Evaluating a Pandemic Chat Service in a Consumer Health Library

ABSTRACT

When The Learning Center, a consumer health library at a cancer center, closed its doors in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was not a robust system of virtual outreach in place. Staff decided to implement a chat/SMS service as one way to reach patrons during the library’s 16-month shutdown, but usage numbers were low. A variety of factors can affect use and complicate success, and quantitative measures may not be the sole factor in evaluating a new service and whether it should continue. This article will talk about service implementation, challenges and context, patron and staff satisfaction, and lessons learned from the process.

KEYWORDS:

• Chat services
• consumer health
• COVID-19
• virtual services

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.