Situational Virtual Reference: Get Help When You Need It

This study aims to increase the use of virtual reference service by increasing the awareness of the availability of the service to users who really need it. A new situationally-based virtual reference interface, called the sVR interface, has been designed to reflect different levels of user search success. Findings from an eight-month field study done in a university library improved our understanding of how to effectively enhance the availability of virtual reference service to users who need it. A discussion about balancing the availability and the intrusiveness of virtual reference service is also provided.publishedye