I’ve Already Googled It and I Can’t Understand It: User’s Perceptions of Virtual Reference and Social Q and A

This presentation features results from the Cyber Synergy: Seeking Sustainability through Collaboration between Virtual Reference and Social Q&A Sites project funded by IMLS which investigated the possibility of new models to enable Virtual Reference Services (VRS) to remain viable despite today's tight budgets and increased need to share resources, improve referrals, and broaden collaboration.

This talk focuses on findings from qualitative analysis of 52 in-depth telephone interviews with users of VRS and/or SQA. User voices provide intriguing ideas for modeling future library collaborative services, suggesting service enhancement, exploring user perceptions in comparing VRS to SQA, challenging traditional one-to-one models of service, and open up possibilities of one-to-many models, including crowdsourcing.

Marie L. Radford, PhD, is professor in the Department of Library and Information Science and director of the PhD program at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information. Previously, she was acting dean of Pratt Institute's School of Information and Library Science. Her research interests include interpersonal communication in reference services (traditional and virtual), qualitative methods, evaluation/assessment, cultural studies, and media stereotypes of librarians and libraries. She is Co-PI of the “Seeking Synchronicity” (with Lynn Silipigni Connaway) and “Cyber Synergy” (with Lynn Silipigni Connaway and Chirag Shah) projects funded by IMLS, in partnership with Rutgers, and OCLC. She gives frequent keynote speeches and research papers at international and national conferences and publishes widely in prestigious library journals. Her forthcoming books are: Library Conversations: Reclaiming Interpersonal Communication Theory for Understanding Professional Encounters, co-authored with Gary Radford (ALA Editions) and Research Methods in Library and Information Science, 6th Ed. with Lynn Silipigni Connaway (Libraries Unlimited). She received the 2010 ALA/RUSA Mudge Award for distinguished contributions to reference service. She is co-chair of the Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) conference to be held in Zadar, Croatia in June of 2016.