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Book by Kovacs

Submitted by grace.v on Sat, 10/25/2008 - 3:11pm

While looking for a good resource outside of class work this week, I came across Diane Kovacs’ book, The Virtual Reference Handbook: Interview and Information Delivery Techniques for Chat and E-Mail Environment.  It’s a great resource for libraries who are thinking of extending reference services beyond the reference desk.  It talks about discusses how librarians can develop the communication skills to work effectively with IM, email and chat reference.  Communicating online is different from face-to-face encounters at the reference desk, so I think this is a good resource for figuring out what the user wants virtually.  It even discusses how to interpret new internet language or slangs, shorthand, emoticon, etc.  For librarians who have never used IM before, this is a good book to read.

It is important that

Submitted by jasminabad on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 5:51pm.

It is important that librarians understand netiquette if they are to participate in virtual reference service.  This will make their reference transactions more successful.  I was part of a listserve for librarians, and a few times, issues arose because of  some who weren't applying simple netiquette rules.  The moderator had to send the entire list netiquette guidelines because some issues grew out of proportion.  Thus, a resource like this would be useful particularly for those who are new to the world of IM, email, or chat.

Grace, what a useful resource

mciocia's picture
Submitted by mciocia on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 5:54pm.

Grace, what a useful resource you found for reference librarians. The absence of physical and contextual cues in the digital environment often makes communication ambiguous, but I think it is due to our transferring of communication skills that traditionally belong to the physical environment

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