AN ASSESSMENT OF CHAT REFERENCE USAGE AND TRENDS AT THE HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL

by Emanuel, Jennifer

This study examines the use of chat reference services in the Health Sciences Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill over a period of two and one half years. Chat reference transcripts were extracted from LSSI’s Virtual Reference service and then examined for the time in which they occurred. Once the transcripts were examined, results were charted in order to observe trends over time.

The results showed that usage of chat reference services is increasing, though needs a lot more use in order to compare to phone and face to face reference services. An analysis of the chat transcripts showed that patrons are more likely to use chat reference services to ask more complicated questions than those normally asked over the phone or in person.