Deeann Allison, Director, Computer Operations and Research Services, University of NebraskaLorna Dawes, Lecturer. Learning Community Librarian, University of Nebraska

Introducing Pixel

http://pixel.unl.edu

Artificial Intelligence: Transforming Reference - Online 

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln, chartered in

1869, is an educational institution of international stature. UNL is listed by the Carnegie Foundation within the "Research Universities (very high research activity)" category. UNL is a land-grant university and a member of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU).

There are about 18,000 students at UNL.

UNL Libraries

The University Libraries (Don L. Love Memorial Library and six branch libraries), together with the Marvin and Virginia Schmid Law Library, have a collection of over three million print volumes and more than 39,000 serial subscriptions.

The University Archives and Special Collections collects and preserves University history and many subject areas including Great Plains History and Literature.

Library Research Pixel fits into the University research

mission as an experiment with the potential of reducing costs (staffing and 24 hour chat service) while improving the user experience.

Why a chatbot? It is a conversational agent designed to simulate a conversation

with humans. It feels human and responds with a specific answer, not list of choices.

It is text based but it can include sound and visual effects. Undergrads are familiar with the software.

The software includes a database of answers that contains metadata, which is used to match against queries, which provides consistent answers.

It is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Ready whenever the patrons are.

All information from the website can be added to the database so patrons don’t have to hunt the website for answers.

People don’t worry their question is “stupid” or parents about the person on the other end.

The software can handle multiple questions at a time so there is no queuing.

What can Pixel Do?The Reference Librarian Finding specific webpages or sub-domains Access to “Frequently asked Questions Answer the simple questions. Professional Development.

The Patron. Answer simple questions. Simple Database Instruction. Help with articulation of request.

Rubin, Victoria L., Chen, Yimin and Thorimbert, Lynne Marie. 2010. “Artificially intelligent conversational agents in libraries.” Library High Tech 28 (4). http://ec2-50-19-240-191.compute-1.amazonaws.com/1531/1/Artificially_intelligent[1].pdf.

Asking Questions Open/ Closed/ Neutral

orConvergent /

Divergent

Van Duinkerken, Wyoma, J. Stephens, Jane, and Karen I Macdonald. “The Chat Reference Interview : Seeking Evidence Based on RUSA Guidelines : A Case Study at Texas A & M University Libraries The Chat Reference Interview :” Library (2009) : n. pag. Print.

RUSA guidelines for behavioral performance identifies five basic components of a reference interaction:1. Approachability- encourages patron to feel comfortable

Warm greeting and prominent position on website.

2. Interest- demonstrate a commitment to providing effective information assistance Answering in a timely manner and maintaining word contact.

3. Listening/inquiring-Listen effectively as the patron states in his/her own words the information need.Ask open ended and closed clarifying questions to understand the need, while keeping the patron at ease.

4. Searching- Identify the search strategy of the patron, conduct a search strategy, explain the steps and results to the patron, within the patron’s timeframe.Conduct and show your search strategy to the patron,

5. Follow-up- Determine if the patron is satisfiedAsk follow up questions. Invite patron to use the service, or other services again.

Test Pixel http://pixel.unl.edu

Approachability

Approachability- encourages patron to feel comfortableWarm greeting and prominent position on website.

HI I’m Pixel. What can I help you with?

That is okay, how can I help you?

Great, we have developed services to assist you with your distance coursework.

I Can look that up for you?

I can check encore for you?

Are you kidding?

Give me a minute to do a search of our articles.

Oh my, I am having trouble figuring this out. 

No images either... I am stumped.  Tell me again what you want.

Approachability

Responding to ‘difficult’ patrons. Encouraging patrons to be polite by answering politely.

Anger is a difficult emotion. For a machine, I always put others before myself.

Do you always express yourself that way?

Nothing is wrong with me. Is there anything wrong with you my friend?

Wow! OK I'll stop talking now.

Okay, you said "you to be quiet”

You seem pretty sure about that.

Some things are too emotional for me to discuss. Do you have feelings?

Showing Interest

Interest- demonstrate a commitment to providing effective information assistanceAnswering in a timely manner and maintaining word contact.

Yes, I have many journal articles. Why do you ask?

If this is your first research project, ask me about getting started.

Okay you do not want books You can find images in our Image and Multimedia Collections.

You should really give ”ENCORE” a try Come on.  Just one little try ”ENCORE”

To speed things up, I can do a search for you if you say lookup followed by the subject, title or author.

Perhaps you should consult with a librarian.

Listening & Inquiring

Listening/inquiring-Listen effectively as the patron states in his/her own words the information need.Ask open ended and closed clarifying questions to understand the need, while keeping the patron at ease.

Open• What will you do with this information?• Oh my, I am having trouble figuring this

out.  What is the field of study for your topic?

• What can I help you with?• Let me know if you are looking for

Books• If you could have exactly what you

needed, what would that be? Closed ClarifyingOkay, you said "some books on global poverty”Listening• Have you tried Encore? I seem to be

having difficulty understanding, please rephrase your question

• Okay you do not want books or articles.• If you have trouble finding what you are

looking for ask me about a specific service.

Conducting the Search

Searching- Identify the search strategy of the patron, conduct a search strategy, explain the steps and results to the patron, within the patron’s timeframe.

Conduct and show your search strategy to the patron.

IIf you need illustrations, check the facet on the left for our image collection, where we may have pictures.

If you need peer reviewed articles, look for the peer review limit on the left

If you have trouble finding what you are looking for ask me about a specific service.

Looks like you should broaden that search or use different terms.

Looking for a person who works in the libraries. Great here is the link to our page. Or, if you know the name of the person just tell me their first and last name.

Follow-upFollow-up- Determine if the patron is satisfiedAsk follow up questions. Invite patron to use the service, or other services again.

IfI you have trouble finding what you are looking for ask me about a specific service

Can I help you with anything else? What is it?  Do not be shy.

What more do you need?Are you confused?

Okay, but if you change your mind I will be here waiting.

Thanks for stopping by. If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to come back

See you later.

How is a Chabot built? There are a variety of ways to create

chatbots. Commercial sites where you can create

your own. Open source projects: Pandorabots http://

www.pandorabots.com/botmaster/en/home Program O http://www.program-o.com/

This is the software Pixel uses

Other Library Chatbots EMMA the catbot - Mentor public library http://

emmathemplcatbot.blogspot.com/p/talk-with-emma.html

Stella - Bibliothekssystem Universität Hamburghttp://www.sub.uni-hamburg.de/

Lisa - University of Wolverhampton's Libraryhttp://lisweb.wlv.ac.uk/chatbot/

Sources for the database: Pull information from the library website

for the database, e.g.. Hours, circ info, databases.

Use the built-in chat log and add information when Pixel doesn’t respond appropriately.

Chat logs from our real librarians.

Who is Pixel Chatbot developed on Program O and

adapted for the UNL Libraries: We added support for display coding

(bold, lists, etc.) Added the frame that appears on the

bottom of the screen.

Now for the Technical Stuff – What is AMIL? AIML: Artifical Intelligence Markup

Language (http://www.alicebot.org/aiml.html)<category>    <pattern>WHAT ARE YOU</pattern>    <template>        <think><set name="topic">Me</set></think>         I am the latest result in artificial intelligence,        which can reproduce the capabilities of the human brain with greater speed and accuracy.    </template></category>

There are three ways to ask any question

Corn* Corn

What do you have on growing corn

Corn *Corn information please

* Corn *Do you have any books on raising corn for the

paper I’m writing for school

So it gets more complicated two types of wildcards * and _ which act differently.

* is common wildcard match _ used with specific metadata

for example, “I _” would only retrieve a single category response

Supports cross references using the srai tag<category><pattern>* CORN</pattern><template><srai>CORN</srai></template></category>

Subject and topic categories were derived from LC classification areas

There are two levels, topic broader (agriculture) subject narrower (corn)

The sole purpose of the two levels is to manage the conversation

Two levels keep the conversation going.

<category><pattern>CORN</pattern><template><think><set name="topic">agriculture</set><set name="it"><set name="subject">corn</set></set></think>Are you interested in books in corn? <![CDATA[<a target="_new" href="http://encore.unl.edu/iii/encore/search/C__Scorn__Orightresult__U1?lang=eng&amp;suite=cobalt">]]> Click here to Search for corn<![CDATA[</a>.]]></template></category>

The program flow1. Books subject

2. Articles topic

3. Libguides topic

4. Librarian topic

That metadata<category><pattern>NO</pattern><that>Are you interested in books in corn _</that> <template><think><set name="it"><set name="topic">agriculture</set></set></think>Are you interested in articles on corn? We have several databases that list fulltext journals in your subject area.</template></category>

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<category><pattern>YES</pattern><that>Are you interested in articles on corn _</that><template><think><set name="it">articles on <get name="subject"/></set></think>Take a look at the articles available through our web indexes on <a target="_new" href="http://encore.unl.edu/iii/encore/search/C__S%28agriculture+|+agricola+|+%28Plant+Management+Network%29+|+%28Cab+Abstracts%29%29+f%3A.e__Orightresult__U1?lang=eng&amp;suite=cobalt"> corn</a>. We also have open source databases in The agriculture area that are free for anyone to use. <a target="_new" href="researchproagri.html">Agriculture and Natural Resources</a> through Multi-Search for the public. </template></category>

hi, how do i make a ref works The assumption they are asking about a RefWorks account

<category><pattern>* REF WORKS</pattern><template><think><set name="it"><set name="topic">RefWorks</set></set></think>If you do not already have an RefWorks account and you are on campus, you can go here to set-up a <a target="_new" href="https://0-www.refworks.com.library.unl.edu/Refworks/login.asp?WNCLang=false">RefWorks account</a>. <srai>WHAT IS THE REFWORKS GROUP CODE</srai></template></category>

Chat logs are great sources for categories

Pixel also has a log USER:I need help with my project

<category><pattern>I need help _ project</pattern><template><think><set name="it"><set name="topic">help</set></set></think><random> <li>Tell me about your project</li><li>What is the subject?</li><li>If this is your first research project, ask me about getting started.</li><li>If you need peer reviewed articles, let me know.</li> </random> </template></category>

Pixel Stats There are over 84,000 categories of information

in the SQL database. Includes 214 spelling variations in the database. Program O has an administrative interface:

adding/editing single records, adding/ editing groups of records, adding spelling variations

Search feature Log for conversations includes user and bot

response. Demo chat feature.

Google Analytics Aug. 13, 2011-Sept 13, 2012

Average duration on catalog is 3:25 minutes 71.02% New Visitors28.98% Returning Visitors

Average duration on Encore 4:54 minutes 70.00% Returning Visitor30.00% New Visitor

Future Plans Evaluate how Pixel fits into current

reference structure. Determine feasibility of going into

production. Grants – looking for partners.

Assessment.

Contact Us DeeAnn Allison

ProfessorDirector, Computer Operations and Research ServicesTelephone: 402-472-3944E-mail: dallison1@unl.edu

Lorna DawesLecturerLearning Communities LibrarianTelephone: 402-472-4408Email: ldawes2@unl.edu