Virtual Reference Handbook: Interview and Information Delivery Techniques for the Chat and E-Mail Environments

by Diane K. Kovacs

IM, e-mail, and chat reference is already here, but have you adapted your traditional reference interview and information provision skills to these new formats? ACRL online trainer and popular Internet workshop leader Diane Kovacs has assembled this handbook to help reference librarians develop the communication skills and resources they need to work effectively in the virtual reference environment. The handbook shows how to adapt traditional face-to-face reference interview skills to the virtual interview and how to interpret and use new cues (chat slang, IM shorthand, emoticons, etc.) to better serve your users. For both chat and e-mail transactions, Kovacs outlines strategies for analyzing the question, conducting the interview, developing a search strategy, and delivering sources. There is guidance for selecting the best information format for users and delivering content in a timely and valuable manner. This practical guide offers everything reference librarians need to move from the face-to-face to virtual transaction with ease.

Genres: Nonfiction, Library Science

133 pages, Paperback

First published January 17, 2007

About the author

http://www.kovacs.com

Reviews

[Jaq · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great text on the joys of virtual reference - enjoyed the style and content.

[Faith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I give this book 1.5 stars. It was difficult to read because there was no coherence to it. One minute, I was reading the author's text and then the next minute, I had to read pages and pages of chat transcripts of different librarians' responses to a question that seemingly had nothing to do with what the author was discussing previously. Additionally, the way the chapters were broken up was awful! I won't even go into the typos. There were some useful tips on how to run a virtual reference desk but I think the author should have just written an article instead of creating this book.

[Halsted Bernard · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a text for my basic reference course, and so I had high hopes for it. I was quite disappointed. The structure was so obtuse that I had a difficult time studying it. In particular, the anecdotal asides from librarians could have been organized and presented in a much clearer fashion.

[Greg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly structured, low on information, and feeling dated despite only being published in 2007. Assigned as an optional text for my class, I felt all I achieved from this book was an hour gone from my evening.