Besides sometimes finding an over-reliance on Wikipedia, another common problem we find when measuring the quality of response is the tendency of staff to transmit a website to a patron with no explanation of what it is or why it is being sent. Imagine responding to a reference question by simply handing your patron a book without any comment on what it is or where to look inside it. Obviously, no trained librarian would want to do this.

• Staffers should explain to their patrons why they are sending a website before transmitting the link. Preferable information includes the name of the site and its nature (For example, does the website have particularly good information or does it have particular authority, such as coming from a university or research lab?).
• Once the website is sent, staff should direct the patron’s attention to the appropriate area if it is not self-evident (For example, the patron would be directed to view a particular paragraph or chart).

Failure to introduce and explain a website is often compounded by another tendency to overwhelm the patron with a series of websites. We sometimes see transcripts that are nothing more than a list of websites with little interaction with the patron—indeed, with few or no attempts to ascertain whether the patron is even still attending the reference session!

These lapses led the QA&E in December 2005 to explore why experienced librarians might abandon basic reference skills and attitudes in a virtual environment. We noted that other typical problems included:

• Failure to conduct a true reference interview.
• Failure to make sure the patron is “following” the librarian during the session and not being overwhelmed.

The main problem seems to be that AskColorado staffers feel rushed by the patron volume. Again, the problems of translating physical patron management to the virtual experience are evident. A single librarian at a busy reference desk might be able to handle multiple patrons just by directing them to appropriate areas of the library with the intention of following up with each of them directly moments later. The virtual staffer simply does not have this option. While an AskColorado staffer can accept multiple patron sessions at once, in real world terms this is like handling a group of patrons with very different questions simultaneously. The virtual environment does not easily afford the librarian with a chance to quickly 'get the patron started' before attending to others.