Proactive chat in research databases: Inviting new and different questions.

This study analyzes over 4500 chat interactions to understand how proactivity and research context affect use of proactive chat. Quantitative and qualitative analyses show patrons ask questions that are both more complex and more likely to relate to a research need when proactively approached in research databases. The availability of proactive chat in databases results in a greater frequency and greater proportion of research related questions. Results suggest that proactive chat in databases represents an important area for expanding library reference services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]