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Ask a Librarian and iGS:

Finnish Reference Services


Nina Granlund,
Finland
2007
Ask a Librarian

- Joint digital reference service of Finnish


libraries.
- Situated in Libraries.fi, the national library
portal for all Finnish libraries (public,
special, university libraries).
Libraries.fi

- Produced by the Central Library for Public


Libraries in Finland (Helsinki City Library )
and financed by the Ministry of Education.
- Supported by the national strategies for the
information society and libraries (e.g.
Library Strategy 2010),
http://www.minedu.fi/export/sites/default
/OPM/Julkaisut/2003/liitteet/opm_156_ksen
g.pdf?lang=en
Libraries.fi: Three languages

- Published in three languages: Finnish and


Swedish, and partly also in English.
- http://www.kirjastot.fi
- http://www.biblioteken.fi
- http://www.libraries.fi
Libraries.fi contains

-Information about libraries (addresses,


staff, catalogues)
- Information about literature, music and
children (foremost for librarians).
- Library events, training for librarians etc.
Libraries.fi contains

- Search services: Link Library,


http://www.kirjastot.fi/linkkikirjasto , SFL,
Search Find and Locate, a guiding search,
http://searchfindlocate.libraries.fi/ , Meta-
search, http://monihaku.kirjastot.fi/ , Ask a
Librarian,
http://www.libraries.fi/ask_librarian .
Libraries.fi

- Contents produced by the editors of


Libraries.fi and the libraries together.
- Libraries: information about libraries,
library events, Link Library contents,
answering in the Ask a Librarian service.
Ask a librarian

- Started 1999.
- Answers are given in three languages:
Finnish, Swedish and English.
- Public archive (also in three languages).
Ask a Librarian

- Question is sent in via a web form, the


answer is delivered to the email-address
given by the customer.
- Questioner gives his municipality of
residence in the question form.
- Also a list of participating libraries from
which the questioner can choose an
answering library
http://www.kirjastot.fi/tietopalvelu .
Ask a Librarian

- Children have a special simpler form,


http://www.kirjastot.fi/lapsille/kysy .
- Answer is given within three working days
(Saturday and Sunday excluded).
Ask a Librarian

- 54 libraries answering in the service: 39


public libraries, 1 university library and 14
special libraries and references service
groups.
- All regional central libraries.
- 2006 415 different persons sent answers.
Ask a Librarian

- Expertise in various topics:


- Library of Parliament (law), Statistics
Library, Lapponica -reference group from
Lapland, University of Art and Design,
Reference for the visually impared etc.,
http://www.libraries/en-
GB/ask_librarian/libraries/ .
http://www.kirjastot.fi/tietopalvelu .
Ask a Librarian

- Number of questions is increasing:


2003 2928
2004 3514
2005 4000
2006 5029 questions answered.
AaL: Principal idea

- Question meets expert = the person who


feels he can give a good answer, answers
(special libraries).
AaL: Practice

- All participating libraries follow the


questions coming in, bigger ones check
every day the answering application,
smaller ones get automatically an email
when a question from their municipality is
sent in.
- If the questioner has chosen an answering
library, the email will be send to this library.
AaL: Practice

- Every library has one or two persons


responsible for the follow-up.
- A national editor surveys, contacts libraries
and answers.
AaL: Practice

- If there are questions from other than


participating municipalities, every one
answers.
- The Libraries.fi-editor surveys also all
answering and furthermore the contents of
the public archive.
AaL: Practice

Library x :
Answerer 1, Answerer 2, Answerer 3, etc.
Responsible 1, Responsible 2
Libraries.fi :
National editor (part time, works as
reference librarian in Helsinki City Library)
Libraries.fi-editor
AaL: Practice

- The organisation functions well: most of


the questions are answered the same day
(71%, within 2 working days 15%, within 3
working days 8%, delayed were 6%).
AaL:Communication

- Communication between librarians


participating via a closed email-list.
- Information from the Libraries.fi-edition is
sent via the same list.
AaL:Communication

- Info-area in the aswering application.


- Every other year a meeting for participating
staff.
AaL: Public Archive

- Contains 15 000 question/answer pairs.


- Keywords.
- Keyword list is given to the customer: a
keyword is an active link, by clicking it, a
search is made.
AaL: Public archive

- Needs editing and updating.


- Link control (Internet addresses change
rapidly).
- Contains useful information.
- http://www.libraries.fi/ask_librarian/archive.
aspx
Future plans

- More libraries.
- More channels for asking.
- New answering application.
- More interactive services for customers.
More libraries

- More libraries and other reference services


are joining the service every year.
More channels

- AaL-chat.
- Several libraries will have own chat-
channels.
- Joint chat-channel for all libraries exists
also already, but needs however practical
organising.
- Support in the Libraries.fi-edition.
More channels

- Use in digital television already possible,


not yet in use.
Answering application

- A new semantic application.


- Prototype 2006.
- 2007 developing project.
Semantic answering application

-Customer:
Customer writes a question -> application
makes a search in the archive (analysing
the text and using ontologies to produce
the search result).
Customer will be offered ready answers
from the archive.
Semantic answering application

- Answerer:
When a librarian starts answering a new
question, he will be offered ready answers
from the archive.
Use of ready knowledge.
Updating of archive.
Interactive services for customers

- Feedback already possible.


- Customers will be given an opportunity to
comment on the answer and publish
comments.
- These features will be developed this year.
iGS: Information Gas Station

- Digital reference service of Helsinki City


Library.
- Started 2001.
- Answers are given in three languages:
Finnish, Swedish and English.
- Public archive (in three languages).
iGS

- Mobile device: work-stations can be placed


to public locations and reference work can
be taken to where the customers are.
iGS

- Radio program.
- Questions and answers are shown on the
webpages of the program and iGS.
- http://lotta.yle.fi/rsweb2.nsf/sivut/kysymitav
ain?
opendocument&pageid=Content133538A
31D2
iGS

- Simple question form.


http://igs.kirjastot.fi/en-GB/iGS/
- Ask anything!
- The answer is sent to the customers email
within two weeks.
iGS

- Number of questions varies:


2003 4193
2004 6624
2005 5308
2006 6261
iGS: practice

- Staff of Helsinki City Library answers.


There are about 50 active answerers,
2006 113 different persons sent answers.
- Editor surveys, answers, organises the
tours of the mobile equipement and the
radio program staff.
iGS: Communication

- Communication between librarians


answering in a discussion area in the
answerig application.
- The editor publishes information about the
service in an info area in the application.
Public Archive

- Contains 25 000 answers, organised in


different categories (e.g. astronomy, traffic,
arts).
- Text search.
- http://igs.kirjastot.fi/en-
GB/iGS/questions/search.aspx
Future

- Interactive features: Feedback possibility


for customers.
- Semantic answering application: Co-
operation with the national Ask a Librarian.
Kiitos!

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