The necessity of real-time: Fact and fiction in digital reference systems

Abstract

discussions and trends in digital reference have emphasized the use of real-time digital reference services. Recent articles have questioned both the utility and use of asynchronous services such as e-mail. This article uses data from the AskERIC digital reference to demonstrate that asynchronous services are not only useful and used, but may have greater utility than real-time systems. ********** Digital reference refers to the provision of human-intermediated to users over a digital network. Sometimes referred to as virtual reference or e-reference, digital reference has become a hot topic in the library community; it has even been called the first mature application of the digital library, even though its development has been in large part parallel to digital library research and development. At conferences, in articles, and on the Intemet, there is an ongoing dialogue about how best to build and run digital reference services. Many of these discussions have been summarized by Peters in his article Current Opportunities for the Effective Meta-Assessment of Online Reference Services. (1) In the article Peters states: A meta-assessment undertaking could focus on raising several key questions and assumptions about reference in general and online reference services in particular. Once the questions have been raised and the assumptions questioned, they can be examined and tested--in thought experiments, in controlled research environments, and in pilot programs. (2) One of the findings Peters generates concerns the inclusion of so-called real-time technologies in a digital reference service: To be successful, does online reference have to be conducted in real-time? Examples of delayed include snail-mail reference, delayed phone reference (where the user calls in the question, then the provider phones back at a later time with the answer or assistance), and e-mail reference. None of these forms of reference has proven to be widely accepted and frequently useful to a population. Although all reference involves some sort of time delay, it appears to be true that, for most users and most reference needs, delays of more than a few minutes diminish both the usefulness and use of a reference that routinely incorporates such delays into its architecture. (3) This article tests Peters' findings against empirical data gathered through customer surveys conducted for the AskERIC asynchronous question-answering service. (4) The results of these surveys directly contradict Peters' findings in relation to real-time services. Study Background AskERIC is a personalized Internet-based providing education information to teachers, librarians, counselors, administrators, parents, and others interested in education throughout the United States and the world. It began in 1992 as a project of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology (part of the Educational Resources Information Center) and today it encompasses the resources of the entire ERIC system and beyond, using the subject expertise of the sixteen ERIC Clearinghouses to respond to education requests. The AskERIC allows educational researchers and practitioners to ask questions via e-mail or the Web. ERIC experts provide users with a list of ERIC database citations, Internet resources, and other relevant information within two business days. The AskERIC answers between 800 and 1,414 (at peak) questions per week using this asynchronous digital reference service. Table 1 shows the question loads for AskERIC during the past eight years. Clearly AskERIC is a large-volume handling a large number of digital reference inquiries. If, as Peters states, asynchronous services (as opposed to real-time services) significantly diminish both the usefulness and use of a reference service AskERIC users should be very dissatisfied with the service. …