Ocotillo Spotlight on Instructional Technology
Note: The Ocotillo Spotlight is no longer published, but all previous issues will remain on this site.
spotlight for December 2002
In this December 2002 Ocotillo Spotlight, we showcase an innovation started by Shelle Witten at Paradise Valley that has grown to be a Maricopa-wide service that provides real time research help for students via internet chat with Maricopa Librarians.
Sheila Brandt (Scottsdale Community College)
Rick Effland (Mesa Community College)
Ocotillo Faculty Co-Chairs
sheila.brandt@sccmail.maricopa.edu
richard.effland@mcmail.maricopa.edu
LIBRARIANS ONLINE: Help With Research at a Distance
Rod Fensom, Director of Public Relations/Marketing, Paradise Valley Community College
rod.fensom@pvmail.maricopa.edu
Shelle Witten, Librarians Online Coordinator/Reference Librarian, Paradise Valley Community College
shelle.witten@pvmail.maricopa.edu
"Are you a real person?" asked one user of the district's new Librarians Online service. The answer, of course, was a decided "yes."
As many as eighteen real librarians staff this distance reference service which is available to all Maricopa students during limited daytime hours Monday through Friday.
The service began with an idea: Paradise Valley Community College's Shelle Witten researched the concept during a fall 1999 sabbatical which included visits to 17 libraries across the U.S. Her focus of inquiry was the equitable provision of library reference services to the increasing numbers of students who, either from necessity, disability, or by choice, were conducting library research off campus. The most innovative uses of technology for provision of online reference services were being tested by Austin Community College using videoconferencing technology and 24/7 Reference, a cooperative venture of Southern California LIbraries using the same call center software used by Lands End.
The district's Library Technology Group then formed an ad hoc Reference at a Distance (RAD) Committee with representation from eight of the ten district colleges in the spring of 2000 to study the issue. The committee determined that a centralized approach would best enable the group to test the viability of this service. Following the decision, the committee applied for and received a $5,000 MCLI Learning Grant to run a pilot during spring semester, 2001.
With successful results from that test, funding was sought for the Virtual Reference Toolkit software developed by Library Systems & Service, Inc.
The popularity of the distance reference service has increased with just 30 users in the spring of 2001 to 216 users the following spring. The numbers continue to grow. And its no surprise, since student and faculty users can work collaboratively online, share Powerpoint and other documents, chat, conduct online meetings, and work real-time with one of the on-duty district librarians to browse web pages, including periodical databases, together.
In 2002, Librarians Online was recognized as one of the Maricopa Community College Innovations of the Year in the Cross College category.
Librarians Online is currently staffed by 16 librarians from 9 of the colleges throughout the district and is coordinated by Paradise Valley's Shelle Witten. Each librarian takes a turn at answering electronic questions for an hour to two-hour period, questions such as "What is the etymology of the word 'dragon'?", "Where can I find resources regarding 16th century women scientists?" and "I'm trying to find information to support my argument that salaries increase in correlation with a college education."
So, advanced technology has provided the human touch that has always been offered by our district's library reference services. To paraphrase R. David Lankes, Syracuse University library science professor, in his presentation "Creating a New Reference Librarianship" at the 2001 Virtual Reference Desk conference:
We have provided access to information, enticed the user into cyberspace, and now with virtual reference, we are following users into cyberspace to help people navigate their way through the digitized information. (Lankes, Nov. 12, 2001)
Try the Online Librarian at
http://vrl-web1.lssi.com/wcscgi/CDM.exe/mari?SS_COMMAND=CUST_SUP&Category=LIBONL_B
RESOURCES/WORKS CITED
Lankes, R. David. "Creating a New Reference Librarianship." The Virtual Reference Desk Third Annual Digital Reference Conference. Rosen Plaza Hotel, Orlando, Fla. Nov. 12, 2001.
http://www.vrd.org/conferences/VRD2001/proceedings/reinventing_files/v3_document.htm
LiveRef (sm): A Registry of Real Time Digital Reference Services. Accessed November 20, 2002
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/LiveRef.htm
Maxwell, Nancy Kalikow. Establishing and Maintaining Live Online Reference Service. Library Technology Reports: Expert Guides to Library Systems and Services. 38.4 (2002). (Available online through Expanded Academic ASAP or Masterfile Premier databases).
Sloan, Bernie. "Digital Reference Services Bibliography." Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. October 14, 2002. Accessed November 20, 2002
http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/~b-sloan/digiref.html
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