Concurrent session from the first (2008) Reference Renaissance conference in Denver. With Lorrie Evans and Karen Sobel.

1. Karen Sobel, lorrieevans & Nina McHale Auraria Library Denver, Colorado Apples and Oranges: A Comparison of Proprietary Chat Reference Software Versus Free Instant Messaging Services

2. Proprietary Chat vs. IM Definitions: Proprietary chat software products/services: Tutor.com, LivePerson, QuestionPoint, etc. Regional consortia such as AskColorado and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities that typically use this software Free IM products/services: libraryh3lp, meebo, AIM, Yahoo!, etc. Are they mutually exclusive? Should libraries offer both?

3. What We’ll Cover Karen: user/provider perspectives and concerns Student users Staff providers Lorrie: the public services perspective History of both proprietary and IM services at Auraria Detailed comparison of AskColorado and AskAuraria! (libraryh3lp) Nina: the technical stuff Display, implementation, tech support

4. Two User Populations Students using the chat services Library faculty and staff operating the services …each with different needs and concerns

5. Students at Auraria Auraria Library serves a student body of 40,000, comprised of three populations: Community College of Denver: two-year community college Metropolitan State College of Denver: four-year college University of Colorado Denver: university Many students are from other nations and cultures Mostly commuting population Many low income Split between traditional and non-traditional Average student age: 28

6. Faculty and Staff Concerns “But I’ve never used IM or other chat…” “What if I can’t keep up with the students? Will they get impatient with me?” “Will we ever get prank chats or time wasters?” “Would our patrons be comfortable with this?” “We already have so much to do…”

7. Staffing Questions Should we provide chat/IM service the entire time the desk is staffed? Is it appropriate to have paraprofessionals staff a chat/IM service? Should the person on back-up provide chat/IM reference service? What is the “triage” procedure when the desk/phone/chat are all busy?

8. AskColorado at Auraria Library AskColorado began in 2003 as a regional and consortial program offering chat reference service to Colorado residents. With our large and diverse student population, we felt the need to provide a flexible form of reference service. AskColorado would provide just that, with excellent support from the Colorado State Library Proprietary software used is Tutor.com

9. Auraria Library Participation in AskColorado

10. AskColorado Use Statistics

11. History of IM Chat at Auraria Library 2006/2007: started experimenting with chat boxes in class pages (Meebo) Very little activity and participation Spring 2008: Services Task Group recommended investigating possibilities for adding IM chat service Summer 2008: Testing and use of IM from the Library’s home page, branded AskAuraria! (libraryh3lp) Extremely active 16 chat sessions in the first 6 hours

12. Interface Comparison

13. Access/Integration into Library Web Space

14. Policies and Behavior

15. Psychological Aspects

16. Display: AskColorado Login Screen

17. AskColorado Chat Interface

18. AskAuraria! Patron View: Chat On

19. AskAuraria! Patron View: Chat Off

20. AskAuraria! Librarian View: Pidgin Client

21. Implementation: AskColorado Tutor.com software needs to be installed with extensive configurations on staff workstations to support all features Day-long training sessions are offered at library sites throughout the state through the State Library AskColorado coordinator We heart Kris Johnson! Minimum staffing commitment: 2-10 hours/week Cost: $300-$1500 annually Easy to integrate (link) to; no customization

22. Implementation Process: AskAuraria! Create account, queues, and operators on libraryh3lp server (libraryh3lp.com) Integrate code into Library’s web site Web Librarian set up account, queues, operators, and code on Library home page in one evening Install Pidgin chat client on staff workstations Training approach has been more piecemeal: “Hey, do you guys want to try this?” Four staff members volunteered to monitor the queues initially; seven others have since volunteered to join Internal training is being offered and planned New web page templates will include chat on all pages Free!!!

23. Technical Support

24. The Benefits of Both Including chat box on the Library’s home page provides immediate access to Auraria Library staff When a staff member is online, chat box with simple instructions is displayed When no one is monitoring the queue, a list of all other reference options is displayed For the most part, the pros and cons of both kinds of chat service are cancelled out when implementing both

25. Questions? AskAuraria! Karen Sobel: Reference & Instruction Librarian karen.sobel@ucdenver.edu Lorrie Evans: Head of Library Instruction lorrie.evans@ucdenver.edu Nina McHale: Web Librarian nina.mchale@ucdenver.edu Slides available: http://library.auraria.edu/~nmchale/presentations/refren2008/