Proactive Chat in a Discovery Service: What Users Are Asking

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Blizzard, Kara

• This study investigates questions users asked via both a proactive chat widget and a static “Ask Us” link in an academic library’s discovery service. Chat transcripts were coded according to four question categories: Reference, Borrowing, Technology Help, and Directional. Chat transcripts were also coded into more specific question types within each of the categories. Results showed that a high proportion of library users asked reference questions in the discovery service, regardless of whether they used a proactive invitation or a static link. Results also showed that library users were less likely to ask borrowing, technology help, and directional questions via the discovery service. Within the Reference category, a higher proportion of users tended to ask for help finding known items when they clicked on the “Ask Us” link. Conversely, a higher proportion of the proactive chat questions involved searching on a topic. These findings support the inclusion of proactive chat in search interfaces and provide valuable information about knowledge and skills that chat staff should possess.

• Date created

  2019-07-29

• Subjects / Keywords

  • virtual reference
  • proactive chat
  • discovery service

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-5w8f-8q87

• License

  This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Internet Reference Services Quarterly on July 29, 2019, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/10875301.2019.1643435