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Slam the Boards (STB) is a grassroots activity in which librarians visit social Q&A sites on the tenth of each month and answer as many questions as possible. Through this activity, librarians hope to represent librarianship at a new venue; encounter users beyond the library and provide well-sourced, dependable answers to people's questions; and ultimately increase the public's awareness of libraries. Semistructured interviews were conducted with participating librarians, examining their motivation, experience, and reflection. Findings of the study can help develop an in-depth understanding of STB and yield insights on how to efficiently and effectively promote library resources and services beyond the library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chat reference is fast becoming a standard offering in the suite of reference services academic libraries provide. But much still needs to be learned about the motivations users have for choosing chat services, and what sorts of research they are doing online at the moment that they choose to go to chat reference for help. This study analyzes the results of a user survey that asks what users are doing before they choose chat, why they decided to choose chat, and their overall satisfaction with the service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the authors will briefly discuss the impediments to offering a digital reference service using Web-based customer contact center software, and then focus in detail on the potential this medium has for broadening the reference librarian's reach, even as in-person contacts continue to fall. Specifically, the article will examine: • bringing services to those who increasingly use the Internet for research, pleasure, or formal education; • integrating reference services with online content; • research that shows the lack of sophistication in which users interact with search engines and databases; • the potential for librarians to take advantage of the “teachable moment”; • approachability issues; • special populations who may be served by text-based, online communication; and • specific advantages as compared to reference via telephone and e-mail. This article will serve as a core resource for any library or librarian needing to justify initiating digital reference services. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Internet Reference Services Quarterly is introducing a new column that will focus on current developments and practice concerns in chat reference. This first entry gives some background on the column's origins, and details the directions it will take. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]