What's wrong with virtual reference?

[Sloan, Bernie]

Last week I asked the subscribers to the DIG_REF discussion list the
following question: "What's wrong with virtual reference?" By "what's
wrong", I mean "why don't more people use virtual reference?" I received
some thoughtful replies to my question. Now I'd like to broaden the
discussion to a few more lists.

While the following comic strip is about face-to-face reference, I think
it readily illustrates what I'm getting at with the "why don't more
people use virtual reference" theme.  :-)

http://www.comics.com/comics/frazz/archive/frazz-20040918.html 

Like the character in the cartoon, I sometimes find myself wondering why
VR hasn't made a bigger splash than it has? 

VR seemed to have all of the earmarks of a "killer app". There's a
critical mass of people out there who use the Internet, e-mail and chat.
A 12/23/03 report from the Pew Internet Project estimated that by August
2003 there were 126 million Internet users in the US alone, and that the
size of the online population on any given day was 66 million. This same
report estimated that 102 million Americans were e-mail users by late
2002, and that there were 62 million instant messaging users. While this
report emphasized that the appeal of IM was mostly with younger users, a
Pew report issued earlier this month indicates that 53 million American
adults now use IM. The 12/23/03 report also noted that "more than eight
out of ten Internet users have searched the Internet to answer specific
questions."

So...there are millions of potential users familiar with the basic
technology (using the Web/Internet, e-mail and chat), and 80% of them
use the Internet to find answers to "specific questions". And yet we
hear reports of some VR services closing or reducing hours due to lack
of use. And most VR services don't report busy workloads.

I'm hoping we can get a good discussion going about this...

Thanks!

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