| Summary: | This paper reports the findings of a study developed to evaluate the suitability and potential of Instant Messaging (IM) for the Novanet Live Help service. Both IM and the existing commercial Virtual Reference (VR) software were offered in tandem for one semester. The services were evaluated through a combination of statistical reports and survey data gathered from both the users and service providers. Comparison of statistics revealed a 44% increase in online sessions, with 22% more sessions received by the IM service. Although users displayed satisfaction with both of the online services, they preferred IM over the VR software. The IM chat widget was reported as the most preferred method for receiving library reference services overall, including face-to-face, telephone and email. Both undergraduate and graduate students preferred the IM service, while faculty and other patron groups did not have a significant enough response rate to assure an accurate measure. After the initial learning curve, service providers preferred delivering online reference by IM over the commercial VR platform. Based on these results, Novanet’s Live Help service will switch to a multi-protocol IM-based service with a chat widget in the fall of 2008.
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