SCLA - - 2002 Annual Report

2002 ANNUAL REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT FROM THE PUBLIC SERVICES SECTION

2002 Officers

Suzanne Singleton, Chair
Francis Marion University

John Brunswick, Vice Chair
University of South Carolina

Key White, Secretary
Francis Marion University
2002 Members

Total membership is 53, according to the SCLA web page.

2002 Annual Conference

The Public Services Section co-sponsored a conference session with the College & University Section in order to have enough funding to cover the costs of an overnight speaker. The title of the presentation was “Virtual Reference: From Experiment to Everyday Service.” Josh Boyer, reference librarian for Distance Services at North Carolina State University delivered an expert talk on this subject. He has been working for over two years as part of a three-person team to implement and coordinate the virtual reference service at North Carolina State.

Mr. Boyer discussed reasons to have virtual reference service in your library and questions that administration should ask itself in deciding to use an “Ask a Librarian” service. He described the LSSI product installed at his research library: how it works, staffing and training, technical problems, and evaluation of the service. Mr. Boyer explained that virtual reference answers patron’s calls via computer instant messaging. Using a co-browsing feature the librarian can bring up web sites and show them to the caller, while using a portion of the monitor’s screen for a chat conversation. Both parties can control the web pages. The service can be used with a group or a class. NC State libraries have successfully done this.

At Mr. Boyer’s workplace, librarians answer these web/chat calls while on reference desk duty. They simultaneously respond to questions across the desk, over the phone and through chat messages. This has posed no real problems. They receive an average of 11 calls a day and this has been a manageable number. Paraprofessionals also assist in virtual reference; in fact library assistants often feel more comfortable in a chat room than professional librarians do!

While Mr. Boyer thought that chat was not the ideal form of communication for reference librarians, virtual reference has been helpful in bringing information to patrons through quality service. At North Carolina State Libraries, virtual reference has been a success story. Judging by the numerous questions from the southeastern audience, other libraries are serious about offering similar public services.
2002 Budget

In March 2002, the budget was listed in the treasurer’s report as $551.06. By October, it was $680, showing an increase of $109.
2003 Officers

Jennifer Little, Chair
Reference/User Education Librarian
University of South Carolina, Aiken
471 University Parkway
Aiken, SC 29803

Phone: 803–641–3589

Fax: 803–641–3302

JenniferL@usca.edu

Karen Swetland, Vice Chair
University of South Carolina, Spartanburg
USCS Library
800 University Way
Spartanburg, SC 29303

Phone: 864–503–5034

Fax: 864–503–5601

kswetland@gw.uscs.edu

Bill McRee
Hughes Library
Greenville County Library System
25 Heritage Green Place
Greenville, SC 29601

Phone: 864–242–5000

Fax: 864–235–8375

wmcree@InfoAve.Net

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