The Geography of Virtual Questioning: MappingFlorida’s Ask-a-Librarian Service

Lorri MonFlorida State University & Senior Research Associate, FSU Information Use

Management and Policy Institute, College of Information, 268 Shores Building,

Tallahassee, Florida 32306-2100; Phone: 850-645-7281, Fax: 850-644-9763

lmon@ci.fsu.edu

Bradley Wade BishopFlorida State University, 101 Shores Building, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-2100;

Phone: 850-645-7281, Fax: 850-644-9763 bwb06c@garnet.acns.fsu.edu

Charles R. McClureFlorida State University, and Director, FSU Information Use Management and

Policy Institute, College of Information, 101 Shores Building, Tallahassee,

Florida 32306-2100; Phone: 850-645-7281, Fax: 850-644-9763

cmcclure@lis.fsu.edu

Jessica McGilvrayFlorida State University Information Use Management and Policy Institute,

College of Information, 101 Shores Building, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-2100;

Phone: 850-645-7281, Fax: 850-644-9763

Linda MostFlorida State University, Florida State University, 101 Shores Building,

Tallahassee, Florida 32306-2100; Phone: 850-645-7281, Fax: 850-644-9763

Theodore Patrick MilasFlorida State University Information Use Management and Policy Institute,

College of Information, 101 Shores Building, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-2100;

Phone: 850-645-7281, Fax: 850-644-9763

John T. Snead

Florida State University Information Use Management and Policy Institute,

College of Information, 101 Shores Building, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-2100;

Phone: 850-645-7281, Fax: 850-644-9763 jsnead@fsu.edu

This study examined virtual questioning in geographic context by using GISmapping to explore digital reference question-asking in the 67 counties andschool districts served by Florida’s statewide consortial “Ask a Librarian” service.Two levels of geographic analysis were used. Locations of online library portalsthrough which users asked their questions were mapped, as well as the locationswhere users were situated according to their IP addresses while they asked theirquestions. The geographic data was analyzed in conjunction with users’demographic data (youth/adult and student/non-student status of questioners),and data on the types of questions that users asked. Results found that users’ IPaddress locations did not always match the geographic locations of library portalswhich they used in accessing the service, and that some library entry portalsattracted more widely geographically dispersed users with different questioningpatterns than other portals. Issues in methodology and implications for furthergeographic studies in digital reference information-seeking research arediscussed.

Introduction

In tandem with the shifting of the online world to increasing applications of Web 2.0,

libraries are increasingly seeking to establish Library 2.0 - new ways of offering library

services that keep pace with the changing ways in which users want to access libraries.

Library boundaries have expanded beyond physical places into virtual spaces; the library

today encompasses ephemeral online collections, chat and e-mail virtual

question-answering services, and Web-based entry points into online library portals. New

and innovative approaches to assessment are needed in gathering the information to

understand all of the complex ways in which libraries are being accessed and used, and to

track and bridge the “digital divide” in making Library 2.0 truly available to all users.

Conducted in conjunction with the Florida State University College of Information’s

Information Use Management and Policy Institute and funded by the Florida State Library,

this study utilized GIS mapping to explore users’ question-asking in geographic context for

the statewide Florida Electronic Library (FEL) “Ask a Librarian” service. The “Ask a Librarian”

project involves over 80 Florida libraries collaboratively answering digital reference

questions received via chat and e-mail using the Docutek software. Florida Electronic

Library’s Ask-a-Librarian service has been in operation since July 28, 2003, and has been

increasing in both usage and library participation around the state. In the first year of

operation from 2003-2004, the service received over 5,000 questions and expanded from

15 libraries to 76 participating libraries (Sachs, 2004). By December 2006, the FEL

Ask-A-Librarian service had 89 participating libraries and received 1,739 questions for the

month from chat users and 751 questions from e-mail users (Florida Electronic Library,

2006).

GIS mapping has not yet been extensively used in research on library-related information

seeking and questioning behavior. Within the University of Calgary’s library, Xia (2004) used

GIS mapping to discover the spatial patterns of how users removed books from shelves,

finding that books on easily reachable shelves were more frequently used. At the University

of California at Irvine, Ruttenberg & Tunender (2004) used IP addresses to map

campus-based accesses to the library’s chat service, finding that the largest numbers of

chats originated from computers within the libraries rather than from within university

housing or campus computing centers. Koontz (2005) at Florida State University mapped

U.S. public libraries and linked their GIS data to U.S. Census data in the GeoLib project,

enabling a deeper analysis of public libraries within their local geographic and social

contexts. However there has as yet been little research using GIS to study the virtual

questioning behavior of users in library digital reference services. Much of the geography of

online question-asking still remains uncharted and unexplored.

Methodology

In analyzing and mapping data from the statewide Florida Electronic Library (FEL) “Ask a

Librarian” service, this study investigated the following research questions about Florida

users’ virtual questioning behavior:

What types of questions are asked by users of the service in Florida’s 67 counties and

school districts?

Where are the users located statewide, and where do they access the service to ask

their questions?

What are the demographics of users of the service?

FEL’s Ask-a-Librarian service selected and provided researchers with data from a month

chosen as a “typical month” in 2006, plus data from a second month of their choice in

2006 to be analyzed for comparative purposes. August 2006 and November 2006 were the

two months selected by service administrators, and 1,859 chat questions for August 2006

plus a stratified systematic sample of 1,061 chat questions for November 2006 were

analyzed.

Demographic information for “type of user” included in the August 2006 chat data was

drawn from users’ self-identification as “K-12 Student, College/University Student, or Other.”

The two geographic data points analyzed were the users’ online library entry point (which of

the 89 Florida participating libraries’ homepages provided the users’ entry portal into the

online question service) and the users’ geographic location while asking the question as

extrapolated from their IP address, which was geocoded with latitudes and longitudes using

the IP2Location DB14 database from HexaSoft and mapped using ESRI ArcGIS software.

Question types were analyzed using a codebook developed by researchers through an

iterative process of intercoding with five coders who each separately coded sets of 20

randomly-drawn transcripts, comparing the initial agreement rates in coding results and

making extensive revisions and improvements to the codebook after each test until

consistent initial agreement rates in the 80% to 90% range were reached. A FEL librarian

was one of the participants in testing of the codebook, and the codebook was also reviewed

and approved by an administrator in the FEL’s Ask-a-Librarian service. The fourteen

question categories used in coding the “question types” asked by users were: Academic

Research, Business, Computer/Internet Literacy, Education, Government/Law,

Health/Medicine, Library Resources, Library Services, Personal Research/Factfinding,

Problems, Readers’ Advisory, Recreation, Teaching, and Other.

Findings

Results found that during August 2006, the FEL Ask-a-Librarian chat service was accessed

from online library entry points in 35 of Florida’s 67 counties and school districts. IP address

geographic data indicated that users’ IP addresses were located in 43 of Florida’s 67

counties. Two entirely “virtual” library entry points were also noted: the Collaborative

Ask-a-Librarian homepage and the Florida Virtual School. These two entry points were not

affiliated with a particular geographic location in Florida (see Figure 1):

Fig 1: Questions via Entry Points, Aug 2006

Questioners were evenly divided between students (47.3% K-12, college, and university),

and members of the general public (48.2%), with some users declining to identify their

status (4.5%). The three most commonly asked question types for all chat users were

Library Services, Academic Research and Library Resources.

Geographic analysis of user questioning and library entry points indicated some differences

in the questioners and questioning behavior that a particular online library geographic entry

portal can draw. For example, the Florida State Library’s entry portal attracted an unusually

geographically diverse user base whose IP addresses represented 18 Florida counties

statewide. August 2006 chat users who entered via this particular portal also demonstrated

higher levels of questioning about Government/Law (57.3%) and Business (8.2%), and were

demographically skewed toward non-students (87.3%).

Question type analysis found that “Academic Research” questioning was observed at

proportionally lower levels in August 2006 than in the sample from November 2006,

suggesting a potential underlying temporal pattern. In Florida, K-12 students start school

earlier in August, but the college and university students start Fall classes later in August

and September. Longitudinal studies of geographic entry point questioning patterns over

time would be useful in identifying further temporal influences on user questioning

behavior.

Discussion and Conclusions

The results of this study suggest that geographic analysis by the automatically-collected

data of library entry points and user IP addresses is a viable methodology for examining

users’ virtual questioning behaviors, particularly in combination with user self-reported

demographic data and qualitative data on users’ question types. While the geographic entry

points data showed that users had approached the service through library entry points in 35

counties statewide, mapping by IP addresses showed that users had accessed the Internet

from 43 different Florida counties. The library entry points data also indicated some

differences in the questioners and questioning behavior that a particular geographic entry

portal can draw, while IP addresses data was useful in providing geographic locations for

users who entered through entirely virtual portals such as the Florida Virtual School and

Collaborative Ask a Librarian homepage. The two geographic levels of analysis

complemented each other in contributing key aspects to this assessment.

Methodological considerations for a study of this type include level of granularity for the

geographic analysis - in answering a particular research question, it may be helpful to focus

at the level of particular institutions, cities/towns, counties/school districts, or other

geographic groupings. Researchers can focus the granularity of a geographic analysis more

narrowly or broadly depending on the needs of the research. For the study of Florida’s

Ask-a-Librarian service, results obtained from a narrower focus on questioning activity at the

individual library portals level were augmented with results from a wider focus combining

library portal results together for a county level perspective. Because this study focused on a

statewide service, “county level” results were particularly useful, demonstrating not only the

counties served and the most active questioning levels by county statewide but also the

counties not served (see Figure 1). Additionally in a third level of geographic analysis,

county results were combined together to view users’ questioning activity through the lens

of the Florida “multi-library cooperatives” (MLCs), each of which encompasses multiple

counties in providing services for six large areas of the state (see Figure 2).

Fig. 2: User Chat Questions by MLCs, August 2006

A further methodological consideration for researchers is that GIS analysis also allows

importation of other relevant datasets, such as the integration of U.S. Census data. Various

online libraries with downloadable GIS “data layers” are available. Depending on the

research needs, data layers on population, literacy scores, high school dropout rates, and a

wide range of other potentially relevant information can be integrated with study data for

analysis.

Results of this study also suggest that temporal cycles should be considered as an aspect in

further research into geographic patterns of user questioning. Broad spectrum data on both

geographic and temporal patterns would situate geographic findings within temporal cycles

for a deeper understanding of users’ information seeking through virtual questioning

REFERENCES

“Ask a Librarian.” Online: Retrieved February 14, 2007

from: http://www.askalibrarian.org/aal.asp

“Ask a Librarian Statistics - December 2006,” Online: Florida Electronic Library (2006).Retrieved February 14, 2007 from: http://info.askalibrarian.org/pdf/statistics.pdf>.

Koontz, C. (2005). "Serving Maps of Public Library Customer Data over the Internet

(www.geolib.org/PLGDB.cfm)." Library Hi Tech News, 22(1): 23 -26.

Ruttenberg, J. & Tunender, H. (2004). "Mapping Virtual Reference Using Geographic

Information Systems (GIS)." American Library Association. Orlando, FL, Retrieved

February 14, 2007.

Sachs, D. (2004). “Ask a Librarian: Florida’s Virtual Reference Service,” Community andJunior College Libraries, 12(4): 49-58.

Xia, J. (2004). "Using GIS to Measure In-Library Book-Use Behavior," Information Technology and Libraries, 23(4): 184-191