Open Source Chat Reference Software

Open Source

Chat Reference Software

We weren't sure whether our students

would really take to virtual reference, so we

found a package we could try for free.

B Y

SHAWN

CARRAWAY

SUSAN

PAYNE

COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES feature: RAKIM chat reference

A

Col-lege, we've implemented and are refining chat ref-erence services using an open source software program called RAKIM. This article describes the pro-ject's conception, implementation, and

current status.

Midlands Technical College (MTC) is a 2-year school in Columbia, S.C. We have two large campuses and three smaller campuses. Although the library functions as a single unit, there are separate physical libraries on both of the large campuses. Staff serves more than 10,000 full-time students and 30,000 continuing education students. There are approximately 100,000 books in our coUection, along with 42 data-bases and 15.000 e-books. Our three smaller campuses do not have libraries, but prior to the opening of MTC's Cen-ter of Excellence for Technology Train-ing, we provided virtual reference ser-vices to our smaller campuses through e-mail and telephone. However, once the center opened, we felt the time had come to establish chat reference as an-other option for those students. As tbe systems librarian, I, Shawn Can'away, was responsible for implementing the cbat reference system. Susan Payne, li-brary director, was responsible for guid-ing the project.

How We Chose Open Source

Although the library is considered an integral part of the college, we hesitated to ask for Significant funding to offer chat reference. While reading about others' experiences can be helpful, it was near-ly impossible for us to determine how much use this service would get from

our student population. In addition, we felt that until we'd provided chat ser-vices ourselves for a period of time, we would lack the expertise necessary to select a proprietary cbat software solu-tion. If the project failed, funds would be wasted. If the project was success-ful, we hoped to establish a partnership with other S.C. technical colleges.

We began by looking at what other colleges our size were doing. Solutions ran from proprietary chat software to software developed in-house to free, commercial instant messaging tools such as Yahoo! Messenger. We mied out pi'oprietary software because of cost and because we weren't .sure of the (Inal di-rection of the project. We did not want to be married to a solution only because of a monetary investment we'd made. We ruled out developing software in-house because of the time and expense. We didn't want to use instant messaging services since they are not allowed in our open labs and libraries.

And we wondered: Would patrons like and use the sendee? Would librar-ians like and support tbe service? Would we be providing the best reference ser-vices possible by expanding to include chat reference? Perhaps the solution was in open source software. We could start with a small project and as we saw things that needed to change, we could change them immediately. If there were features of the software we didn't like, we could alter them.

With the outcome and eventualities unclear, but witb a direction in mind, we developed a list of criteria for the software that botb eliminated tbe need for extra funds and gave us enough flex-ibility to begin the project and allow it to proceed In the ways tbat seemed best.

We determined that the software must be all of this;

• able to work on an existing server • highly configurable

• able to maintain the look and feel of our Web site

• easily maintained • secure

• easy to use for both librarians and patrons

• able to "push" pages • able to co-browse

After researching our options, we chose RAKIM A Knowledge Instant Messenger. RAKIM is a recursive acro-nym standing for RAKIM: A Knowl-edge Instant Messenger. We became aware of RAKIM through the oss41ib Web site and felt that it met most of our requirements.

RAKIM: How It Works

RAKIM is written in PHP and runs using the Linux operating system, an Apache Web server, a MySQL database, and tbe PHP scripting language. (Col-lectively, these tools are known by the acronym LAMP; see sidebar.)

RAKIM's installation is well-docu-mented, so once we had the server op-erational, we had no trouble instal-ling the RAKIM scripts. The scripts are written in PHP and are relatively easy to configure. We found that most routine configuration is done through the Web interface and is intuitive. We did, however, have to make some changes directly to the scripts, such

as that for look and feel and some site-specific configurations,

There are three interfaces in the RAKIM software—administrative,

li-Shiwn - RAKIM Adn

aUrt {>M»vwFI Figure I Figure 2 Ftgure3 ill vuu mmt t •Mit U r o j I v f vQV> Dm qufUkD Erjinun h 1 dUL i Figure 4

brarian, and patron. In the adminis-trative interface we can add, delete, and edit librarians or institutions, as well as shared bookmarks and scripts. (See Figure 1.) AU tran-scripts and survey re-sponses are available and searchable from here, as are some basic statistics such as daily, weekly, and monthly counts.

The librarian interface has two parts. The first part is a tabbed "room" where the librarian waits for a patron. All librari-ans that are signed on to the system are in this "room" together and can chat with one another while waiting for refer-ence requests. The other side of the interface is li-brarian tools. (See Fig-ure 2.) It's set up so that librarians have their own bookmarks along with shared hookmarks. They also have their own scripts or commonly used phrases and they have shared scripts. Each librarian can configure his or her own accounts as far as changing the password, displaying a different name to patrons, and choosing whether or not to receive a transcript of each patron interaction via e-mail. They can also view their transcripts at any time.

When a patron logs on to the system and re-quests assistance, a hell rings to alert the waiting librarians. The librarian who answers the request and the patron are moved to another tabbed "room" within the interface,

Dur-ing a chat session, the responder has the ability to refer the patron to another librarian or to invite another librarian to join the session. Librarians also have the ability to push pages to the patron so they appear on his or her computer in a pop-up window. If a patron hecomes ahusive or unruly, the librarian has the ability to remove the user from the ses-sion. After each patron interaction, li-brarians are asked to complete a short sui-vey to determine what works and what doesn't with the system, and to of-fer comments ahout the service.

The patron interface is very simple to use. A patron is asked for his name and e-mail address and given a text box for asking a question. (See Figure 3.) The question is the only required field; however, the patron cannot re-ceive a copy of his transcript without providing an e-mail address. Once the patron is chatting with the librarian (Figure 4), his responses are seen in white, lihrarian responses are seen in yellow, and any pages that are pushed to a patron appear in a pop-up window. If a patron logs on and waits several minutes without a lihrarian answer-ing, he is redirected, with apology, to our e-mail reference or to other resources within our site,

Wlien a patron is finished chatting with a lihrarian, he is asked to complete a six-question survey. Answers are re-corded and are available immediately, so we are able to quickly make needed adjustments to services or software.

Training Staff, Going Live

No outside training for lihrarian end users is available for RAKIM, so we had to develop this in-house. Our profes-sional development librarian leamed to use the software and developed train-ing materials and user documentation. Ti'aining took place over several weeks, hoth in groups and one-on-one. The sys-tem was also made available for several weeks for practice. The interface is not intuitive, but is not complicated to use.

COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES feature: RAKIM chat reference

Our librarians could learn to use the software in a very short period of time, but configuring their own bookmarks and scripts was a bit more difficult. It took some time to figure out what scripts would work well and what wouldn't. We wanted the staff to be comfortable using the software since it was very new for us. Because we were able to ex-periment for some time without going live, we worked out many issues with-out the pressure of having a patron waiting online.

The professional development librar-ian also has administrative access, so she is able to add shared bookmarks and scripts as needed. Having one li-hrarian who understands bow the pro-gram works and can make immediate changes allows an immediate response to any issues.

We went live in the middle of the fall 2004 semester. We linked from our Web site, but did not do any advertis-ing. We felt tbis would allow us more time to become familiar with the system and to address any difficulties patrons

might have with the software. We did not have a significant number of pa-trons, but were able to work out details such as scheduling and we adjusted the times when the service would be available (1 p.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Friday].

What Worked. What Didn't

The RAKIM interfaces are uncom-plicated and work well. Librarians were able to use the software almost imme-diately and are now comfortable with the interface. We made some minor ad-justments to the service, but nothing significant. We are able to add as many administrative accounts as needed and can have an unlimited number of li-brarians signed on simultaneously.

Most of the things that needed ad-justment in this project were not related to tbe software. For example, most of our librarians did not want to bave their first names as their usernames, since the username is displayed to patrons. Sometimes, shared bookmarks can be

RAKIM: A Knowledge Instant Messenger is available from

http://rakim. source forge. net.

LAMP is an acronym for Linux operating system, Apache Web server,

M^ySQL database, and Perl or PHP. Together, they create an open source technology solution stack. For more information on getting and installing this software, check these sites:

Linux resources: http://www.linux.org Apache: httpy/www.apache. org MySQL: http://www.mysql.com Perl: http://www.perl.com PHP: http://wv™.php.net

Installation help: http://www.lamphowto.com/lamp.htm

difficult to manage. RAKIM allows an unlimited number of bookmarks {shared or personal), and with HO many good re-sources availahU', tbe list can hecome so long as to be unusable. In addition, co-browsing is not offered in RAKIM. We have spent some time looking at this, hut have been unahle to program co-browsing as a feature.

We are advertising now and students have a positive response, whether or not they have used the service. One student commented, "I work full time and don't have time to come in. Now I can get help from wherever I am." Most of our stu-dent responses come from tbe end-of-session survey questions. While we don't have exact numbers on access, 60 per-cent of respondents have been satisfied with the service. We expect these num-bers to grow as we become more famil-iar witb providing reference services from a distance.

None of these issues were major and because of tbe software's flexibility and our time spent practicing, our transi-tion was successful. We've also been able to change with the needs of our patrons and librarians.

Colleagues Join Us

In early February 2005, we invited all of tbe otber technical colleges within South Carolina to partner with us and make chat reference available to their students as well. We've had four other colleges join us, so now we are able to keep the same hours but share the work-load. Our hours are still from 1 p.m. un-til 4 p.m. Monday through Friday unun-til the otber libraries are comfortable with the software and with signing on every day. We are also expecting other colleges to join our efforts once tbey are able to see how tbe service works and how our otber partnerships work.

We are now gi'appling witb issues re-lated to hringing others into the project. We expect tbat the software will easily scale to a larger number of users. We are adjusting the look and feel ol the site

to represent all the colleges involved. Training has resumed and now includes administrative features so that each col-lege can handle its own librarians' ac-counts. Shared bookmarks have heen adjusted to include choices from the other colleges.

Another issue we are working on is that of access to paid databases. Through the South Carolina DISCUS (Digital Information for South Carolina USers) program, all residents of South Car-olina are provided with access to a num-ber of shared databases through their school, public library, or college. Puh-lic colleges and universities in South Carolina are also provided with more shared databases through the Colle-giate DISCUS program. We want to be able to direct patrons to these data-bases, but must authenticate them to their own coliege. None of our partner colleges authenticate in the same way, so we are progi'amming a solution that will transparently authenticate patrons for access to these shared resources.

Our Project Timeline

Tb get the project up and running com-pletely took about 3 months. Once we'd chosen the software, setup was divided into three parts: software implemen-tation, librarian training, and practice. 1. Software implementation took me about 3 days and required no help from our campus IT department. This in-cluded setting up the server, software, and securing the system. The server setup is not hard, but it helped that I was a hit familiar with installing and securing Linux and Apache. Because the procedure is so well-documented, I installed the RAKIM software in about 2 hoiirs.

2- Figuring out how the librarian in-terface worked, in detail, took a week, as did teaching the professional devel-opment librarian how to use the soft-ware so she could train the others.

Li-brarian training took about 3 weeks and was divided into group and one-on-one sessions.

3. Librarians were able to practice with the software for almost 2 months before we went live. Librarians are able to make changes to routine con-figuration as needed.

We started this project looking for a solution that would allow us to change course as needed if that was in the hest interest of users. Each library's expe-rience with chat reference is different and at our library, we wanted to remain flexible so that we could provide a ser-vice that was geared to our patrons. We also wanted software that would grow and change with our needs. By utiliz-ing an open source program, we are able to have the flexibility we need to make tbis an integral part of our li-brary services. With this open source software, we had no initial costs and have no ongoing maintenance costs. Because RAKIM uses well-known open source software with significant doc-umentation available on the Web, we are able to maintain the system with little difficulty.

If you're curious about how this really works, you're welcome to try it out. Send us a question at http://www .lib.midlandstech.edu/ask.htmlbetween 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on any weekday. We'd be happy to chat with CJL readers. ^

Shawn Carraway is the systems li-brarian at Midlands Technical College in Columbia, S.C. She holds an M.L.l.S. from the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Her e-mail address is cara [email protected]. Susan Payne is the library director at Midlands Tech-nical College in Columbia. S.C. S/ie holds an M.L.S. from. Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla. Here-mail address is [email protected].

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