Fundamentals of Reference

74 REFERENCE SERVICES

Some of the challenges of chat reference are

1. A chat reference service needs to be answered live during the
   posted hours of service—there is no opportunity to let a question
   go to voice mail, or, in this case, e-mail. The question will be lost
   if a response isn’t made.


2. Practitioners report that there can be a variety of technical
   problems associated with chat software programs that can affect
   the service.


3. Fast, accurate typing is required of both patron and librarian for
   easily understood transactions.


4. As sometimes happens in telephone reference, patrons often
   disconnect in the middle of a reference transaction, leaving the
   librarian to wonder if it was a technical glitch or an unavoidable
   interruption at the other end.

Chat reference service has been offered by public and academic libraries

for more than ten years, and continues as another way to provide reference

assistance (and sometimes instruction) to patrons.

Im r eference

IM reference works in much the same way

as do other flavors of reference—just think

of it as a sped-up email transaction.

—Aaron Schmidt and Michael Stephens, “IM Me”

IM (instant messaging) uses free commercial networks, such as Yahoo! Mes-

senger, MSN Instant Messenger, or Google Talk, and has been used for pro-

viding reference service for most of

this decade. IM reference, or IMR,

is a live service, like chat and tele-

phone reference, and presents some

of the same challenges in the refer-

ence interview. For example, there

are no visual or nonverbal clues

David S. Carter, “Hurry Up and Wait:

Observations and Tips about the Practice

of Chat Reference,” Reference Librarian

38, no. 79/80 (2003): 113–20. In this

article a chat reference veteran offers

useful (and often humorous) advice.

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