Reference Chatbots in Canadian Academic Libraries

IF 1.5 4区管理学 Q3 COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Information Technology and Libraries Pub Date : 2023-12-18 DOI:10.5860/ital.v42i4.16511

Julia Guy, Paul R. Pival, Carla J. Lewis, Kim Groome

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Chatbots are “computer agents that can interact with the user” in a way that feels like human-to-human conversation. While the use of chatbots for reference service in academic libraries is a topic of interest for both library professionals and researchers, little is known about how they are used in library reference service, especially in academic libraries in Canada. This article aims to fill this gap by conducting a web-based survey of 106 academic library websites in Canada and analyzing the prevalence and characteristics of chatbot and live chat services offered by these libraries. The authors found that only two libraries were using chatbots for reference service. For live chat services, the authors found that 78 libraries provided this service. The article discusses possible reasons for the low adoption of chatbots in academic libraries, such as accessibility, privacy, cost, and professional identity issues. The article also provides a case study of the authors’ institution, the University of Calgary, which integrated a chatbot service in 2021. The article concludes with suggestions for future research on chatbot use in libraries.

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加拿大学术图书馆的参考资料聊天机器人

聊天机器人是 "能与用户互动的计算机代理"，其互动方式就像人与人之间的对话。虽然在学术图书馆中使用聊天机器人提供参考服务是图书馆专业人员和研究人员都感兴趣的话题，但人们对聊天机器人在图书馆参考服务中的应用却知之甚少，尤其是在加拿大的学术图书馆中。本文旨在通过对加拿大 106 家学术图书馆网站进行网络调查，分析这些图书馆提供的聊天机器人和即时聊天服务的普遍性和特点，从而填补这一空白。作者发现只有两家图书馆使用聊天机器人提供参考资料服务。在即时聊天服务方面，作者发现有 78 家图书馆提供这种服务。文章讨论了学术图书馆较少采用聊天机器人的可能原因，如可访问性、隐私、成本和职业身份问题。文章还提供了作者所在机构卡尔加里大学的案例研究，该校在 2021 年整合了聊天机器人服务。文章最后对未来图书馆使用聊天机器人的研究提出了建议。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Information Technology and Libraries 管理科学-计算机：信息系统

CiteScore

2.90

自引率

5.60%

发文量

审稿时长

1 months

期刊介绍： Information Technology and Libraries publishes original material related to all aspects of information technology in all types of libraries. Topic areas include, but are not limited to, library automation, digital libraries, metadata, identity management, distributed systems and networks, computer security, intellectual property rights, technical standards, geographic information systems, desktop applications, information discovery tools, web-scale library services, cloud computing, digital preservation, data curation, virtualization, search-engine optimization, emerging technologies, social networking, open data, the semantic web, mobile services and applications, usability, universal access to technology, library consortia, vendor relations, and digital humanities.