24/7 Online Reference

I recently moved from the Chicago area out to Denver, CO. I have been trying to get a job working at the Denver Public Library and as such have been checking out their website extensively to try and find out about what kinds of programs and services they offer to their users. One of the most interesting things I have found is a program called SmartyPants, which is an online reference service available 24/7. This means that if a patron is at home at 3am working on a homework assignment or merely wakes up in the middle of the night needing to know an answer to a question, they can log onto SmartyPants and be connected any time of the day or night to one of the DPL's reference librarians.

I was first introduced to online reference in my LIS 704 Reference class at Dominican University. In that class, we spent some time asking questions of online reference librarians to see how it compared to the service we had received in live reference interviews and to learn about how it worked. We also had a reference librarian come in to our class and talk about her experience working with online reference. She said that the people that she noticed the greatest disparity in questions from were teenagers, because many of them are used to using instant messenger-type chat programs and have no qualms about asking a librarian a question that way, but may be wary of walking up to a librarian in person and asking a question (especially if they have had negative experiences with librarians in the past).

The way that online reference works is that a user logs onto the library's website and locates their section about online reference. There is usually a button saying something like "Connect me to a librarian!" or "Ask a question!" A box then pops up, either on the side of the screen or in a separate window, in which the user can type out their question. If the librarian is busy, it may take a few minutes to get an acknowledgment that the question has been received, but the service certainly doesn't take any more time than it would to wait in line at a reference desk. The librarian and user then type back and forth as the librarian tries to clarify the question or offer suggestions to the user. Most sites also allow the patron to receive a transcript of the reference interview e-mailed to the user when the conversation has ended.

Online reference is a really great tool and I'm glad to know that my new library offers it. One of the nicest features of online reference is that it is usually available to anyone using the internet, not just people who belong to a specific library's district. While I don't generally ask a lot of questions at the library (I'm one of those people who would rather wander around for 20 minutes than have to bother someone who looks busy), I think I will try out SmartyPants sometime to see how it compares to other online reference library services I have used in the past for school.