Ask a Librarian and i GS Finnish Reference

Ask a Librarian and i. GS: Finnish Reference Services Nina Granlund, Finland 2007

Ask a Librarian - Joint digital reference service of Finnish libraries. - Situated in Libraries. fi, the national library portal for all Finnish libraries (public, special, university libraries).

Libraries. fi - Produced by the Central Library for Public Libraries in Finland (Helsinki City Library ) and financed by the Ministry of Education. - Supported by the national strategies for the information society and libraries (e. g. Library Strategy 2010), http: //www. minedu. fi/export/sites/default/O PM/Julkaisut/2003/liitteet/opm_156_kseng. pdf? lang=en

Libraries. fi: Three languages - Published in three languages: Finnish and Swedish, and partly also in English. - http: //www. kirjastot. fi - http: //www. biblioteken. fi - http: //www. libraries. fi

Libraries. fi contains -Information about libraries (addresses, staff, catalogues) - Information about literature, music and children (foremost for librarians). - Library events, training for librarians etc.

Libraries. fi contains - Search services: Link Library, http: //www. kirjastot. fi/linkkikirjasto , SFL, Search Find and Locate, a guiding search, http: //searchfindlocate. libraries. fi/ , Metasearch, http: //monihaku. kirjastot. fi/ , Ask a Librarian, http: //www. libraries. fi/ask_librarian .

Libraries. fi - Contents produced by the editors of Libraries. fi and the libraries together. - Libraries: information about libraries, library events, Link Library contents, answering in the Ask a Librarian –service.

Ask a librarian - Started 1999. - Answers are given in three languages: Finnish, Swedish and English. - Public archive (also in three languages).

Ask a Librarian - Question is sent in via a web form, the answer is delivered to the email-address given by the customer. - Questioner gives his municipality of residence in the question form. - Also a list of participating libraries from which the questioner can choose an answering library http: //www. kirjastot. fi/tietopalvelu.

Ask a Librarian - Children have a special simpler form, http: //www. kirjastot. fi/lapsille/kysy. - Answer is given within three working days (Saturday and Sunday excluded).

Ask a Librarian - 54 libraries answering in the service: 39 public libraries, 1 university library and 14 special libraries and references service groups. - All regional central libraries. - 2006 415 different persons sent answers.

Ask a Librarian - Expertise in various topics: - Library of Parliament (law), Statistics Library, Lapponica -reference group from Lapland, University of Art and Design, Reference for the visually impared etc. , http: //www. libraries/en. GB/ask_librarian/libraries/ . http: //www. kirjastot. fi/tietopalvelu.

Ask a Librarian - Number of questions is increasing: 2003 2928 2004 3514 2005 4000 2006 5029 questions answered.

Aa. L: Principal idea - Question meets expert = the person who feels he can give a good answer, answers (special libraries).

Aa. L: Practice - All participating libraries follow the questions coming in, bigger ones check every day the answering application, smaller ones get automatically an email when a question from their municipality is sent in. - If the questioner has chosen an answering library, the email will be send to this library.

Aa. L: Practice - Every library has one or two persons responsible for the follow-up. - A national editor surveys, contacts libraries and answers.

Aa. L: Practice - If there are questions from other than participating municipalities, every one answers. - The Libraries. fi-editor surveys also all answering and furthermore the contents of the public archive.

Aa. L: Practice Library x : Answerer 1, Answerer 2, Answerer 3, etc. Responsible 1, Responsible 2 Libraries. fi : National editor (part time, works as reference librarian in Helsinki City Library) Libraries. fi-editor

Aa. L: Practice - The organisation functions well: most of the questions are answered the same day (71%, within 2 working days 15%, within 3 working days 8%, delayed were 6%).

Aa. L: Communication - Communication between librarians participating via a closed email-list. - Information from the Libraries. fi-edition is sent via the same list.

Aa. L: Communication - Info-area in the aswering application. - Every other year a meeting for participating staff.

Aa. L: Public Archive - Contains 15 000 question/answer –pairs. - Keyword list is given to the customer: a keyword is an active link, by clicking it, a search is made.

Aa. L: Public archive - Needs editing and updating. - Link control (Internet addresses change rapidly). - Contains useful information. - http: //www. libraries. fi/ask_librarian/archive. aspx

Future plans - More libraries. - More channels for asking. - New answering application. - More interactive services for customers.

More libraries - More libraries and other reference services are joining the service every year.

More channels - Aa. L-chat. - Several libraries will have own chatchannels. - Joint chat-channel for all libraries exists also already, but needs however practical organising. - Support in the Libraries. fi-edition.

More channels - Use in digital television already possible, not yet in use.

Answering application - A new semantic application. - Prototype 2006. - 2007 developing project.

Semantic answering application -Customer: • Customer writes a question -> application makes a search in the archive (analysing the text and using ontologies to produce the search result). • Customer will be offered ready answers from the archive.

Semantic answering application - Answerer: • When a librarian starts answering a new question, he will be offered ready answers from the archive. • Use of ready knowledge. • Updating of archive.

Interactive services for customers - Feedback already possible. - Customers will be given an opportunity to comment on the answer and publish comments. - These features will be developed this year.

i. GS: Information Gas Station - Digital reference service of Helsinki City Library. - Started 2001. - Answers are given in three languages: Finnish, Swedish and English. - Public archive (in three languages).

i. GS - Mobile device: work-stations can be placed to public locations and reference work can be taken to where the customers are.

i. GS - Radio program. - Questions and answers are shown on the webpages of the program and i. GS. - http: //lotta. yle. fi/rsweb 2. nsf/sivut/kysymitav ain? opendocument&pageid=Content 1335 38 A 31 D 2

i. GS - Simple question form. http: //igs. kirjastot. fi/en-GB/i. GS/ - Ask anything! - The answer is sent to the customers email within two weeks.

i. GS - Number of questions varies: 2003 4193 2004 6624 2005 5308 2006 6261

i. GS: practice - Staff of Helsinki City Library answers. There about 50 active answerers, 2006 113 different persons sent answers. - Editor surveys, answers, organises the tours of the mobile equipement and the radio program staff.

i. GS: Communication - Communication between librarians answering in a discussion area in the answerig application. - The editor publishes information about the service in an info area in the application.

Public Archive - Contains 25 000 answers, organised in different categories (e. g. astronomy, traffic, arts). - Text search. - http: //igs. kirjastot. fi/en. GB/i. GS/questions/search. aspx

Future - Interactive features: Feedback possibility for customers. - Semantic answering application: Cooperation with the national Ask a Librarian.

Kiitos!