My Info Quest A collaborative text message reference service Lori Bell September 14, 2010

Reasons we started project Cellphone access higher than broadband Internet via computer Number of text messages sent has increased more than 250 percent over last two years In June 2008, more than 75 billion text messages sent compared to 18 billion in December nd quarter 2008 – typical mobile subscriber sends or receives 357 text messages a month compared to sending or receiving 204 phone calls

The Library Landscape Several vendors – Altarama and TextaLibrarian A few libraries offering the service – no collaborative services Service not offered very many hours

Why collaborate? Offer service more hours Shared expertise Shared coverage Less cost/shared cost Shared development time Shared promotion Shared risk

Project timeline March and April – online informational meetings April – ongoing – Libraries sign up for service April – ongoing – development of project website – July 20, 2009 – soft launch of program September 2009 – larger launch of program

Participants & Expectations Over 60 libraries and individuals from all over the US Agree to staff the reference desk two hours per week Agree to attend online advisory monthly meetings Agree to promote the service Attend training sessions Participate in google discussion group

Infoquest participants

Subcommittees Advisory committee Policies and procedures PR & website/ 2.0 tools used Evaluation committee Best practices workgroup Training committee

Vendor contributions Altarama donated 6 months of free use of software Peoplewhere donated 6 months of free use of scheduling software With proceeds from the Handheld Librarian conference held in July, we can pay both vendors through December 2010

Hours of service Monday –Thursday 8 am central – 10 pm central Saturday 9 am central – 6 pm central Sunday 2-4 pm central Our goal is a 24/7 service

How the service works Patrons text a question to Infoquest number, including home library’s 3 letter library code The question comes to the Altarama SMS software and is forwarded to a shared gmail account manned by participating librarians They answer the question and send the answer back via gmail – it goes through Altarama to the patron’s phone

Guidelines Try to answer questions in 10 minutes or less Try to answer questions within 2 text messages (360 characters) No legal or medical reference questions No questions that require in depth research No personal information about anyone other than public figures No tax advice

Sample questions Who are Michael Jackson’s brothers? What was Brad Pitt’s character’s name in Legends of the Fall? How much is a hectar? When was the last time the Yankees and the Dodgers played one another in the World Series? When did the Civil War start?

Best practices “Silly” questions – assume that all are serious and respond accordingly Citing sources – whenever possible cite one source Should urls be included when space is limited? Whenever possible, include these and use tiny urls How can we prevent unanswered questions? We will look at patterns and why there might be unanswered questions

Best practices cont. How should duplicate questions from one patron be handled? We should answer the question again. Is it necessary to send messages like “let me check” ? If it appears the question may take longer than 10 minutes

Project Evaluation by San Jose State University SLIS/ Lili Luo Identify the types of information needs that can be fulfilled by offering text message reference services Identify the issues and potential obstacles that need to be addressed before implementing text message reference services Identify the important features to consider when choosing a vendor for text message reference services Identify the cost and benefits of offering text message reference services

Evaluation continued User Perspective What types of individuals used the service? What types of questions did users ask (e.g., consumer health, job search, or school-related)? When did users ask questions? What are users. perceptions of the service they received? Does offering this service reach out to individuals who have not previously used library services? What outreach methods are most effective in promoting the service? What was the length of time for responding to users. questions (transaction turnaround time)?

Evaluation continued Library Perspective What are the core skill sets required in providing text message reference services? What are the obstacles, if any, in providing text message reference services? What aspect(s) of the training was most helpful? What information was missing from the training that should have been included? Is there any difference in librarian satisfaction (or product satisfaction) based on the type of library s/he works for? To what extent does the service performance uphold the professional guidelines established by the Reference and User Services Association?

Evaluation continued Administrative Perspective What are the advantages and disadvantages to offering text message reference services through a collaboration of libraries? What are the challenges when scheduling librarians to staff the service? What service learning benefits did SLIS graduate students realize through their involvement? How can successful service learning opportunities be created for graduate students in a collaborative reference service? What is the level of cost-effectiveness of offering the service?

Evaluation continued Measurements for Evaluation Statistics logged by the text messaging software Transcripts of questions/answers logged by the software User surveys (published on the project Website; distributed in participating libraries physically or electronically) Interviews or focus groups (electronically) conducted among participating librarians Interviews conducted with project administrators

Stats for first full month: August 282 transactions 189 – ready reference – questions that request a single, uncomplicated and straightforward answer 49 – about local libraries – questions that inquire about patrons’ local libraries ‘ resources, services, policies, etc. 16 – specific search questions – request answers in the form of giving the user a document, list of citations, etc. 14 – questions about Infoquest 9 – Unclear questions 5 – Inappropriate questions

Other statistics Most questions in a day – questions answered in 5 minutes or less 64 – answered in 6-10 minutes 26 – minutes 9 – minutes 11 – minutes 15 – 31 minutes – 1 hour 22 – 1-5 hours 34 – more than 5 hours