WXGB6303 User Needs and Behaviour

Methodology and Literature Review

Noor Husna Mohamad ZayadiWGB090005

Identifying Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service from the University of Malaya

Library User’s Perspective

Research Title

Internet technology has changed the way in which communication and searching for information can be done easily today.

With the development of the World Wide Web, digital reference services are beginning to take over some of the roles of the traditional reference services in the library.

Digital reference service offers services to the library users in several forms.

Chat reference service is a service offered by library where librarian and users can ‘speak’ to each other on the Internet in a real time manner.

Introduction To The Problem

Chat Transcript

A research done by Carlson, 2007, stated that almost 85 percent of the students said they preferred face-to-face interactions with librarians. Through these findings, librarians have the responsibility to offer alternative ways to serve the other 15 percent students who have problems in face-to-face communication with librarians.

Statement of The Problem

IV1 : Library Anxiety IV2 : Remote Access IV3 : Promptness

DV : Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service

Variables

RQ1. Is there a relationship between Library Anxiety and Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service?

RQ2. Is there a relationship between Remote Access and Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service?

RQ3. Is there a relationship between Promptness and Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service?

Research Questions

H1: There is a relationship between Library Anxiety and Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service.H2: There is a relationship between Remote Access and Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service.H3: There is a relationship between Promptness and Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service.

Research Hypothesis

The emphasis in this research will be on real-time or synchronous services of chat reference service as opposed to other digital reference services by asynchronous methods.

This research will focus on identifying perceived needs for a chat reference service in the University of Malaya Library.

Scope

This research will benefit The University of Malaya Library users having problems of library anxiety, remote access and/or promptness in terms of information reference and information assistance.

Research on the chat reference service subject and especially in the area of identifying perceived needs for the service is still very rare.

Significance of The Study

Horowitz, L.R., Flanagan, P.A. and Helman, D.L. (2005), “The viability of live online reference: an assessment”, Portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol. 5 No. 2, 239-58.

Horowitz et al. (2005) surveyed chat reference users at MIT on their reasons for using the service, finding that the top four reasons were “did not want to come to library”, “like to multi-task while waiting for response”, “was in a rush and expected service would be quick”, or “need an immediate response”.

Literature Review

Literature Review

Swope, M.J., & Katzer, J. (1972). The silent majority: Why don`t they ask questions? RQ 12(2), 161-166.

Swope and Katzer (1972) conducted an exploratory study of 119 users in an academic library. They investigated the reasons why 27 percent of the people they surveyed who had questions did not ask for a librarian’s help. They identified four reasons: (1) dissatisfaction with past service, (2) thinking their question too simple, (3) fear of being a bother, and (4) fear of appearing stupid.

Dougherty, R. (2002). Reference around the clock: is it in your future? American Libraries, Vol. 33: 44-46.

Dougherty (2002) stated that interest in digital reference increased steadily; the users wanted to have access anytime, and the librarians wanted to provide a better service, while companies were interested in developing new programs and tapping into a new field of service.

Literature Review - cont

Riva, G. & Galimberti, C. (1997). The psychology of cyberspace: a socio-cognitive framework to computer-mediated communication. New Ideas in Psychology, Vol. 15: 141-158.

Chat users can receive immediate feedback, thus they can use written language in the same manner used in a person-to-person conversation. (Riva & Galimberti 1997).

Literature Review - cont

Methodology

Population and SampleInstrumentation

Data Collection Methods

Population and Sample

University of Malaya Library serve a huge population which may includes more than 100000 users.

Allowing for a plus and minus five percent error rate, a sample size of 384 library users will be selected from the total population.

Sample

Quantitative Research

Questionnaire Demographic Information Chat Reference Service Library Anxiety Remote Access Promptness

5-item Likert scales

Instrumentation

Questionnaire distribution through E-Mail.

Time allocated from distribution to collection of the data is one week.

Data will be analyzed using Microsoft Excel.

Data Collection Procedure and Data Analysis

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