So Text Me—Maybe

Authors

  • Erin Dorris Cassidy
  • Angela Colmenares
  • Michelle Martinez

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5860/rusq.53n4.300

Abstract

Assessment has become a persistently hot topic in the library world, particularly when it comes to establishing value for academic library services. In an effort to assess performance and develop training tools to improve text/SMS reference services for an academic library, we used the Reference and User Services Association’s Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers as the framework for an analytic rubric. We then used the rubric to assess academic librarian responses collected over a three-year period as part of text/SMS reference service. Results include implications for librarian friendliness, response time, attentiveness, and follow-up, as well as patron return rates. Comparative trends in text reference and the physical reference desk response times are also examined.

References

() “Guidelines for Implementing and Maintaining Virtual Reference Services,” Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), American Library Association (ALA), accessed August 5, 2013, n () See, for example: Firouzeh F. Logan, “A Brief History of Reference Assessment: No Easy Solutions,”

Reference Librarian

(2009), nJeffery Pomerantz, () “Virtual Reference Services: Evaluation of Online Reference Services,”

Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology

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Electronic Library

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Reference & User Services Quarterly

, no. 2 (Winter 2009), n () Examples of these rubrics can be seen on askusnow.info under “stellar transcript team rubrics from other services” at n () California Academic & Research Libraries Association, “Rubric Used by University of California Libraries to Assess Digital Reference Transcripts 2009,” CARL-ACRL.org, accessed December 2, 2013, n () See, for example: Virginia Cole and Baseema B. Krkoska, “Launching a Text a Librarian Service: Cornell’s Preliminary Experience,”

Reference Librarian

(2011), n () See, for example: Amada Bielskas and Kathleen M. Dreyer,

IM and SMS Reference Services for Libraries

(London: Facet Publishing, 2012); Charles Harmon and Michael Mesina,

Mobile Library Services: Best Practices

(Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2013); Lili Luo, “Text Reference Service: Delivery, Characteristics, and Best Practices,”

Reference Services Review

(2011), nJohn Maxymuk, '“Library Texts,”

The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances

' (2009) n () See, for example: Marvie Brooks and Mark Zubarev, “Another Lane on the Information Highway? A Case Study of Experimenting with Text Message Reference,”

Reference Librarian

(2012), nChristopher Devine, Emily Bounds Paladino, John A. Davis, '“Chat Reference Training after One Decade: The Results of a National Survey of Academic Libraries,”' Journal of Academic Librarianship (2011) n () See, for example: Sian Brannon, “SMS Reference,”

Reference Librarian

(2010), nThomas A. Peters and Lori Bell, eds.,

The Handheld Library: Mobile Technology and the Librarian

(Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2013).n () See, for example, Luo, “Professional Preparation”; Cole and Krkoska, “Launching a Text a Librarian Service”; Alexa Pearce, “Text Message Reference at NYU Libraries,”

Reference Librarian

(2010), nSee, for example, Pearce, Collard, and Whatley, “SMS Reference.”n () “Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers,” Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), American Library Association (ALA), accessed August 5, 2013, n“Guidelines for Behavioral Performance,” section 3.0n“Guidelines for Behavioral Performance,” section 3.2n“Guidelines for Behavioral Performance,” section 4.1n () “A Rubric for Judging Your Rubric,” The Center for Faculty Development at the University of Colorado Denver, accessed March 5, 2013, nPlease note: in order to improve the readability of the discussion, some response-time percentages have been rounded and thus may appear slightly differently than in the figuresn

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Published

2014-06-17

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Section

Articles