Location, location, location: The importance of placement of the chat request button

It is generally acknowledged that academic chat reference services do not receive heavy use. Why don't chat reference services receive more questions? How can we increase use of our services? Chat reference (also known as digital or virtual reference) is well established across academic libraries. Hundreds of articles have been written on the various aspects of providing and evaluating this type of service. New companies have sprouted up to provide software to support the special needs of library digital reference. Untold dollars are being spent to create and support these services. We now need to ask if we are maximizing its use and impact. Given its rapid growth, Sloane identifies an issue of real concern: "Why don't more people use it? If it's a given that people use the Web/Internet a lot to find answers to questions, and that virtual reference use is relatively low, why is this the case? " (1) Discussion on the Dig-Ref listserv has pointed to the fact that no academic libraries are reporting many more than ten questions a day, even though we know that our faculty and students (especially students) are out there surfing the Web for information and using the library's online resources for their research needs. (2) In a January 2003 Library Journal article, Roy Tennant says: Many early adopters of this technology are concerned about the generally low usage levels of online reference. The problem is it may be too early to tell whether the reason is lack of awareness on the part of the community being served, or a lack of interest. Although the question is of primary importance (no publicly funded organization wants to waste money on an underused service), we need more experiences and better measures before we can determine where the problem lies. (3) So the question remains, "why don't more people use chat reference to get advice or guidance? " It is commonly acknowledged in the literature that marketing and promotion of the service to your potential audience through articles in appropriate publications, e-mails, posters and flyers, and giveaways are vital ways to promote use of the service. However, little has been done to determine how the placement of the chat button might affect the number and type of questions received. We wondered if by manipulating button location we might not only increase the number of people who use the service but also increase the likelihood that patrons will turn to us for guidance as they struggle to construct a search query or find an elusive piece of information. We decided to reexamine our Web pages and adjust the look and placement of the chat button to try to determine what impact these things would have on the number and type of questions received. We not only wanted to increase use of our service but to explore ways that we could also increase the likelihood that patrons will turn to us for guidance at the critical point where they struggle to construct a search query. Most software used for chat reference makes it very easy to track how the system is used. "The very nature of chat reference makes it possible to evaluate the quality of reference service in ways never before possible . statistics generated by the system produce a great deal of information that can be used for evaluation. " (4) We decided to use these data to answer some of these questions. We tracked the number, pattern, and type of questions received over a fifteen-month period: January 2002 through March 2003. We had made several basic assumptions when designing our chat interface: * A chat button that stands out on the page and makes its purpose clear will increase use. * The more pages the button appears on, the more questions will be received (this may seem to go without saying, but no one has attempted to quantify this as yet). * Substantive research questions are more likely to be generated from OPAC Web pages and database pages because people ask questions at the point of need. …