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Evaluating the Impact of a Proactive Chat Feature on Reference Questions, Their Complexity and Subject Matter.

This study aims to investigate the impact of a proactive chat widget on the types of questions received and their complexity at the McGill University Libraries. A qualitative analysis of the proactive chat transcripts using coding for types and subject of questions as well as READ scale level was us...

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Published in:Internet Reference Services Quarterly Vol. 29; no. 4; pp. 419 - 436
Main Author: Hervieux, Sandy
Format: research tables/charts Journal Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Oct-Dec2025
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Oct-Dec2025
      vid: 29
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      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
      place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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        10.1080/10875301.2025.2529435
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        atl: Evaluating the Impact of a Proactive Chat Feature on Reference Questions, Their Complexity and Subject Matter.
      aug:
        au: Hervieux, Sandy
        affil: Nahum Gelber Law Library, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
      sug:
        subj:
          Chatbot
          Mobile Applications
          World Wide Web
          Libraries, Academic
          Library Reference Services
          Human
          Qualitative Studies
          Library Services
          Coding
          Scales
          Personnel Staffing and Scheduling
          Alumni
          Seminars and Workshops
      ab: This study aims to investigate the impact of a proactive chat widget on the types of questions received and their complexity at the McGill University Libraries. A qualitative analysis of the proactive chat transcripts using coding for types and subject of questions as well as READ scale level was used in addition to a quantitative analysis of the pages where users accessed the proactive chat feature. The author determined that including a proactive chat feature on webpages related to research topics significantly increased the number of reference interactions as well as the complexity level of the questions asked by patrons. She also identified that questions related to law were the most common on proactive chat and that the pop-up on the law research guide was the most used which indicates that users received point-of-need help related to this topic. This is the first study to investigate the link between placing a proactive chat widget on research related pages and the increase in reference questions. Similarly, it is one of the few studies identifying the main referral pages for proactive chat and how it impacts the subjects of the questions received.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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