Radford & Connaway. "Cordial Connections: Evaluating Virtual Reference from User, Non-User, and Librarian Perspectives using the Critical Incident Technique" to be presented at Libraries in the Digital Age, Croatia, June 2-8, 2008. (pdf)

Live chat virtual reference services (VRS) have become mainstream access points for seekers of online help from librarians over the past 10 years (Sloan, 2006). This paper reports results from the final phases of a multi-year grant project and compares perceptions of VRS users, non-users, and librarians by using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) (Flanagan, 1954). Results indicate that VRS users and non-users find the following to be important to perceptions of successful encounters: accuracy of answers/information, in addition to the librarian demonstrating knowledge of sources and systems, a positive attitude, and good communication skills. All groups indicate that a combination of relational and content factors is critically important to perceptions of what determines successful and unsuccessful reference interactions. Users and non-users were found to highly value the attitude and personal qualities of the VRS librarians, their knowledge, as well as their ability to quickly and accurately provide requested information. Librarians greatly value the positive attitudes of users and were attuned to negative attitudes of users in recounting negative CIs. Librarians were also interested in the provision of information in positive CIs, and reported a high number of CIs in which lack of information caused an encounter to be unsuccessful.

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