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April 30, 2007
Collaborative Virtual Reference Symposium
Wanna go to Denver and talk about virtual reference? Then go to the Collaborative Virtual Reference Symposium, July 31-August 1 in Denver, Colorado. Registration is limited to 75 people and the $105 registration fee covers the symposium, its materials, and four meals (nice addition!). You can view the agenda here. Joseph Janes is giving the keynote. The symposium seems focused on academic libraries, as most of the speakers are academic librarians and the topics seem to have that focus.
I would be very interested to see the "Side by Side Comparison of Collaborative VR Services" materials made public...this is something we all are interested in.
What's most interesting to me is that with the session dedicated to IM, it's written as though "Collaborative VR" and "IM VR" are mutually exclusive. While there are certainly software barriers that make that difficult (namely, not being able to have multiple people monitoring one 'queue' or 'screen name'), you could easily set up collaborative IM right now by having each library monitor particular hours/days, thereby sharing the work but offering the service to all.
April 30, 2007 | Permalink
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Comments
Thank you so much for sharing your success story Kate! The barrier you mention, the ability for only one person to monitor a screen name at a time, is still a huge barrier. I'm just waiting for some clever person to solve that problem with a third-party service (hopefully, but not likely, free)!
Posted by: Sarah Houghton-Jan (LibrarianInBlack.net) | May 3, 2007
Hi Sarah
In response to your post about collaborating to provide an IM service, we wanted to let you know that here in Australia, we're doing just that!
Since November 2006, we've been operating a trial IM service in parallel with our existing Australia-wide virtual reference service, AskNow, which is a collaborative service of National and State Libraries Australasia. Our collaborative involves every Australian State library, as well as the National Libraries of Australia and New Zealand and the National Library Board of Singapore, so we're a geographically dispersed bunch!
Currently, five of the eleven partner libraries in our collaborative are staffing IM. We use one screen name for each IM protocol, so we only have one librarian rostered on at a time, and we use Gaim to monitor all the screen names simultaneously. We recognise that only being able to have one librarian logged into each screen name at once is a barrier for IM virtual reference (particularly for a high volume service such as ours), so here at the National Library of Australia, we're working on an infrastructure solution that will allow us to have multiple librarians logged in and serving patrons at the same time, while still maintaining a single screen name for each protocol.
For more information on our IM trial, visit the AskNow! website at http://www.asknow.gov.au and click on the IM Trial tab.
We're more than happy to speak with anyone who'd like further information on our trial, or to share our experiences if you're thinking of doing something similar. IM me at davis.kate[at]gmail.com or k8atwork[at]hotmail.com, or email me at kdavis[at]nla.gov.au if you'd like to chat.
Cheers
Kate Davis
National Library of Australia
Posted by: Kate Davis | May 3, 2007
Thank you for your comments Kris. Nice to know you are mindful of these things. I think that the participation in the speaking though (not a single school or public library) is telling of something. It could be that those of us on the wrong side of the funding fence don't have the time, training budget, or personal $ to attend. It could be that public/school libraries that participate in collaborative VR don't make it a priority service. It could be that public/school libraries don't hear about the conference. Or that they simply don't have the time or permission from higher-ups to present or attend. Who knows? It still strikes me as a missing piece...as many of the members of collaborative VR reference projects fit into those two categories.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton-Jan (LiB) | May 1, 2007
...exactly right Sarah (about the balance)...and as the and coordinator of a VR collaborative made up of a varity of types of libraries (public, academic, special, and governmental) I'm reminded of that balance everyday! :-)
We do have quite a mix of presenters lined up for our symposium (the majority are non-academic), including an MLIS professor, a representative of a State Library, cooperative employees, representatives from the 3 major VR vendors, and as you mentioned, 4 presenters from academic libraries. However, I'll still be sure to convey to all of our presenters that we're looking for a balance approach. Again, we've been mindful of this perspctive from the beginning of our symposium planning. Thanks for reminding us that this is an important consideration.
Posted by: Kris Johnson | May 1, 2007
haha. thanks for your thoughtful thoughts :)
Posted by: caleb | May 1, 2007
Kris,
I understand that the desire is to present a balanced overview, but when the majority of the presenters are from a particular kind of library, the presentations tend to take that bent, that focus, too. Being a public librarian, and having been at many conference sessions where all the presenters were from academic libraries, I can say that it was very difficult for me to take much away since the focus was so specific. That being said, the responsibility lies with the conference organizers to try to balance things out, but also with the presenters themselves--to realize that their audience is not all people like them.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton-Jan (LiB) | May 1, 2007
Thanks for posting about our symposium on your blog Sarah. We hope you can attend! The panel on IM should be really good.
While several of our session panelists are from academic libraries, we don't intend that the entire symposium has an academic focus. We want to be sure attendees are aware of this and that the general focus will be on collaborative VR, regardless of the library type.
--Kris Johnson, AskColorado Coordinator, Symposium Planning Chair--
Posted by: Kris Johnson | May 1, 2007
It could just be me Caleb.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton-Jan (LiB) | May 1, 2007
Interesting, so by putting "compatibility" in the title, you're reading into it, "lack of"? I think we're implying just the opposite, but if people aren't getting that, it won't hurt to make the title more explicit.
Posted by: caleb | May 1, 2007
You're right: the question is in the description. But the title is what grabs me: "Instant Messaging: Considerations, and Compatibility with Collaborative Virtual Reference." I'm just not sure that IM isn't a collaborative virtual reference option right now. That's what I'm saying. I'm not saying they can't be done together, or saying that you said that. I'm saying that it implies that IM is not collaborative and can't be. And it can.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton-Jan (LibrarianInBlack.net) | April30, 2007
Hi,
As written in the description, the intent of the program is to discuss opportunities for, and barriers to, collaboration virtual reference with IM.
I may be a little bleary from working on the description for the program, but I'm not sure how you reached the conclusion that we the program is about how IM and collaborative vr are mutually exclusive.
The program description even uses those words - "mutually exclusive" as part of a question, "are they?", and perhaps since it's a symposium on collaborative vr, I expected people to infer, "no".
Caleb / Program committee
Posted by: caleb | April30, 2007
