ERIC Number: EJ1289519
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1933-5954
EISSN: N/A
Teaching and User Satisfaction in an Academic Chat Reference Consortium
Barrett, Kathryn; Logan, Judith; Pagotto, Sabina; Greenberg, Amy
Communications in Information Literacy, v14 n2 Article 2 p181-204 2020
This study investigated 299 chat reference interactions from an academic library consortium for instances of teaching and compared these against other characteristics of the chat, such as question content, staff type, user status, user satisfaction, institutional affiliation, length, and shift busyness. Statistical analysis revealed that teaching was more likely to occur when the chat was a research-related question or when the operator was a graduate student worker employed by the consortium but less likely when the operator was a paraprofessional. Chats with teaching were longer but were also associated with higher user satisfaction scores. Teaching rates did not differ by institutional affiliation, shift busyness, or user type. These results indicate that busy consortial services can offer comparable teaching service to single-institution services. The researchers recommend updating operator training to better emphasize teaching to increase user satisfaction.
Descriptors: User Satisfaction (Information), Library Services, Academic Libraries, Computer Mediated Communication, Library Instruction, Consortia, Foreign Countries, Use Studies
Communications in Information Literacy. e-mail: editors@comminfolit.org; Web site: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/comminfolit/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A