individual coordinators are also responsible for reviewing the transcripts
involving their patrons and their librarians, as well as the survey
responses from their library’s patrons. They may decide to follow-up
by email if the service given to their patrons was not adequate. It
is recommended that the transcripts (or a sample of the transcripts)
be reviewed at least weekly.
Any complaints regarding quality of service should be sent to the quality
control coordinator.
IX. Communication Channels
Ongoing communication is critical to ensure the success of a virtual
reference project in a consortial environment. The coordinators at
each institution, as well as all the librarians involved in providing
virtual reference for the consortium should be subscribed to the
AJCU Virtual Reference listserv and use it to ask questions, discuss
issues with their colleagues, or provide needed information about
their libraries.
X. Privacy Policy
Each institution is responsible for posting on the web page providing
access to the service a privacy policy, which explains to the patron
what personal information is collected by the service and what is done
with this information. Following is an example of a brief privacy policy
that can be used as it is, or modified by participating libraries:
AJCU Virtual Reference Service - D
R A F T - Privacy
Statement
This privacy statement explains what we do with the personal
information collected from our patrons when they use the AJCU Virtual
Reference Service . More specifically, it explains what personal information
is collected, how it is used, and how long it is kept.
When you use the AJCU Virtual Reference Service, you
are asked to provide your name, institution affiliation, status (faculty,
student, staff, etc.), and email address. Providing your email address
allows us to send you a transcript of the session, or to send you additional
information related to your question. We will disclose your personal
information only when it is necessary to answer your request for
information. For example, we may refer your question and your personal
information to a librarian at another Jesuit institution. We will
not
share your email address or use it for other purposes.
We also collect some information about your computer,
such as the browser version you are using, and your IP address. We
store session
cookies on your machine in order to send you chat messages, web sites
and files, but these cookies will dissolve when your session ends.
We keep the transcripts and make
them available to supervising librarians for quality control, but
we purge all your personal information from the system after 30 days.
If you have selected the "Anonymous" user option, the librarian will
see the information you entered in the form, but personal information
is purged as soon as the session has been ended.
This privacy policy will be reviewed periodically. If
any changes occur, you will see the word "updated" next to
the Privacy Policy
link on the entry page.
XI. Use Policy
Each institution is responsible for posting on their web site a use
policy for the service stating who can use the service and what kind
of questions are appropriate.
XII. Consortium Staff
At this time, the AJCU Virtual Reference consortium does not have a
paid project director. An implementation committee is supervising
the project during its first phase. The committee will make recommendations
on how the project should be administered and supervised in the future.
One possibility is to have an appointed board and several coordinators
in various areas such as scheduling, quality control, assessment,
etc.
XIII. Duties of Participating Institutions
-Staffing: each institution is responsible for staffing the number
of hours agreed upon with professional librarians who have been trained
in the use of the software.
-Initial training will be provided by Tutor.com, but individual institutions
will then be responsible for training new staff members, and keeping
their staff current on changes in the service and the software.
-Policy Page: each institution is responsible for creating and keeping
up to date a library policy page providing information such as hours,
circulation policies, reference email contact, list of databases, list
of electronic journals, etc.
-Review of Transcripts: To ensure high quality standards, the coordinator
of the service at each institution will be responsible for reviewing
transcripts (or a sample of transcripts) involving their students and
their librarians. This review should be done weekly, so that there
could be follow-up if a question was not answered properly. (see section
on quality control)
-Access and marketing: Each institution is responsible for providing
access to the service through their library home page or other media,
and to market the service to its community. The AJCU consortium will
be providing guidelines to help market the service.
-Annual report and statistics: each institution is responsible for
writing an annual report using the statistics and reports provided
by the software and detailing the problems and successes of the service
at their university. These reports will be used by the consortium to
improve service
Last Updated 8/26/2009
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