Virtual Reference Service: From Competencies to Assessment

Citation

Duckett, B. (2009), "Virtual Reference Service: From Competencies to Assessment", Library Review, Vol. 58 No. 1, pp. 72-74. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530910928960

“In the last decade, virtual reference has grown from a topic of largely theoretical conversation to a very real and increasingly basic library service” write R. David Lankes and Philip Nest in their Preface to Virtual Reference Services: From Competencies to Assessment. I beg to differ. Rather the reverse, I submit. The more we seem to have endeavoured to accommodate the distant library user by answering their letters, telephone calls, telex and fax messages, emails and texting – all essentially practical activities – the more we seem to have people analysing trends, offering training packages and speaking at conferences.

Indeed, the introductory essay to this book on virtual reference (VR) is a history of the seven Virtual Reference Desk (VRD) conferences held between 1999 and 2005. Four “lessons” have been learnt: the difference between the content of research and the business of research, the importance of tools, the need to build on existing communities and “Building Zip Cords between the Towers and the Trenches”. Nothing revolutionary here. “The Virtual Reference Desk conferences”, we are told, “were a success”. While each had its distinct flavor, the conferences as a whole served as milestones for the power of an energized innovator community. “What you see in these pages and the pages of the previous VRD volumes are more than good research or case studies. What you see are librarians, academics and others dedicated to making the world a better place”. (p. 14) “Hallelujah! I well remember the early days of my own involvement in the “ask a Librarian” scheme when we waited nervously for our 24‐h slot for answering the world's enquiries. We were part of the new world order of librarians altruistically helping each other to answer Everyman's enquiries using the new liberating internet. We were, indeed, truly “energized innovators” looking to the new dawn. I even recall hearing that there was to be a VRD conference in Boston in 1999. Exciting times; things were happening! Somehow, though, the new dawn got institutionalised, and reading the contributions here, I feel like the young boy who shouted that the Emperor's new clothes did not exist!

So what, exactly, is this “virtual reference” thing? We are not told, or not until p. 106. In the chapter, “Meeting the Challenge of Reference Service in a Hybrid Environment: Teaching LIS Students Today”, “Digital, or virtual, reference is a tool, a means of communication. It is considered a subset of traditional reference services, and all tenets of traditional reference – for example, answering questions, aiding in selection, conducting research and evaluating information – apply to it as well. In terms of training reference librarians, this means that, in addition to all the skills for traditional reference services … they need to be taught the skills for digital reference”. Is VR, then, just traditional reference services plus the digital bits, “Digital Reference” (DR)? A literature review in this chapter reveals that “Essential virtual reference service skills that are emphasized pertain more to information technology proficiency (working with multiple browsers and keyboarding proficiency) and less to unique search strategies and sources appropriate for virtual reference”. (p. 107) So, VR is about technical proficiency? Reference work has always been subject to changes in the technological and sociological environment; so VR just the latest episode? The point about VR, I guess, is how it changes our interaction with remote users and how we have to adapt our library services. There are certainly philosophical and policy issues here; not that there is much reflective thinking in this book; no new philosophy of service. This is a book reporting experiences in the practical business of implementing VR, textbook style, an indication of which are the 63 tables, 37 of them in a substantial 92‐page chapter (almost half the book) on “A Comprehensive VR Training Program”. And here, on p. 115, we have confirmation that “DR” and “VR” are the same, and both refer to the “electronic reference transaction”.

The nine chapters of this book are divided into four parts. Part One is about “Starting up”. Here, we find a case study on “Creating your own consortium in less than six months: a true story of virtual reference”, and a chapter on motivational and coaching techniques for staff: “Implementing virtual reference on the fly: staff motivation and buy‐in”. In Part Two, “Branching out”, we have chapters on “Adding instant messaging to an established virtual reference service”; another on the creation of subject‐specific taxonomies (“subject headings” in the days of my apprenticeship) – an enormously important subject illustrated at rather tedious length on “Responding to triage taxonomy: answering virtual medical questions”, and a third chapter on “The evolving role of reference librarians in the health science environment”. We quoted from this chapter earlier and consider it the best in the collection.

Part Three is ““Ongoing improvement”. Here, we have an examination of interpersonal communications in VR encounters illustrated from the library LAWLINE consortium; and also a chapter on how to assess inappropriate use, learning from the AskColorado experience. In Part Four, “Pulling it together: virtual reference training” we find ourselves “Meeting the challenges of virtual reference service in a hybrid environment: teaching LIS students today” – a reminder that libraries are not what they used to be and that neither is the teaching of students. Finally, we have the 92‐page “Comprehensive virtual reference training program”, the digital reference education initiative. I surfed this eagerly hoping to find what it was students were to be trained for. In amongst screeds of bland generalisations, there were glimpses of the need to develop skills in using search engines, how to download/upload, integrate files, use chat reference and to demonstrate “shorts” in VR software. One note struck a chord, the tendency for staff to be so obsessed with manipulating the system that they forget to listen to the enquirer. Yes, we have all been there, both as harassed technician and impatient user!

The book's coverage is entirely academic library based and I do wonder about the wisdom of CILIP's publishing arm, Facet, publishing US‐based practitioner volumes for the UK market (I noticed the back cover blurb had anglicized the word “program” in a chapter heading to “programme”.). Reference praxis in the two countries has significant differences: resources, contexts and philosophies. For managers developing reference services to encompass the new digital services and opportunities in US academic libraries, these examples of best practice, forward‐looking models, and advice on new developments in VR, will interest, but I suspect that UK instructors will prefer to develop their own training programmes. I found the uneven treatment in these disparate chapters a trial, and would far prefer a more straightforward and clearly structured single‐authored monograph.