E- Government: Two Steps Forward, One Step Backwards?
III. Information Seeking Behaviors Today
the addition of video and voice. Instant messaging has expanded beyond the home and now finds itself in the workplace. Information seekers find themselves faced with a wide array of channels to access information, libraries and librarians. They have access any time and any place.
D. Self-help and 2437
With access from home on the rise, information seekers now expect to be able to shop, make travel arrangements, send e-mail, and chat with friends any time, or “24£7.” The increase in the self-service trend is evident in a variety of industries (Harmon, 2003;De Rosaet al., 2004). While self-help has been available in banks and gas stations for some time, there is a trend toward self- service in grocery and other retail stores. Airlines now use automated kiosks for checking in passengers. Some ski resorts in Colorado have installed
“skiosks” that dispense lift tickets. The growth of self-service machines is due in part to improved technology. However,Harmon (2003)notes that another reason to turn to self-help machines is to avoid frustrating experiences with service workers. In any case, the trend toward self-help is growing.
the Internet, the numbers just 2 years later were astounding: library users had dropped by half and Internet usage had greatly increased. The data are summarized inTable II.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) provides statistics on the use of library services that help paint a picture of users’ perspectives of libraries and library services (ARL Statistics). As can be seen in Table III, both the median number of reference queries and the median number of total circulation had a steady decline between 1997 and 2002. Yet, expenditures on monographs showed a small steady increase between 1997 and 2001, showing a decline only in 2002. If academic library users are turning to other types of resources, one might expect a decrease in expenditures on monographs.
Perhaps the decrease in 2002 monograph expenditures is reflective of a downward trend.
Table II
Where Do People Turn for Information?
December 1998 June 2000
Internet 22.8 35.7
Books 14.6 12.3
Library 24.3 12.3
Friends 8.4 9.0
Source:Casey (2000).
Table III
ARL Statistics on Reference Queries and Circulation
Year Reference queries Circulation
Expenditures on monographs ($)
1997 162,336.5 527,993.5 1,453,699
1998 147,644 510,310 1,470,005
1999 129,482 509,655 1,506,650
2000 121,637 476,690 1,645,248
2001 109,713 467,277 1,833,221
2002 100,656 464,704 1,806,964
Source:ARL Statistics Interactive Edition.
Available at: http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/arlbin/arl.cgi?task¼setupstats ,Accessed February 7, 2004..
Interestingly, in some academic libraries that have undergone recent facility renovation, gate counts have increased even while both circulation and reference requests have declined (Shill and Tonner, 2003). It seems that the information seeker’s perception of the library may be focused on library as place; the students at universities seek a place to study, work in groups, or use computers. Since the Shill and Tonner study focused on the library and not on the library visitor, the reasons for library visits are conjecture. However, there seems to be a trend in library renovations to include cafes or coffee shops.
Other academic libraries that reported a drop in gate counts and circulation records did report a large increase in the use of electronic resources, which can be accessed remotely (Carlson, 2001). End-user access to resources is not new to librarians. Online services were introduced in the 1960s (Bjorner and Ardito, 2003). However, much remote access was restricted to the librarian and the use of CD-ROMs required users to visit the library for access. We now live in a world where high-speed access is becoming the norm and remote access via the Web is commonplace.
Libraries now provide desk-top access to end-users who search from their offices or homes. Electronic collections now include electronic books, electronic journals and a variety of fulltext databases. While personal computers are still popular, laptops are increasingly replacing personal computers for office and home use. Within libraries, laptop usage is increasing as access to wireless networks is becoming more common.
A. Trends in Library Services
Library services are reflecting changes based on new technologies and lifestyle trends. Many libraries now offer self-help services that include checking out, renewing, and reserving material, requesting interlibrary loans, and accessing databases from remote locations.Sackett (2001, p. 209)notes that at the University of Kentucky, “self-service vending machines allow users to buy and add money to a single card to be used in the library’s copiers, pay print stations, and even the cafe cash registers.”
B. Communicating with Librarians
While the Taylor model implied only face-to-face communication as the norm, technology now provides many more options. Reference services are now offered at reference desks face to face, via telephone, e-mail, and chat.
Fagan and Ruppel (2002)summarized several users studies from the 1970s to 1980s that summarized students’ perceptions of academic librarians. They enumerated several barriers to asking questions at the reference desk: feeling
that the librarian was too busy to interrupt, and not knowing which questions to ask. The OCLC Environmental Scan recognizes barriers to library resource access by posing questions on ways to make libraries and library content more accessible (De Rosaet al., 2004).
Special and academic libraries report heavy usage of e-mail reference;
e-mail is ubiquitous; it is heavily used by the members of organizations, students, and faculty. E-mail reference is an extension of that usage.
Special libraries shy away from the use of forms for e-mail requests because filling out a form may present a barrier to the information seeker. Sending an e-mail to the library should be as easy as sending an e-mail to a colleague or friend.
Breeding (2003, p. 39) notes that instant messaging “emulates the hallway conversations—where the best exchange of ideas often takes place—
much better than e-mail”. Instant messaging is now being used for customer service and communicating with colleagues in different geographic locations. Libraries are currently offering live chat services to patrons, many 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (Jackson, 2002). Breeding suggests that the success of virtual reference hinges in part on the comfort of librarians in the chat environment. He notes that while libraries are attempting to offer virtual reference services using chat technology, in fact, libraries have been slow to incorporate instant messaging for internal business communication.
As Breeding suggests, usage will likely increase this comfort level.
Furthermore, as was noted above in the discussion of different generations, the comfort level with chat varies greatly. Generation X-ers and Millenials are more comfortable in the live chat arena and multi-tasking does not daunt them.
The means with which librarians have incorporated chat into virtual reference services, generally requires a person to visit the library Web site.
While the librarian may perceive this as a trivial complaint and consider access via the library Web site as highly accessible, information seekers might not agree. Switching to a Web site or even a page not currently in use can be a barrier to usage; having the library added to “buddy lists” on instant messaging services being used by the information seeker could increase the use of this service a great deal. In fact, it could increase the usage beyond capacity. Overall usage of chat services varies greatly yet the numbers are not overwhelming at this point. According toCoffman (2003)virtual reference services receive an average of less than 10 questions per day.
Horn (2001) noted that the librarians’ perceptions of user needs and expectations have changed thus prompting librarians to offer digital reference services to provide “users with access to a knowledgeable librarian at the user’s convenience rather than just during hours when the reference desk is
open (p. 320).” Jackson (2002)questions whether data support adoption of the 24£7 and AskJeeves commercial models by librarians.
C. New Library and Librarian Competitors
According to a Wall Street Journal article technology is “disrupting basic business models, plunging companies into new markets, creating new competitors and blurring the boundaries between industries” (Angwinet al., 2004). This certainly applies to libraries who now find themselves competing with bookstores, both physical and virtual, the Internet in general and search engines specifically.
Goodman (2003)quotes a high school student who notes: “The Internet has become such a major part of doing research.” Information seekers use a variety of tools and resources on the Internet, with search engines being the number one tool. According to a survey conducted by iProspect, “77% of Internet users employ search engines more frequently than any other online media (iProspect, 2002).” Sullivan (2003) reported the number of searches performed per day on eight search engines in February 2003: on the low end of the range FAST reported 12 million searches per day while Google was on the high end with 250 million searches per day.
Many digital collections and resources are available to individual subscribers as well as to institutional subscribers. This allows information seekers to access resources without the library as intermediary. Other resources offer some content for free and more complete content for a fee.
Encyclopedia Britannica (www.britannica.com) is one example of a resource offering some content for free.
Still another model is to target only individual researchers, not institutions. HighBeame Research (formerly e-library.com, now located at http://www.highbeam.com/Library/index.asp) provides access to approxi- mately 28 million documents including newspapers, magazines, transcripts, books, images, photographs, and reference works. Questia.com, claiming to be the “word’s largest online library,” is restricted to individual subscriptions because of licensing agreements, essentially removing libraries from the loop. On its Web site, Questia.com recognizes the needs of various user groups—students, teachers, librarians, and publishers. Furthermore, this
“library” has enhancements; researcher may highlight text, take notes, and generate bibliographies. Questia.com attracts 1.2 million visitors a month (Goodman, 2003). Comparing Questia.com to public libraries, Goodman (2003) notes,
while many public libraries provide roughly the same services for free, these subscription sites often cover a wider ranges of subjects and offer more copyrighted materials, all within the confines of a kid’s home.