Service Equality in Virtual Reference

Shachaf, Pnina and Oltmann, Shannon M. and Horowitz, Sarah M. Service Equality in Virtual Reference. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2008, vol. 59, n. 4, pp. 535-550. [Journal article (Paginated)]

[img]
Preview
PDF
ServiceEqualityInVirtualRef.pdf

Download (349kB) | Preview

English abstract

Research is divided about the potential of e-service to bridge communication gaps, particularly to diverse user groups. According to the existing body of literature, e-service may either increase or decrease the quality of service received. This study analyzes the level of service received by different genders and ethnic groups when academic and public librarians answer 676 online reference queries. Quality of e-service was evaluated along three dimensions: timely response, reliability, and courtesy. This study found no significant differences among different user groups along any of these dimensions, supporting the argument that the virtual environment facilitates equitable service and may overcome some challenges of diverse user groups.

Item type: Journal article (Paginated)
Keywords: quality of service, virtual reference
Subjects: I. Information treatment for information services > IJ. Reference work.
L. Information technology and library technology > LC. Internet, including WWW.
Depositing user: Pnina Shachaf
Date deposited: 24 Oct 2008
Last modified: 02 Oct 2014 12:13
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/12410

References

American Library Association. (1995). Code of Ethics of the American Library Association. Retrieved May 31, 2006 from http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/ statementspols/codeofethics/codeethics.htm

American Library Directory. (2005). American Library Directory Online. Chicago: American Library Association.

Arnold, J., & Kaske, N. (2005). Evaluating the quality of a chat service. Libraries and the Academy, 5(2), 177-193.

Bertrand, M., & Mullainathan, S. (2004). Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment on labor market discrimination. The American Economic Review, 94(4), 991-1013.

Breeding, M. (2006). Lib-web-cat: A directory of libraries throughout the world. Retrieved June 5, 2006 from http://www.librarytechnology.org/libwebcats/

British Broadcasting Corporation. (2006). BBC Weather. Retrieved June 5, 2006, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/city_guides/results.shtml?tt=TT003790

Bushman, B. J., & Bonacci, A. M. (2004). You've got mail: Using e-mail to examine the effect of prejudiced attitudes on discrimination against Arabs. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40(6), 753-759.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2000). The Carnegie classification of institutions of higher education. Retrieved May 22, 2006 from: http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/classifications/

Carter, D. S., & Janes, J. (2000). Unobtrusive data analysis of digital reference questions and service at the Internet Public Library: An exploratory study. Library Trends, 49(2), 251-265.

Cesare, S.J. (1996). Subjective judgment and the selection interview: A methodological review. Public Personnel Management, 25(3), 291-305.

Civil Rights Act of 1964 § 201, 42 USC, § 2000(a) (1964).

Coffman, S. (2003). Going live: Starting and running a virtual reference service. American Library Association: Chicago.

Crosby, F., Bromley, S., & Saxe, L. (1980). Recent unobtrusive studies of Black and White discrimination and prejudice: A literature review. Psychological Bulletin, 87, 546-563.

Curry, D.A. (1994). Your worries ain't like mine: African American librarians and the pervasiveness of racism, prejudice and discrimination in academe. The Reference Librarian, 45/46, 299-311.

Daily, B.F., & Steiner, R.L. (1998). The influence of group decision support systems on contribution and commitment levels in multicultural and culturally homogeneous decision-making groups. Computers in Human Behavior, 14(1), 147-162.

Daily, B., Whatley, A., Ash, S. R., & Steiner, R.L. (1996). The effects of a group decision support system on culturally diverse and culturally homogeneous group decision making. Information & Management, 30, 281-289.

Dole, W.V., & Hurych, J.M. (2001). Values for librarians in the information age. Journal of Information Ethics, 10(2), 38-50.

Douglas, K. M., & McGarty, C. (2001). Identifiability and self-presentation: Computermediated, communication and intergroup interaction. British Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 3, 399-416.

Feagin, J. (1991). The continuing significance of race: Antiblack discrimination in public places. American Sociological Review, 1, 101-116.

Figlio, D. N. (2005). Names, expectations and the Black-White test score gap. NBER Working Paper No. W11195. Retrieved June 7, 2006 from: http://ssrn.com/ abstract=684721

Froehlich, T. (1997). Survey and analysis of the major ethical and legal issues facing library and information services. Munich, Germany: K.G. Saur.

Gers, R., & Seward, L.J. (1985). Improving reference service: Results of a state-wide survey. Library Journal, 110(18), 32-35.

Glaser, J., & Kahn, K. B. (2005). Prejudice and discrimination and the internet. In Y. Amichai-Hamburger (Ed.). The social psychology of the internet. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Gorman, M (2000). Our enduring values: Librarianship in the 21st century. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

Gross, M., & Saxton, M. L. (2002). Integrating the imposed query into the evaluation of reference service: A dichotomous analysis of user ratings. Library & Information Science Research, 24, 251-263.

Hernon, P., & Calvert, P. (2005). E-service quality in libraries: Exploring its feature and dimensions. Library & Information Science Research, 27, 377-404.

Hernon, P., & McClure, C. R. (1986). Unobtrusive reference testing: The 55 percent rule. Library Journal, 111, 37-41.

Houston, D. J. (2000). Public service motivation: A multivariate test. Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory, 10(4), 713-727.

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. (2005a). IFLA digital reference guidelines. Retrieved January 5, 2006 from: http://www.ifla.org/VII/s36/pubs/drg03.htm.

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. (2005b). More about IFLA. Retrieved May 10, 2006 from: http://www.ifla.org/III/intro00.htm

Kaske, N., & Arnold, J. (2002). An unobtrusive evaluation of online real time library reference services. Retrieved February 20, 2005 from: http://www.lib.umd.edu/groups/digref/kaskearnoldunobtrusive.html

Koehler, W.C., & Pemberton, J.M. (2000). A search for core values: Towards a model code of ethics for information professionals. Journal of Information Ethics 9, 27–54.

LaPiere, R. T. (1934). Attitudes vs. actions. Social Forces, 13, 230-237.

Madu, C.N., & Madu, A.A. (2002). Dimensions of E-quality. International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, 19(3), 246-258.

Mason, R.O. (1986). Four ethical issues of the information age. Management Information Systems Quarterly, 10, 5–12.

McClure, C., Lankes, R. D., Gross, M., & Choltco-Devlin, B. (2002). Statistics, measures and quality standards for assessing digital library services: Guidelines and Procedures. ERIC Clearinghouse. Retrieved December 22, 2005 from http://quartz.syr.edu/rdlankes/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=7

O'Neill M., Wright C., & Fitz F. (2001). Quality evaluation in on-line service environments: An application of the importance-performance measurement technique. Managing Service Quality, 11(6), 402-417.

Parasuraman, A. (1985). A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. Journal of Marketing, 49, 41-50.

Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multiple item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64(1), 12-40.

Pew Internet & American Life Project. (2005). Latest trends: Who is online. Retrieved January 28, 2006 from: http://www.pewinternet.org/trends/ User_Demo_12.05.05.htm.

Pomerantz, J. (2005). A linguistic analysis of question taxonomies. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 56 (7), 715-728.

Radford, M. L. (2006). Encountering virtual users: A qualitative investigation of interpersonal communication in chat reference. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 57 (8), 1046-1059.

Reference and User Services Association. (2004a). Guidelines for behavioral performance of reference and information service providers. Retrieved January 5, 2006 from: http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaprotools/referenceguide/ guidelinesbehavioral.htm

Reference and User Services Association. (2004b). Guidelines for implementing and maintaining virtual reference services. Retrieved September 20, 2005 from: http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaprotools/referenceguide/virtrefguidelines.htm.

Riesch, C., & Kleiner, B. H. (2005). Discrimination towards customers in the restaurant industry. Equal Opportunities International, 24(7/8), 29-37.

Rubin, R. & Froehlich, T. (1996). Ethical aspects of library and information science. In: Encyclopedia of library and information science, (Vol. 58, Suppl. 21, pp. 33–52). New York: Mercel Dekker.

Saxton, M.L., & Richardson, J.V. (2002). Understanding reference transactions: Transforming an art into a science. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Smith, M. (1997). Information ethics. Annual Review of Information Science & Technology, 32, 339–366.

Shachaf, P. (2005a). A global perspective on library association codes of ethics. Library & Information Science Research, 27(4), 513-533.

Shachaf, P. (2005b). Bridging cultural diversity through email. Journal of Global Information Technology Management, 8(2), 46-60.

Shachaf, P., & Horowitz, S. (2006). Are virtual reference services color blind? Library & Information Science Research, 28 (4), 501-520.

Sproull, L., & Keisler, S. (1986). Reducing social context cues: Electronic mail in organizational communication. Management Science, 32, 1492-1513.

Stacy, Bates, K. (2003). E-mail reference responses from Academic ARL libraries: An unobtrusive study. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 43(1), 59-70.

US Census Bureau. (2004). United States population and housing narrative profile, 2004 data set: American community survey. Retrieved January 28, 2006 from: http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/NPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&- qr_name=ACS_2004_EST_G00_NP01&-ds_name=&-redoLog=false.

US Census Bureau. (2006). Population Finder. Retrieved June 5, 2006, from: http://www.census.gov/

Voss, C.A. (2003). Rethinking paradigms of service: Service in a virtual environment, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 23(1), 88-104.

Ward, D. (2003). Measuring the completeness of reference transactions in online chats: Results of an unobtrusive study. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 44(1), 46-58.

White, M. D. (2001). Digital reference services: Framework for analysis and evaluation. Library and Information Science Research, 23, 211-231.

Whitlatch, J. B. (1989). Unobtrusive studies and the quality of academic reference services. College and Research Libraries, 50(2), 181-194.

Whitlatch, J.B. (1990). Reference service effectiveness. Reference Quarterly, 30(2), 205-220.

Whitlatch, J. B. (2001). Evaluating reference services in the electronic age. Library Trends, 50(2), 207-217.

Yang, Z., Jun, M., & Peterson, R.T. (2004). Measuring costumer perceived online service quality: Scale development and managerial implications. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 24(11/12), 1149-1174.


Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item