At the Roanoke County Public Library, we are just beginning chat reference. There is another option for getting reference questions too: text reference. This is where patrons can send messages to the reference desk by setting a text on their cell phone.
Keith Weimer, a librarian at the University of Virginia, has been involved in the text reference service at UVA and gave a presentation on the service at the 2008 Virginia Library Association Conference.
The system has been getting a fair amount of use. The system received 126 text messages from March 15 to October 4. Many of the questions they get are circulation related such as how to renew items and how to access databases. They have had a few reference questions.
Alan
What’s New
16 years ago
