Service Policies and Guidelines

I.	Mission Statement	VIII.	Quality Control
II.	Service Overview	IX.	Communication Channels
III.	Service Philosophy	X.	Privacy Policy (Updated)
IV.	Clientele Served	XI.	Use Policy
V.	Service and Performance Standards	XII.	Consortium Staffing
VI.	Database Access Policy	XIII.	Duties of Participating Institutions
VII.	Scheduling	XIV.	Organizational Guidelines

Library Coordinator Contact List (revised 6/5/2006)
virtualAJCU (Yahoo Groups)



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I. Mission Statement:
The AJCU Virtual Reference Service is committed to providing high quality online reference service to students, faculty, and staff of all the participating Jesuit institutions.

II. Service Overview
The AJCU Virtual Reference Service provides online reference help to the primary clientele of the participating Jesuit institutions 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The collaborative virtual reference model will allow the institutions involved to extend standard hours of operation by distributing the staffing of the service across multiple libraries and multiple time zones.

The service uses the Tutor.com software which allows the librarian to chat and co-browse databases and electronic resources with the patron. From 9 am to 9 pm (in all time zones) the service is cooperatively staffed by AJCU librarians. At other times, questions are answered by librarians hired by Tutor.com’s Librarians by Request service.

Each participating Jesuit institution is required to contribute a certain number of librarian hours (determined by the size of the institution).

III. Service Philosophy
The AJCU Virtual Reference Service was created in order to provide a new method of delivering reference services to the clientele of the participating Jesuit institutions. It is an additional way to reach users, particularly students, who use chat software in their daily communication with others. This additional way of providing reference enhances the traditional service philosophy of academic libraries which consider instruction and teaching an integral part of providing reference assistance. During online sessions with patrons, librarians should emphasize teaching over simply providing information. The co-browsing function of the software helps support this philosophy by allowing librarians to instruct the patrons in the use of particular databases.

IV. Clientele Served
The service is available to current students, faculty, and staff of the participating Jesuit institutions without restrictions. Patrons accessing the service will be asked to identify the Jesuit institution with which they are affiliated . When a non-affiliated patron accesses the service, the librarian may do a brief reference interview and point the patron to freely available web based resources, or may refer the patron to a local public institution using available scripted responses. The librarian may also choose to answer the question if no other patrons are waiting, but proprietary databases should not be used to aid unaffiliated patrons.

V. Service and Performance Standards
1) Scope of service
Each library must contribute a certain predetermined number of hours to the AJCU virtual reference service. During these assigned shifts, the librarian online will answer questions from all participating libraries. At other time, an individual library may choose to offer the service only for its own clientele.

There is no time limit for answering a question, although the librarian should keep in mind that other patrons might be waiting. If a question requires more than 15 minutes, referral to a local librarian may be more efficient.

The librarian on duty is not required to answer more than one question at a time. If a second question appears in the queue while the librarian is already answering a question, it will be routed after a few minutes to another online AJCU librarian. If no other AJCU librarian is online, the question will be picked up by the Librarians by Request staff (Tutor.com).

For in-depth reference questions or if detailed research assistance is needed, the librarian on duty can choose to follow up by email or can refer the question to a librarian from the patron’s host institution.

The service is designed to answer reference questions, but general circulation or directional questions may be answered using the library policy pages provided by each institution and available on the AJCU Virtual Reference web site.

3) Reference practices
As a general rule, the reference service provided in an online environment should:

· Be of the same quality as in-person reference service. (e.g. conducting a quick reference interview, using authoritative/quality resources, etc)
· Focus on online resources as this is a virtual service (online catalogs, databases, electronic journals, online reference books, and appropriate web pages)
· Make use of databases and resources available at the patron’s host institution. Patrons should be asked to authenticate to access any proprietary databases.

4) Follow-up/Referral Procedures
Librarians on duty should try to answer each question to the best of their abilities. If they determine that a question would be better answered by a local librarian, they can refer the question to the patron’s host institution. If a librarian from the patron’s host institution is simultaneously online, the question SHOULD be transferred immediately. In certain cases, the librarian can negotiate with the patron to continue the transaction by e-mail if it is necessary. At the moment, the service doesn’t include faxing, photocopying or mailing materials for patrons.

VI. Database Access Policy
It is important that librarians adhere to the licensing agreements for any electronic resources and databases used. As a general rule, the librarian on duty should use the databases and electronic resources available at the patron’s host institution and ask the patron to authenticate before access is granted. The librarian can then co-browse and instruct the patron in the use of the databases. Librarians on duty should only provide patrons access to databases that are accessible via the patron’s host institutions.

Each institution will provide a barcode number or other means to access their databases in case legitimate users are having problems authenticating. These barcodes/logins will be available to the Librarians by Request staff and the AJCU librarians staffing the service, but should only be used as a last resort.

VII. Scheduling
At the beginning of each semester, a schedule will be created using a scheduling software. Each institution will be asked to sign up for a required number of shifts. The scheduling coordinator will make sure that all shifts are covered and will resolve conflicts. Every effort will be made to accommodate individual institution’s preferences.

If a library is unable to staff the service at its regular scheduled times, they should first request a shift trade through the scheduling software. The scheduling coordinator should be notified if a trade is not possible.

VIII. Quality Control
Providing virtual reference service in a consortial environment means that librarians staffing the service answer questions for patrons from institutions other than their own. This means they will be using online resources they might not be familiar with. In order to maintain the highest standards of quality, all library staff involved need to familiarize themselves with the policy pages and the electronic resources of the participating institutions.

The coordinators at each institution are responsible for notifying consortium members of any changes in policies or any specific things that could affect the virtual reference service via the AJCU Virtual Reference discussion list.

Individual coordinators are also responsible for reviewing the transcripts involving their patrons and their librarians, as well as the survey responses from their library’s patrons. They may decide to follow-up by email if the service given to their patrons was not adequate. It is recommended that the transcripts (or a sample of the transcripts) be reviewed at least weekly.

Any complaints regarding quality of service should be sent to the quality control coordinator.

IX. Communication Channels
Ongoing communication is critical to ensure the success of a virtual reference project in a consortial environment. The coordinators at each institution, as well as all the librarians involved in providing virtual reference for the consortium should be subscribed to the AJCU Virtual Reference listserv and use it to ask questions, discuss issues with their colleagues, or provide needed information about their libraries.

X. Privacy Policy
Each institution is responsible for posting on the web page providing access to the service a privacy policy, which explains to the patron what personal information is collected by the service and what is done with this information. Following is an example of a brief privacy policy that can be used as it is, or modified by participating libraries:

AJCU Virtual Reference Service - D R A F T - Privacy Statement

This privacy statement explains what we do with the personal information collected from our patrons when they use the AJCU Virtual Reference Service . More specifically, it explains what personal information is collected, how it is used, and how long it is kept.

When you use the AJCU Virtual Reference Service, you are asked to provide your name, institution affiliation, status (faculty, student, staff, etc.), and email address. Providing your email address allows us to send you a transcript of the session, or to send you additional information related to your question. We will disclose your personal information only when it is necessary to answer your request for information. For example, we may refer your question and your personal information to a librarian at another Jesuit institution. We will not share your email address or use it for other purposes.

We also collect some information about your computer, such as the browser version you are using, and your IP address. We store session cookies on your machine in order to send you chat messages, web sites and files, but these cookies will dissolve when your session ends.

We keep the transcripts and make them available to supervising librarians for quality control, but we purge all your personal information from the system after 30 days. If you have selected the "Anonymous" user option, the librarian will see the information you entered in the form, but personal information is purged as soon as the session has been ended.

This privacy policy will be reviewed periodically. If any changes occur, you will see the word "updated" next to the Privacy Policy link on the entry page.

XI. Use Policy
Each institution is responsible for posting on their web site a use policy for the service stating who can use the service and what kind of questions are appropriate.

XII. Consortium Staff
At this time, the AJCU Virtual Reference consortium does not have a paid project director. An implementation committee is supervising the project during its first phase. The committee will make recommendations on how the project should be administered and supervised in the future. One possibility is to have an appointed board and several coordinators in various areas such as scheduling, quality control, assessment, etc.

XIII. Duties of Participating Institutions

-Staffing: each institution is responsible for staffing the number of hours agreed upon with professional librarians who have been trained in the use of the software.

-Initial training will be provided by Tutor.com, but individual institutions will then be responsible for training new staff members, and keeping their staff current on changes in the service and the software.

-Policy Page: each institution is responsible for creating and keeping up to date a library policy page providing information such as hours, circulation policies, reference email contact, list of databases, list of electronic journals, etc.

-Review of Transcripts: To ensure high quality standards, the coordinator of the service at each institution will be responsible for reviewing transcripts (or a sample of transcripts) involving their students and their librarians. This review should be done weekly, so that there could be follow-up if a question was not answered properly. (see section on quality control)

-Access and marketing: Each institution is responsible for providing access to the service through their library home page or other media, and to market the service to its community. The AJCU consortium will be providing guidelines to help market the service.

-Annual report and statistics: each institution is responsible for writing an annual report using the statistics and reports provided by the software and detailing the problems and successes of the service at their university. These reports will be used by the consortium to improve service

Last Updated 7/19/2006