Purpose

The purpose of this study is to learn what factors liaison librarians in academic research libraries consider in determining whether to refer chat reference patrons to subject specialists.

Design/methodology/approach

Subject specialists were asked what policies guided their decisions to refer to a specialist and then assessed unreferred chat session transcripts both within and outside their specializations to determine need for a referral.

Findings

Few respondents were guided by formal policies. Contrary to an initial hypothesis, subject area was not a key factor in referring chat. A broader set of criteria included reference interviewing, provision of relevant resources and information literacy instruction. Respondents valued both the depth that subject specialists can provide to reference interactions and the ability of a skilled generalist to support information literacy.

Research limitations/implications

Findings are most applicable to large, public doctoral universities with liaison librarian programs. Assignment of respondents to subject specialist categories was complicated by their broad range of background and expertise.

Practical implications

The study contributes new understanding of referrals to subject specialists who have potential to guide development of formal referral policies in academic library virtual reference services.

Originality/value

The study is the first empirical examination of chat reference referral decisions.

中文翻译：

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推荐大学图书馆聊天参考顾客：主题馆员如何决定

目的

这项研究的目的是了解学术研究图书馆中的联络图书馆员在确定是否将聊天参考读者推荐给学科专家时应考虑的因素。

设计/方法/方法

询问主题专家哪些政策指导他们决定推荐专家，然后评估其专业内外的未推荐聊天会话记录，以确定是否需要推荐。

发现

很少有受访者受到正式政策的指导。与最初的假设相反，主题范围并不是推荐聊天的关键因素。较广泛的标准包括参考采访，提供相关资源和信息素养指导。受访者重视主题专家可以为参考互动提供的深度，以及熟练的通才支持信息素养的能力。

研究局限/意义

研究结果最适用于具有联络馆员计划的大型，公立博士大学。广泛的背景和专业知识使受访者分配给学科专家类别变得很复杂。

实际影响

该研究为有潜力指导大学图书馆虚拟参考服务中正式推荐政策制定的学科专家提供了对推荐的新的理解。

创意/价值

该研究是对聊天参考推荐决策的首次实证检验。