| Studies on chat reference, synchronous online reference service, have identified four main themes; technology and implementation of chat reference, the need for chat reference, the effectiveness of chat reference and the impact of chat reference. This descriptive study was designed to explore those areas in order depict how chat reference is currently perceived by reference librarians. In prior studies, study populations had current or past experience with chat reference. This study of California community college librarians identified the major concerns and perceptions of reference librarians regardless of their level of experience with chat reference in an effort to encourage the implementation of chat reference in California community college libraries. Study results indicated that overall, librarians who participated in the study were confident in their own technology skills and were comfortable with chat reference as an effective tool for facilitating reference services. Librarians felt that there was inadequate technical support, funding and staffing to implement chat reference and respondents indicated that they felt chat reference would significantly increase their work load. There was disagreement among librarians about the need for chat reference. The significance of this study was its ability to identify the major concerns and perceptions of librarians regarding chat reference. The findings could be used to address librarians' concerns and clear up any misconceptions that may deter the implementation of chat reference in community college libraries. |
