Seeking Synchronicity: Revelations and Recommendations for Virtual Reference

Abstract

As individuals become more and more comfortable mediating all kinds of situations online and through various technologies, their virtual selves increasingly overlap their "real" lives. Posting a "happy birthday!" message on Facebook is as automatic as dropping a card in the mail. E-mailing relevant links to co-workers happens as naturally as mentioning an interesting article over lunch. Which points toward why the "R" in "Virtual Reference" needs to change if libraries are going to succeed in promoting reference through chat sessions, phone calls, e-mails, texts, mobile applications and other as-of-yet unimagined technologies. Going back to 2005, the authors' research of the use of virtual reference (VR) has had one primary goal: to deliver research-based recommendations that will improve the service that information professionals provide. The purpose of this publication is to distill several years' and several hundred pages' worth of work into a few very specific, easily digestible, actionable suggestions for how individuals can sustain and develop their VR services and systems (Radford and Connaway 2005-2008a). A bibliography is included. Individual sections contain footnotes and references. (Contains 16 charts.)