Foolproof Way to Increase Accuracy in Chat Reference
I wanted to share with all of you two great posts from Marie Radford over on the Library Garden blog. She shares some core results of her recent research for the Seeking Synchronicity project, as presented during the recent ALA Annual Conference.
http://librarygarden.blogspot.com/2007/07/ala-redux-ready-reference-in-chat-not.html
http://librarygarden.blogspot.com/2007/07/are-we-getting-warmer-query.html
A highlight: What's the most foolproof way to increase the accuracy of the service you provide in chat reference? "Before you push a general information page, make sure it has the specific, exact answer to the user’s question."
This may be common sense to many of us, but if someone asks for the capital of Argentina we need to be prepared to both (1) show them a reliable resource (how about The World Factbook page on Argentina) AND (2) let them know that, according to this page the capital is Buenos Aires. When the librarian only does the first part and only vaguely suggests that the answer is on the page (not accomplishing part 2), we here in Maryland also tend to see sessions of these type end up as bad experiences for the customer. In these cases the customer is expecting an answer - and they should be able to get one from us!
-Joe
