Ask a Librarian and iGS: Finnish Reference Services Nina Granlund, Finland 2007

Ask a Librarian -Joint digital reference service of Finnish libraries. -Situated in Libraries.fi, the national library portal for all Finnish libraries (public, special, university libraries).

Libraries.fi -Produced by the Central Library for Public Libraries in Finland (Helsinki City Library ) and financed by the Ministry of Education. - Supported by the national strategies for the information society and libraries (e.g. Library Strategy 2010), PM/Julkaisut/2003/liitteet/opm_156_kseng.pdf?lang=en PM/Julkaisut/2003/liitteet/opm_156_kseng.pdf?lang=en

Libraries.fi: Three languages -Published in three languages: Finnish and Swedish, and partly also in English

Libraries.fi contains -Information about libraries (addresses, staff, catalogues) - Information about literature, music and children (foremost for librarians). - Library events, training for librarians etc.

Libraries.fi contains -Search services: Link Library, SFL, Search Find and Locate, a guiding search, Meta- search, Ask a Librarian,

Libraries.fi - Contents produced by the editors of Libraries.fi and the libraries together. - Libraries: information about libraries, library events, Link Library contents, answering in the Ask a Librarian –service.

Ask a librarian - Started Answers are given in three languages: Finnish, Swedish and English. - Public archive (also in three languages).

Ask a Librarian -Question is sent in via a web form, the answer is delivered to the -address given by the customer. -Questioner gives his municipality of residence in the question form. - Also a list of participating libraries from which the questioner can choose an answering library

Ask a Librarian -Children have a special simpler form, Answer is given within three working days (Saturday and Sunday excluded).

Ask a Librarian - 54 libraries answering in the service: 39 public libraries, 1 university library and 14 special libraries and references service groups. - All regional central libraries different persons sent answers.

Ask a Librarian - Expertise in various topics: - Library of Parliament (law), Statistics Library, Lapponica -reference group from Lapland, University of Art and Design, Reference for the visually impared etc., GB/ask_librarian/libraries/. GB/ask_librarian/libraries/

Ask a Librarian - Number of questions is increasing: questions answered.

AaL: Principal idea - Question meets expert = the person who feels he can give a good answer, answers (special libraries).

AaL: Practice - All participating libraries follow the questions coming in, bigger ones check every day the answering application, smaller ones get automatically an when a question from their municipality is sent in. - If the questioner has chosen an answering library, the will be send to this library.

AaL: Practice - Every library has one or two persons responsible for the follow-up. - A national editor surveys, contacts libraries and answers.

AaL: Practice - If there are questions from other than participating municipalities, every one answers. - The Libraries.fi-editor surveys also all answering and furthermore the contents of the public archive.

AaL: Practice Library x : Answerer 1, Answerer 2,Answerer 3, etc. Responsible 1, Responsible 2 Libraries.fi : National editor (part time, works as reference librarian in Helsinki City Library) Libraries.fi-editor

AaL: Practice - The organisation functions well: most of the questions are answered the same day (71%, within 2 working days 15%, within 3 working days 8%, delayed were 6%).

AaL:Communication - Communication between librarians participating via a closed -list. - Information from the Libraries.fi-edition is sent via the same list.

AaL:Communication - Info-area in the aswering application. - Every other year a meeting for participating staff.

AaL: Public Archive - Contains question/answer –pairs. - Keywords. - Keyword list is given to the customer: a keyword is an active link, by clicking it, a search is made.

AaL: Public archive -Needs editing and updating. -Link control (Internet addresses change rapidly). -Contains useful information. - aspxhttp:// aspx

Future plans - More libraries. - More channels for asking. - New answering application. - More interactive services for customers.

More libraries - More libraries and other reference services are joining the service every year.

More channels - AaL-chat. - Several libraries will have own chat- channels. - Joint chat-channel for all libraries exists also already, but needs however practical organising. - Support in the Libraries.fi-edition.

More channels - Use in digital television already possible, not yet in use.

Answering application - A new semantic application. - Prototype developing project.

Semantic answering application -Customer: Customer writes a question -> application makes a search in the archive (analysing the text and using ontologies to produce the search result). Customer will be offered ready answers from the archive.

Semantic answering application - Answerer: When a librarian starts answering a new question, he will be offered ready answers from the archive. Use of ready knowledge. Updating of archive.

Interactive services for customers - Feedback already possible. -Customers will be given an opportunity to comment on the answer and publish comments. -These features will be developed this year.

iGS: Information Gas Station - Digital reference service of Helsinki City Library. - Started Answers are given in three languages: Finnish, Swedish and English. - Public archive (in three languages).

iGS - Mobile device: work-stations can be placed to public locations and reference work can be taken to where the customers are.

iGS - Radio program. -Questions and answers are shown on the webpages of the program and iGS. - ain?opendocument&pageid=Content A31D2http://lotta.yle.fi/rsweb2.nsf/sivut/kysymitav ain?opendocument&pageid=Content A31D2

iGS - Simple question form. - Ask anything! - The answer is sent to the customers within two weeks.

iGS - Number of questions varies:

iGS: practice - Staff of Helsinki City Library answers. There are about 50 active answerers, different persons sent answers. - Editor surveys, answers, organises the tours of the mobile equipement and the radio program staff.

iGS: Communication - Communication between librarians answering in a discussion area in the answerig application. - The editor publishes information about the service in an info area in the application.

Public Archive - Contains answers, organised in different categories (e.g. astronomy, traffic, arts). - Text search. - GB/iGS/questions/search.aspxhttp://igs.kirjastot.fi/en- GB/iGS/questions/search.aspx

Future - Interactive features: Feedback possibility for customers. - Semantic answering application: Co- operation with the national Ask a Librarian.

Kiitos!