AskAway Chat Reference During COVID-19: Research Findings

This session will present the findings of research into the types of questions posed by patrons during the COVID-19 pandemic on AskAway, the post-secondary consortial chat reference service in BC and the Yukon. The fourteen-member research team, representing eight post-secondary institutions in BC and the Yukon used an iterative process and multiple methods of analysis to examine over 70,000 chat transcripts from September 2019 through August 2021. Utilizing the tools R, Python Pandas, Voyant and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) the questions asked by patrons were examined from multiple angles. While AskAway is a long-standing element of library services in BC and the Yukon, chat reference rose to prominence during the pandemic as almost all BC academic libraries remained closed for a protracted period of time. Reliance on chat as a primary means of reference and general library services was unplanned and unprecedented. Analysis of the chat transcripts provides an opportunity to make sense of what kind of questions were actually asked of BC libraries during the pandemic. Our findings have resonance for library service delivery during regular and disruptive times. A paper describing the full research findings as been submitted to the journal Evidence Based Library and Information Practice and is currently awaiting review.

Recording: https://youtu.be/0iYYPjMs4H0