Noor Husna Mohamad Zayadi Master of Library and Information Science Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology University of Malaya 2010

1. Noor Husna Mohamad Zayadi
WGB090005

2. Identifying Perceived Needs
for a Chat Reference Service
from the University of Malaya Library
User’s Perspective

3.  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.

5.  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.

6.  IV1 : Library Anxiety
 IV2 : Remote Access
 IV3 : Promptness
 DV : Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference
Service

7. 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?

8. 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.

9.  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.

10.  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.

11.  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”.

12.  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.

13.  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.

14.  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).

15. Population and Sample
Instrumentation
Data Collection Methods

18.  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.

19.  Quantitative Research
 Questionnaire
 Demographic Information
 Chat Reference Service
 Library Anxiety
 Remote Access
 Promptness
 5-item Likert scales

20.  Questionnaire distribution through E-Mail.
 Time allocated from distribution to collection
of the data is one week.
 Data will be analyzed using Microsoft Excel.

21. ~THANK YOU ~