1	Digital Libraries Reference Interviews Week 8 KAN Min-Yen
2	What is a reference interview?
3	What is a reference interview? Process where the user comes to the reference desk and asks for information What type of information do people ask for? What are the characteristics of a reference interview? What factors lead to a “successful” reference interview? How do we evaluate reference interviews?
4	RI as a process: a first point of view
5	RI as an information transfer process Check whether a (human) system provides the user with a right answer Complete Accurate and timely What is the percentage of questions answered correctly?
6	Why only 55%?!? Some explanations: easy questions may have been eliminated (e.g., no direction queries). questions may have been time-sensitive and/or unusually difficult. Murfin (70) shows that librarian often misinterprets the question asked. Gives definitive answer without verifying with user’s need.
7	One reference interview The librarian: I think it went all right from my viewpoint because I didn’t have to really interact too much. She seemed capable, she seemed to know what she was doing. I felt she had found what she wanted because she said she had what she needed. She seemed to be capable of handling it on her own. - Radford (99) Would you say that this was a successful interview?
8	One reference interview The student: I felt like she couldn’t help me on my subject. Isn’t that she didn’t know the answer, but I felt that she didn’t want to [help]… she looked like she did not know what I was talking about, a blank stare and also almost like irritated. Would you say that this was a successful interview?
9	RI as an communicative art When a group of MLS students were sent on a mission to the library to ask a question… 60% said that they might ask another question in the future 30% said that they wouldn’t bother asking the librarian even if they have an information need No matter what form the reference interview takes on, a form of interpersonal communication takes place Is not and cannot be free of relational dimensions 1 good encounter ≠ 1 bad encounter
10	"When attempts to find information..." When attempts to find information fail, patrons may choose to approach the reference desk. If they do, the librarian becomes the human interface or mediator between the library and the users’ need. The critically important moment when users approach and engage the librarian can be the point at which the complexities of the library are gently explained, fears are calmed, and information becomes accessible. If help is withheld, given grudgingly, hurriedly, or in a condensing manner, the encounter becomes the point at which the library appears even more inaccessible. Users can be left feeling confused, frustrated, and sometimes personally defeated or humiliated. - paraphrased from Radford (99)
11	Question Negotiation Anomalous State of Knowledge (ASK) A state in which the user “is unable to specify precisely what is needed to address their need” To help the librarian understand the needs of the user, Taylor (68) uses 5 question filters Subject Objective and motivation Personal characteristics of the inquirer Anticipated or acceptable answers Escalator Questions
12	Types of queries in RI Directional e.g., Where are the photocopiers? 30-50% of all questions 1 minute or less Ready reference – “factoid” questions e.g., Who is the prime minister of China? 50-60% 90% can be answered using standard references; 10% Specific-search e.g., Where can I find information on sexism in business? 20%-40% Depends on sources available Research Questions c.f., information ecology very low frequency Depends, but generally longer and more challenging (and fun)
13	What about web search? In a recent study at Yahoo!, Rose and Levinson categorized three broad areas: Navigational Go to a website E.g., aloha airlines Informational Learn something E.g., 2004 election dates Resource Download something / view something E.g., kazaa lite
14	Question Variability The question alone does not determine its type Aspects of the user (adult, child, professor, student under deadline) Scope of the query (just for fun, winning a bet, for research)
15	RI as a doctor consultation? Yes Patient may have self-diagnosed condition (formulated question), but physician needs to check whether it is right (question answer would actually meet users needs). No Reference librarians have to deal with demand flow, most doctors have set appointment times.
16	Finding and evaluating materials Once understood, the query has to be transformed into a search strategy e.g., does the scope of the query imply an article, a book or a bibliography? Do I need to do a catalog search? Once material is found, is it actually appropriate to the user? e.g., is the material suitable for citation in a high school report or research publication?
17	Available sources in the library Access Bibliography e.g., controlled bibliographies & (union) catalogs Source Encyclopedias Fact Sources Dictionaries Biographical Sources Geographical Sources
18	The Information Chain Primary sources Conference proceedings, journal articles Monographs Secondary Collections Indices Tertiary Encyclopedias Reviews
19	Evaluating a source Many criteria to consider, but: Purpose Authority Scope Audience Cost Format
20	RI as a process: revised game plan
21	Transition into the DL No matter what the technology is, the goal remains to answer questions William Katz (Reference services guru)
22	A Librarian’s Lament We have enticed the academy into cyberspace…without us. We have proven the value of library resources…but not the librarian - R. David Lankes (Director of Institute of Information Systems, Syracuse University)
23	The state of digital reference Question Answering systems AskA services Cutting edge trends
24	TREC Question Answering The state of the art system question answering system gets about 60-80% of “factoid” ready-reference questions answered correctly. - TREC competition results (02)
25	Ask-A services Question Triage Sorting and routing questions Ask A services Differ on Cost: Fee or free Turnaround time Area of expertise Rating / Feedback on experts
26	What is Digital Reference? a.k.a. “AskA” services Internet-based question-and-answer services that connect users with experts and subject expertise. Connect people with people
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30	Virtual Reference Desk Network This service provides support to AskA services by accepting out-of-scope and overflow questions. When a subject-specific service gets questions out of its scope, it forwards them to the VRDN. If a question cannot be addressed by another member, it is handled by a VRD core librarian.
31	But does it matter? Sloan (02)’s statistics Types of questions (n = 877) Research questions – 30% “I need five articles for…” – 20% Known item questions – 8%) Ready reference questions – 14% Library use questions – 8% Library technical questions – 9% Wait time 63% of users waited fewer than 30 seconds 73.5% in one minute or less
32	Heading in the right direction for the future? Question session as a data object to be studied and statistically analyzed. Collaboration strategies to bring users to experts 24/7. HCI studies and chat/email/dialog toolkits to make user interactions seem more polite and pleasant. Melding of automatic methods with manual ones.
33	References Virtual Reference Desk (conferences proceedings also online) http://www.vrd.org/
34	Information Seeking
35	Why “seeking”? Don’t want to limit to “retrieval” IR: match query to documents. Seeking as the larger context: berrypicking We’ll revisit IR later in another lecture
36	Information Need Taylor’s (68) model of need Visceral: The actual, but unexpressed need Conscious: (ambiguous) need, not necessarily verbalized Formalized: e.g., a search statement Compromised: Adapting the question to the resources at hand (the information system)
37	Berry Picking “… picking blueberries in the forest. The berries are scattered on the bushes; they do not come in bunches. One must pick them one at a time…” - paraphrased from Bates (89) The nature of the query is an evolving one The nature of the search process is such that it follows a berrypicking pattern The query is satisfied not by a final set of documents but by references and information accumulated over the search period.
38	Information Foraging Techniques that expert searchers use: Footnote chasing (a.k.a. backward chaining) Citation searching (a.k.a. forward chaining) Journal run Area scanning Subject search in bibliographies and indices Author search To think about: How well does LINC support these functions? How about Google?
39	Vocabulary Problem The fact that a user is looking for something means that they don’t know what exactly they are looking for (otherwise, they wouldn’t be looking in the first place) - paraphrased from Belkin et al. (82) Therefore, they may not be using the right vocabulary to express their needs.
40	Anomalous State of Knowledge means that the seeker realizes that there is a gap or lack of knowledge in some area: an ASK. Partial or even incorrect search results can alter the ASK and change the seeker’s perception.
41	Three aspects of Information Seeking
42	Cognitive Factors Selecting a source that is most relevant and useful Purpose Authority Scope Audience Cost Format
43	Affective Factors – Kuhlthau (93) Initiation: uncertainty Selection: optimism Exploration: confusion/frustration/doubt Formulation: clarity Collection: sense of direction and confidence Presentation: satisfaction or disappointment
44	Implications of Kuhlthau (93) Users tend to try to move towards certainty Vague, invitation mode transforms to focused, indicative mode Corollaries: Too much redundant information = boredom Too much unique information = anxiety Unfocused search without selection/formulation gives information overload = anxiety
45	Situational Factors Often the most important situational factor: Perceived source accessibility Principle of Least Effort – Zipf 49 Rural libraries get less utilized than urban ones RBR / ILL services / acquisition library features rarely used
46	Dimensions of Accessibility – Culnan (85) Physical / Automated library Physical (gaining access to the store): Location, location, location! Interface (translating a need to the store): Catalog use, organization of library Informational (retrieving potentially relevant information): Locating the book, article What about the digital library?
47	Quality is (often) secondary! People often access easily accessible material first irrespective of quality But informed professionals accept ideas from sources in proportion to their technical quality But what about the uninformed?
48	Putting the models together