Shaping the future realities of virtual reference

✍ Scribed by Marie L. Radford; Lynn Silipigni Connaway; Jeffrey Pomerantz

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 30 KB
• Volume: 43
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-7870
• DOI: 10.1002/meet.1450430126

✦ Synopsis

Pomerantz calls for a "shift [in] the literature on chat-based reference services beyond the current spate of case studies and discussions of emerging standards and best practices in providing chat-based reference, to a higher level of discussion on the creation and discussion of theoretical frameworks to unite the se standards and practices" (p. 1288). He outlines a research agenda and provid ed the foundation for the development of a coherent, holistic conceptual framework for VRS (see also Lankes, 2004).

Beyond sporadic, usually quantitative data, little is known about the users of VRS: how they determine service excellence and rate satisfaction, how and why they choose to use VRS, and what their use patterns are. Mon (2006) found tha t users will indicate that they are "very satisfied" in often used pop-up surveys when they actually have additional lingering questions or need more help. Little is also known ab out the librarians who staff these services, their satisfaction with their performance, and how they determine