proACTive

Number 232: March 2003

The virtual reference desk | PEARLs | What our users want...

The virtual reference desk is at your location now
AskNow!, a collaborative service provided by the Council of Australian State Libraries - the state and territory libraries of Australia and the NLA - is a virtual reference desk where answers are provided immediately by librarians expertly searching library catalogues, databases and the Internet. The process occurs in real time using chat software, and is easy to use for anyone with Internet access.

Customers click on the AskNow! icon, prominently displayed on all participating websites. A librarian will 'chat' online with the customer to answer the enquiry. The librarian can even 'push' web pages to a customer's PC, so customers are guided through the search while both enquirer and librarian view the same pages.

AskNow! is available Monday to Friday from 9:00am to 8:00pm. Staff from participating libraries take turns at answering the queries, so customers receive answers from varying locations. The NLA comments, 'Libraries are only too pleased to offer this electronic service, harnessing the capabilities of the Internet. AskNow! demonstrates libraries' commitment to constantly improving their services and offering equity of access to information. 'Clients have the satisfaction of interacting with a librarian and it's a way for libraries to build new and different relationships with their customers. Librarians are skilled searchers on the Internet and with the vast quantities of information available they can find the information quickly and from reliable sources. 'People in regional and remote Australia are particularly happy with the service, because it overcomes their limited access to research materials. Usage has been high, showing how much the service is appreciated.'

(Based on an NLA Media Release)

PEARLS
PEARLS (Previously Employed Australian Retired Librarians) met for the first time this year on 10 February at Bookplate in the Australian National Library. It was only a small group who enjoyed the delicious coffee and cakes as several members were travelling out of Canberra. As usual there was a wide range of topics of conversation.

We would like to send our best wishes to Jon Prance who is not enjoying good health at the moment and hope we see him again soon. Although most of the group are retired librarians anyone who has worked in libraries is welcome to come along and join us. Our next gathering will be Monday 14 April at 2:30pm.

Eileen Mills

What our users want...
Over sixty people attended a talk at the Australian National University on 5 February given by Colin Steele, Director, Scholarly Information Strategies, ANU, and Margaret Henty, Manager, Social Sciences and Humanities, ANU. The talk was called 'Do we know what users do and do we care? Trends in academic and student use of information in the 21st century' and was based on the results of a number of studies into user behaviour in the electronic environment conducted over the past year or so.

The talk generated considerable interest because of its relevance to the changing role of libraries in this environment. Some of the more relevant aspects of user behaviour covered by the talk included such issues as the increasing dependence on electronic resources for teaching, research and learning, the increasing dependence on search engines such as Google, the fact that libraries are still perceived as trustworthy sources of information but the internet is increasingly used as a sole information resource, especially by undergraduate students. Libraries are being less used as places to find information, especially by academics who prefer to do everything either from their homes or their offices.

The research was carried out as part of the DEST-funded research study, Changing Research Practices in the Electronic Information and Communication Environment, currently being conducted by Professor John Houghton of the Victoria University of Technology and Colin Steele. Margaret Henty was coopted to this project for three months during late-2002 to undertake a preliminary literature review.

Margaret Henty

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