Virtual reference and "chat speak"?

[Sloan, Bernie]

I've heard a number of people say that librarians need to be familiar with
"chat speak", since interactive virtual reference services generally use
chat as a means of communication between librarian and user.

This made me think: "Do chat reference users approach virtual reference as
if they were in a chat room, or as if they were chatting with friends using
an instant messenger"?

My preliminary finding can be summed up as: "A little bit, but not much."

I searched 444 Ready for Reference session transcripts for occurrences of 33
chat abbreviations, and found just two transcripts that used chat
abbreviations. In each case the chat abbreviation was "LOL" (in the context
of these transcripts, "LOL" appeared to stand for "lots of luck", rather
than the more commonly used "laugh out loud").

Then I decided to look for emoticons. I searched all 877 session transcripts
for occurrences of three commonly used emoticons: smiling, winking, and
frowning. Combined, these emoticons occurred in just 43 of 877 transcripts.

So, less than one half of one percent of 444 Ready for Reference transcripts
contained chat abbreviations. Less than five percent of 877 transcripts
contained emoticons.

I would have to say that, at least in the case of Ready for Reference users,
chat reference users don't seem to bring informal chat language structure
with them into the chat reference transaction. But your mileage may vary.

Bernie Sloan
Senior Library Information Systems Consultant, ILCSO
University of Illinois Office for Planning and Budgeting
616 E. Green Street, Suite 213
Champaign, IL  61820

Phone: (217) 333-4895
Fax:   (217) 265-0454
E-mail: bernies at uillinois.edu