Proactive Chat in a Discovery Service: What Users are Asking

Abstract

This study investigates questions users asked via both a proactive chat widget and a static “Ask Us” link in an academic library’s discovery service. Chat transcripts were coded according to four question categories: Reference, Borrowing, Technology Help, and Directional. Chat transcripts were also coded into more specific question types within each of the categories. Results showed that a high proportion of library users asked reference questions in the discovery service, regardless of whether they used a proactive invitation or a static link. Results also showed that library users were less likely to ask borrowing, technology help, and directional questions via the discovery service. Within the Reference category, a higher proportion of users tended to ask for help finding known items when they clicked on the “Ask Us” link. Conversely, a higher proportion of the proactive chat questions involved searching on a topic. These findings support the inclusion of proactive chat in search interfaces and provide valuable information about knowledge and skills that chat staff should possess.

Keywords:

• virtual reference
• proactive chat
• discovery service