As with visibility , we can t just sit back and wait for people to stumble onto the service. It is important to publicize the service regularly and continuously. Don t do one big publicity blitz and then never do one again. 24x7 is the ultimate ideal, but not many libraries are staffed sufficiently enough to hit this target. Collaborative projects with other libraries can help spread the workload around.
Some vendors offer the option of backup reference service for a fee.
One of the big complaints about e-mail reference is that it takes too long for the user to get an answer. Chat reference is interactive, but the pressure of turnaround time is probably greater. There is an expectation from the user that he or she will receive the answer during the chat session. If we can t do this, we should think about how to get back to the user later. For the most part, evaluating use is a counting game it s very important that at least one person with your project understands what can be quantified, and how.