Going prime time with live chat reference

摘要

The Suffolk Cooperative Library System (SCLS) initiated a live, online chat reference service as a pilot project for public libraries in Suffolk County, New York, on September 10, 2000. The pilot program, called "Sunday Night Live," ran for 3months. Patrons accessed the service by clicking an icon on their libraries' Web page, which then engaged them in a real-time chat with a reference librarian. The librarian could not only chat with the client, but could also co-browse the Internet by "pushing" Web sites to the client's computer. The pilot project was such a success that we launched it as a regular service in March 2001. Suffolk public libraries serve a population of about 1.4 million people (according to 2000 census figures), and boast an Internet client base of over 90,000 accounts through a free Web access program. With our new service, we expected to be fielding queries from school-age children doing homework, but found that most of the questions received on Sunday Night Live fit into general adult reference categories. Some popular research topics were home improvement, genealogy, travel, and legal questions such as "how do I beat a traffic ticket?" To view our service, visit http://www.suffolk.lib.ny.us/snl. Jumping on the chat-information bandwagon involved challenges beyond developing the technology infrastructure. It's hard enough attracting patrons to use physical library facilities when exciting, new media vies for their attention. But in this case, we had to attract patrons to a virtual library, with "invisible" staff! Let's go behind the scenes for a glimpse of how we began the service that became a regular feature for our patrons. THE ORIGINAL CAST AND CREW After more than a year of experimentation with various customer service chat programs, we settled on HumanClick software as our chat interface and Ticketsmith software as our client Internet log-in manager.