Boosting Your Virtual Reference Use

From month to month Lansing Community College ranks number 3 in total number of questions answered, number 1 for community colleges in Research Help Now. How are we doing it? This short speech will demonstrate our marketing techniques for Virtual Reference, including library instruction, tours, our library website, Ask Us bookmarks and most recently- embedding Ask a Librarian into our course management site, Desire2Learn. This talk will emphasize the importance of embedding Ask a Librarian into our course management site, and how it has helped us to increase Virtual Reference usage and awareness

Survey says….What User Comments and Surveys Say about Research Help Now

“It was a great experience. I won\u27t hesitate to use this chat service again. It was fast, efficient and I felt connected”, is just one of the many comments we have received regarding our 24/7 chat service. This session will explore Virtual Reference user satisfaction and feedback from both our surveys and chat transcripts, emphasizing the importance of reminding patrons to fill out the QuestionPoint survey, to obtain more qualitative information. Even the occasional negative comments can help us to improve our Virtual Reference quality, library services, and the QuestionPoint software. Once a user has a positive interaction with Virtual Reference, that person is not only more likely to use the service again, but may promote the service to her/his friends. We will take a look at the types of comments our users have given us to find out what we are doing well, why users are utilizing Virtual Reference (or returning), and how we could improve the service

Meeting Students Where They Are to Boost Your Stats!: Proactive Slide-out Chat for Point of Need Service

The University Library at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has offered chat reference for patrons since the Spring of 2001 and has used Springshare’s LibChat tool since the Summer of 2019. For most of this time patrons needed to visit a special page on the library’s website to access the chat. In Summer 2022, the University Library introduced a slide-out chat widget to appear on every page of the library website. In addition to making the chat service more widely available across our online ecosystem, the chat widget prompts patrons to ask a question after they spend 20 seconds on any webpage. This allows us to meet patrons where they are, for a point of need service. Before launching the slide-out reference chat, IUPUI University Library averaged 32 chats per month. Since launching the new chat widget, we have averaged 74 chats per month, an increase of 230%. This presentation will focus on the University Library’s experience in implementing this type of chat widget, how it compares to our previous methods of soliciting patron questions, and the challenges that an increase in chat reference questions has brought. We will also share our future plans for the service, including taking greater advantage of the tools that Springshare provides for chat reference

STEM Instructor Motivations for Collaborating with Librarians in Instruction

Scaffolding STEM information literacy competencies through the undergraduate curriculum is a best practice for librarians, connecting to student success. These connections rely heavily on the instructor to collaborate with librarians. What motivates instructors to collaborate with librarians? This session will present the results of a survey of instructors in a multi-section STEM first-year seminar course at an urban research university. Instructor attitudes, perceptions, and practices around collaboration and integration of information literacy competencies will be explored. Presenters will engage the audience to think about their own course integrations as well as strategies and best practices for increasing collaboration