|
Article Excerpt
In December 2002, the Information Sharing Subcommittee (1) of the Music Library Association's Reference and Public Services Committee (RAPS) created and conducted a survey of virtual reference activity in music libraries. This survey was linked from the MLA-L electronic discussion list with the request that it be completed for each institution where one or more music librarians participate in or actively plan to participate in virtual reference services. For purposes of the survey, virtual reference was defined to include e-mail reference, queries via a Web-based form, live chat, live voice chat, and any other electronically mediated reference interaction between a music librarian and a library patron. Responses to the survey were received from forty-five librarians representing thirty-nine institutions of higher education, five public libraries, and one special library. Following a discussion of the published literature on the topic, this article reports the survey findings.
LITERATURE REVIEW
A review of the extensive literature relating to reference transactions reveals very little pertaining to music. (2) In 1985 Susan Clegg published a sample reference survey form in Fontes Artis Musicae, along with a plea that music libraries collect reference statistics and report them in such a way that others could benefit from them. (3) In the same issue, Roger Crudge reported briefly on "Music Library Statistics in Britain." (4) Helmut Rosner's article, "Zur Statistik der Musikbibliotheken," concerning music libraries in Germany, appeared in Fontes Artis Musicae in 1992. (5)
The International Association of Music Libraries (IAML) Project Group on Statistics, chaired by Susan Clegg, created "Guidelines and Recommendations for the Collection of Music Library Statistics" in 1991. Based on the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 2789:1991 ("Information and Documentation: International Library Statistics," later revised as ISO 2789:2003), the recommendations were accepted as the official IAML guidelines for music library statistics in 1992 and were published in 1993; the only reference statistic included was the "total number of recorded enquiries." (6)
In 1994, the Music Library Association's Reference and Public Services Committee (RAPS) began a study of the reference performance of librarian, paraprofessional, and student employees in academic music libraries using the survey instrument developed for the Wisconsin-Ohio Reference Evaluation Program (WOREP). A preliminary report on the results of this study was published in this journal in 2001. (7) The data are intended to "measure general characteristics of reference service in music settings and determine how they mirror or differ from ... general-library counterparts." (8)
More recently, analyses of virtual reference services, particularly chat reference service, are beginning to appear in the literature; however, as is true for other aspects of reference service, few articles refer to subject analysis and none were found that relate to music. (9) Although this study of virtual reference is no more than a snapshot of activity, the hope is that it can represent a first step in establishing benchmarks for virtual reference within the discipline.
METHODOLOGY
In preparation for a presentation at the Music Library Association (MLA) annual meeting in February of 2003, the RAPS Committee's Information Sharing Subcommittee, chaired by John Anderies, created a survey on the use of virtual reference in music libraries and by music librarians. Anderies converted the survey into a Web-based input form, using standard radio buttons, check boxes, and text blocks. The responses were collected using a program called Gather, a prototype Common Gateway Interface (CGI) application for gathering data submitted via Web forms. (10) From Gather, the results were exported into an Excel spreadsheet for analysis.
The survey, included as an appendix to this article, was distributed in December 2002 as a link on the MLA-L electronic mailing list to over a thousand subscribers, with the request that it be completed by music librarians who participate in some form of virtual reference or have plans to do so. "Virtual reference" was defined as including but not limited to "e-mail reference, queries that come via a web-based form, live chat, [and] live voice chat." (11) In this survey, "virtual" reference is equivalent in intent to "digital" or "computer-mediated" reference.
A second request for responses was posted to MLA-L in January 2003. Survey responses were received from forty-five librarians representing thirty-nine institutions of higher education, five public libraries, and one special library (see fig. 1).
The results were compiled by John Anderies for his presentation, "Summary of a Survey on Virtual Reference in Music Libraries," at the MLA annual meeting in Austin, Texas, in February 2003.
Although this article attempts to draw some inferences from the data, it should be noted that, statistically, the survey results are descriptive only, since survey participants volunteered rather than being chosen through a valid and reliable statistical process. Their responses should not be construed to serve as predictors for the universe of music libraries or of music librarians offering virtual reference service.
SURVEY RESULTS
The results of the online survey are grouped into three sections: (1) a brief general overview of traditional reference services offered by music libraries and librarians; (2) a short review of e-mail, the most commonly used virtual service; and (3) a more in-depth summary of the uses of a new form of electronic service: chat reference. (12)
AN OVERVIEW OF REFERENCE SERVICES
Music librarians were first asked to describe the types of services offered, starting with the nature of the reference transactions encountered. Slightly over half of the forty-five respondents (twenty-three) reported answering only music-related questions, while under half (twenty-two) answer all types of questions at the main library or general reference desk. Many music libraries are incorporated into main academic or public facilities and do not have a separate desk for music. Moreover, in days of short staffing and tight budgets, many music librarians are called into "general" service.
Assuming that they all have access to some sort of traditional reference desk, librarians were asked what sorts of virtual or Internet-based services are available at their libraries. Asked to "check all that apply," all respondents (100 percent) reported using e-mail to answer reference questions, 77 percent use a Web-based form, 49 percent answer questions via a chat service, and only one librarian (2.2 percent) conducts reference transactions via a voice-chat service (see fig. 2).
Figure 2 shows the various levels of virtual reference services at the time of the survey, and most music librarians reported their libraries had no immediate plans to expand or add virtual services. Only five of twenty-three libraries were making plans to institute chat reference in the near future, and no library planned to add Web-based forms or to institute voice-chat reference.
Librarians were asked to "estimate the distribution of reference questions you receive" using traditional reference desks, and virtual reference (e-mail, chat, and voice chat). Results were rated on a scale from to 5, with being not available or used at all, and 5 being extremely active. Figure 3 shows in graphical representation that all types of virtual reference activity are well below that of traditional services such as in-person and telephone assistance.
VIRTUAL REFERENCE SERVICE: E-MAIL
The burgeoning of the Internet and World Wide Web in the mid-1990s had profound effects on libraries everywhere in the United States, allowing for electronic access to catalogs and databases, and to library staff members through e-mail....
|
