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This essential book provides a snapshot of virtual reference services in a variety of settings (public, academic, and special libraries) and discusses the issues, trends, and practices involved in offering this kind of service. The chapters go beyond descriptions of services to offer practical advice and suggestions for product selection, policy setting, technical support, collaborative efforts, staffing, training, marketing, budgeting, evaluation, and administration. Case studies, relevant Web sites, and vendor information are included. An ample selection of tables, figures, and illustrations makes important information easy to access and understand.
List of contents
Reading the River: The State of the Art of Real-Time Reference, The Librarian Has Left the Building-But To Where?, Chat Is Now: Administrative Issues, Live Reference Chat from a Customer Service Perspective, Staffing a Real-Time Reference Service: The University of Florida Experience, Q and A NJ: Service Design and Impact, From AskWendt Live to QuestionPoint: A Chronology of the Development of a Persistently Virtual Reference Product and Service, Managing an Established Virtual Reference Service, Florida Libraries Go Live: A Look at Chat Reference Services, Live Reference in an Academic Health Sciences Library: The Q and A NJ Experience at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Health Sciences Library at Stratford, Ask a Librarian Virtual Reference Services at the Boeing Library, Managing Data Collection for Real-Time Reference: Lessons from the AskERIC LIVE! Experience, Exploring the Synchronous Digital Reference Interaction for Query Types, Question Negotiation, and Patron Response, Site Search and Instant Messaging Reference: A Comparative Study, Index, Reference Notes Included ,
About the author
Stacey Kimmel, Jennifer Heise
Summary
Provides a snapshot of virtual reference services in all kinds of library settings and discusses the issues, trends, and practices involved in offering this kind of service.
