Information Literacy and Digital Reference Work: How can the Norwegian Ask the Library Service (Biblioteksvar.no) become an educational tool for school children?

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Norwegian Ask the Library Service (Biblioteksvar.no) may contribute to information literacy among school children. The challenge is no longer to find information, but to find good information from reliable sources. The methods applied are a qualitative analysis of transactions and dialogues from the ATL archive and interviews with teachers, school librarians and librarians working in the service. The conclusion is that Biblioteksvar could become a better educational tool by focusing more on the patrons and their individual information needs and their search strategies. This implies obtaining enough information about the patron to be able to present the answer in a way that promotes information literacy. It is desirable to be able to filter the questions according to topic, user group and purpose before they reach the librarian. Using new technology in this manner will allow the librarian to focus more on how they can help patrons develop their information literacy. The paper examines the possible use of automation processes based on web technology to improve the service. This could be done by performing automatic searches in Google, Wikipedia and the chat archive of the ATL service while the patron is waiting for an available librarian. This paper looks at how new technology creates challenges and possibilities for reference librarians, and is aimed at everyone who are interested in how new technology can improve the educational quality of reference work.