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Fancy walkie talkies, Star Trek communicators or roving reference?

Article Excerpt
This paper investigates the customer service and library staff benefits of using Vocera badges (www.vocera.com), a portable wireless technology (WiFi), to facilitate roving reference service. Use of portable voice communication devices allows help to be taken to the people and away from service desks. These communication technologies allow library staff to easily access the expertise of other staff.

There is now an Australian library using this technology. The State Library of Victoria, after trialling Vocera in 2008, went live with a system for all reading rooms in January 2009.

Introduction

Current library trends involve taking services directly to clients. This is evident in the growing number of libraries with blogs, MySpace or Facebook pages, using Flickr to collect and display images and using YouTube to promote library services. It can also be seen in how library services are provided within libraries. Does the client/patron/customer/guest (1) need to come to the inquiry or reference desk, or can the staff member go to the part of the library where the question is being asked? Can staff learn to help clients before clients become frustrated with not finding things, but before clients think to ask for assistance?

This paper will look at in-library roving reference. 'Roving reference' is emerging as the preferred term to describe a service where staff, for some or all of the time, leave a fixed service point to find clients within the library who are seeking assistance rather than waiting for them to approach the reference or information desk. While libraries providing roving reference still have service desks, the designs of the desks are changing.

Taking the reference and information service away from a desk to anywhere in the library requires a few changes, not least amongst them the attitude of staff towards their clients. Staff need to learn different ways of interacting with clients and with each other. Some consideration has to be given to technology that will enable the librarian to help the client. For the most part, this paper looks at how Vocera badges are used in public libraries in the United States, often to help with roving reference.

Vocera: wireless voice communication

Vocera badges are the size of a large USB drive, usually worn around the neck like a security tag, that enable voice communication with other staff. They are often linked to telephone systems, run on a wireless network and work with voice commands. They are extensively used in US hospitals and in Australia are used in the Emergency Department of Blacktown Hospital in Sydney. Some public libraries in the US use Vocera to assist with staff communication as well as for reference.

In June 2007 Vocera badges were in use at the central libraries of Boston, Massachusetts; Jacksonville, Florida; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Orange County Library System in Orlando, Florida; Santa Monica and Pasadena, California; and Seattle, Washington. Cerritos Library, California used walkie talkies for a similar result.

King County, Washington had roving reference aided by bay-end opacs (opacs at the end of book shelves). East Lake Library, Minnesota offered roving reference and had plans to install two bay-end opacs.

The effectiveness of the Vocera badges in supporting the roving reference model depends upon the effectiveness of the wireless network within the library and on staff training tailored to roving reference. Some libraries had dramatically changed how they were delivering services as a result of using the Vocera badges, but in others there was little impact on reference services. However in the libraries which had limited change to services there were significant benefits as a result of staff being able to communicate with one another more effectively. The floor areas of the central libraries shown on the table below indicate some of the reasons additional communication tools are required.

Most libraries had at least 50 devices, and licences for more identities (or users). No library which had implemented Vocera felt they had enough devices. The badges are mostly used by reference staff, floor and library supervisors, often by circulation staff, and most of the libraries had at least one device for security staff. In one library all security staff wore a Vocera device as well as a walkie talkie. The optimal system appeared to be for each person to have their own dedicated badge. This reduced wear and tear on the badges and increased effectiveness as people were contactable wherever they were within the building. While most libraries encouraged staff to stay logged on all day it is possible...

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