What's wrong with virtual reference?

[Elena OMalley]

Bernie salvoed:
> 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 don't see the "and yet" connection, to be honest. 
Familiarity with basic technology + specific question <> need for virtual reference in most situations.

If my specific question is, what's my state's flower, I'll go to Yahoo or Google, 
pop in "massachusetts state flower," and find out it's the mayflower in a couple
of seconds. I'm not going to open a chat session for that. I don't ask a librarian 
about who's playing at a local club this Friday night. If my niece needs to write a 
one-page reaction to a newspaper article at 1 a.m. for an 8 a.m class, she's highly
unlikely to go to the library's homepage and look for the "ask us" button. Even 
though virtual reference librarians could have been helpful for those questions,
they may not be the "best" way to go from the user's perspective.

I like virtual reference as another communications tool, but I just don't see it 
as an obvious-to-the-public killer app. Maybe it'll pick up word-of-mouth buzz as a 
concept, but I'm not hearing that now. If most of these services are already
being regularly advertised in the daily paper, at PTA meetings, and during
freshman orientation with free magnet giveaways, and users are talking about it
with their friends and family, maybe we have to accept that it's useful but not
revolutionary.

Or maybe library websites have gotten so easy to use and are so information-packed
and resource-filled that people are using them without our help. Perhaps we're 
shooting ourselves in the virtual foot with our efforts to improve usability. :)

Elena O'Malley
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Elena O'Malley, Head of Library Computer and Internet Services
Emerson College Library, Boston, MA 02116