Author: Paul R. Pival
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Evaluating the Quality of a Chat Service
Arnold, Julie "Evaluating the Quality of a Chat Service" portal: Libraries and the Academy – Volume 5, Number 2, April 2005, pp. 177-193 Interesting article with some results that oppose earlier studies. The authors examined 351 virtual reference transactions over an 8-month period and found that correct answers occurred nearly 92% of the time, which…
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Screencasting to help your mom
Amit Agarwal has a nice roundup of screencasting tools, including of course the old standbys (ViewletBuilder, Camtasia and Captivate), but also including some links to some cheaper and lesser-known products. Link: The Indian Blogger: Screencasting to help your mom.
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RAKIM Open Source Chat Reference Software
The current issue of Computers in Libraries introduced me to an open source chat reference software called RAKIM. The article, Implementing RAKIM Open Source Chat Reference Software, describes how librarians at Midlands Technical College decided to try this package (mostly because it’s free), and their impressions of its capabilities and limitations. A couple of the…
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Ahhh, Spring
Friday the 13th is not a bad day here – it’s the first day of the year I was able to walk from my car to the office without a jacket!
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Google Scholar continues to expand (and listen to librarians, it seems)
Gary Price has a great writup called Direct Links to Articles: Be It Resolved that Google Scholar is Now Open to More Libraries on Resource Shelf today. Really exciting stuff. In a nutshell, now any library with link resolver software can now ensure that links to their content will appear along with Google Scholar results. …
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Jybe at Northern Illinois University Libraries
Northern Illinois University Libraries is (are?) using Jybe as their virtual reference service offering. If you visit their homepage, browse to Services and More and then Ask a Librarian, which is the first option on the list. If you already have Jbye installed you can just click the link to be connected to a librarian,…
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Embedded librarians
Rebecca Hedreen has a neat description of all the options her distance students have in reaching her. Wouldn’t it be great if they all were interoperable? Meredith and Stephen think so too… I think some sort of online presence indicator should be required for each and every one of these – most seem to have…
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IM’ers not digital reference chatters? [Part 3]
Sherri Vokey ran a survey a few weeks back to learn how many visitors to the UNLV website currently use Instant Messaging, and to find out how many would correspond with a librarian that way if such a service was offered. Sherri has posted her results, and you may find them interesting and/or useful. I…
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Going Under Cover with Book Search Tools
Gary Price offers a nice brief look at Google Print and Amazon’s Search Inside the Book tools. Link: Going Under Cover with Book Search Tools.
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Newly Elected Officers for DLS
Stephen Dew, Chair of the Distance Learning Section of ACRL, writes to OFFCAMP: I am glad to announce the newly elected officers for the Section. Johanna Tunon has been elected Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect for the coming year. Page Brannon has been elected Secretary Anne Haynes has been elected Member-at-Large The newly elected officers will begin their terms…