Can Student Assistants Effectively Provide Chat Reference Services? Student Transcripts vs. Librarian Transcripts

Abstract

ABSTRACTTo determine if undergraduate student information desk assistants were effectively staffing the library's chat reference service, librarians at Bowling Green State University embarked on a chat transcript analysis project, comparing the performance of librarians to student assistants. Although student desk assistants generally did not perform as well as librarians, it was concluded that with a renewed emphasis on continual oversight and training, students were a very viable option for staffing a chat reference service.