Text A Librarian

1) Compare and contrast these three technologies for offering reference services.

It has been really interesting to be able to participate in each one of these types of reference services from both the patron and librarian viewpoint. For e-mail reference, the answers are generally more thorough. Instead of just a pat answer, there is more thought given to how the resource was found and why it is a valid/credible source. However, it is difficult to receive feedback from the patron. Also, sometimes too much information can be provided! Unless the patron is very specific, it is much more likely that this form of reference service will provide more than enough resources or even ones that do not really help the patron's exact needs. For chat services, the problem of feedback is solved because the patron is immediately accessible to ask and refine their query. However, a much quicker turnaround means that the answers provided may not be the absolute best. When providing answers through e-mail, I tend to really look around to make sure I am providing the best resource. For the chat exercises, it was more of a case of finding a "good enough" resource quickly. The texting service was almost like a concentrated form of the two services. While some answers were provided immediately, other times a response lagged. Also, the answers were very direct and concise. As a patron, I could only imagine using the text option for very quick answers. As a librarian, it was sort of a nice break to provide much briefer answers instead of being so thorough in terms of how the search was conducted.


2) What do you think about the Text A Librarian product? Was it easy to use? Do you have any suggestions for improving the product?

I thought the service was definitely an interesting concept, but I think it does have its flaws. It was very easy to use and I thought it had a lot of neat features (like seeing if someone else had begun to answer). The flaws I see in this service I'm not sure could be fixed by any suggestions I might have. My first thought is that this service is losing its usefulness with the prevalence of smartphones that have internet access. I'm not saying that Google is at all an equivalent substitute for librarian provided reference, before anyone gets upset! However, this service only really seemed useful for very short/direct questions - the exact kind that can generally be found with a quick internet search. I suppose there is enough of a demand for patrons who have texting ability but not internet access through their phones, but I'm not sure if this kind of service is meant to last.