Chat Reference at Carnegie Mellon University

Abstract

Carnegie Mellon University Libraries began its chat reference service in October of 2000. The article explains why library administrators decided to institute chat reference and the steps taken to implement this decision. The Libraries utilize commercial off-the-shelf software called LivePerson. Service evaluation features of LivePerson provide interesting data for analysis. Summary statistics of the service and the cumulative results of post chat surveys (filled out by chat patrons on a voluntary basis) are presented. Plans for future enhancements of the chat reference service are discussed.     

A Conversation with Leslie Weir

Leslie Weir talks about her career in librarianship, librarianship in general, and the development and governance of consortia, portals, digital initiatives, and open access in Canada. She discusses, among other things, CARL, Scholars Portal, OCUL-IR, CRKN, and Canadiana.org. in light of access to electronic resources.     

Building bridges across fields,universities, and countries: Successfully funding communication research through interdisciplinary collaboration

Even though there are few directorates explicitly dedicated to communication research at places like the National Science Foundation, there are significant opportunities for funding of interdisciplinary research on "communication problems." This article informally shares some principles, rules of thumb, and ideas about funding communication technology research projects, though it applies to other areas as well. The article draws on the experience of the communication technology research experience at the international, cross-university, and interdisciplinary network of Media Interface and Network Design (M.I.N.D.) Labs.     

Private foundation funding of applied communication research

Communication researchers increasingly have a primed and attentive audience in private foundations. Yet most foundations are quite dissimilar to the types of organizations that we as communication scholars know and understand. Here we discuss private foundation funding for applied communication research, including how funding priorities are set, and how potential grantees may position themselves for foundation funds. In doing so, we focus on five norms that characterize American private foundations and their program staff: (1) social betterment, (2) organizational interdependency, (3) personal commitment, (4) future orientation, and (5) external generalizability. How well you and your proposal match up with these norms will affect your success with private foundations.     

Information adequacy,job satisfaction and organizational culture in a dispersed‐network organization

This investigation examined the relationship of information adequacy to job satisfaction and organizational culture in a healthcare organization with both office and field personnel. Information adequacy was assessed in four areas: personal performance, organizational policies, organizational performance, and organizational objectives. Comparisons of field and office personnel indicated that they did not differ on information adequacy or job satisfaction; they did, however, differ on several dimensions of organizational culture. Also, the relationship of information inadequacy to job satisfaction and organizational culture differed for employees depending on whether they worked primarily in the field or primarily in the office. Implications of the findings are drawn for organizations with a dispersed‐network structure.     

BOOKS BRIEFLY

No abstract available for this article.     

PRESIDENTIAL LEGISLATION

No abstract available for this article.     

Virtuality,Technology Use,and Engagement Within Organizations

Multinational organizations are turning to collaborative technology to enable virtual organizational structures. While collaborative technology provides distributed workers with new affordances to form relationships and share knowledge, collaborative technology also has complex, interwoven implications for virtual organizing. To disentangle these concerns, this study considers four key dimensions of virtuality—spatial dispersion, temporal dispersion, dynamic structure, and functional diversity—in relation to technology use and engagement with peers within an organization. Survey data were collected in a multinational organization that facilitates work through extensive use of collaborative technology. The results of structural equation modeling reveal connections between two dimensions of virtuality, use of collaborative technology and peer engagement in the organization. Findings suggest that understanding interactions in virtual organizations requires a more nuanced approach to virtuality and active management of technology implementation. Moreover, the findings demonstrate that managers need to actively manage the deployment of new collaborative technology by focusing on specific characteristics of work groups.     

Wired New Jersey: Q and A NJ

SUMMARY

Q and A NJ is New Jersey's virtual reference service. Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and free to all New Jersey residents, the service provides online reference assistance in real time from librarians across the state. New Jersey was the first state in the country to offer such service. This article looks at the history of the service, what it's like to be a virtual librarian, and presents a brief survey of the librarians participating in Q and A NJ.