An automated approach to online digital reference: the Open University Library OPAL Project

Abstract

The Open University (OU) is the UK's biggest distance learning institution, with approximately 200,000 students, who live across the UK and, increasingly, in mainland Europe and other parts of the world. In November 2000 the OU Library[1] embarked on Online Personal Academic Librarian (OPAL)[2], an 18month research project to investigate the development of a fully automated online system designed to respond to routine and repeat enquiries from OU distance learners. The aim is to develop a system that is accessible to this global community of distance learners via the Web, 24 hours a day and seven days a week.The OU offers more than 360 courses in arts, modern languages, social sciences, health and social welfare, science, mathematics and computing, technology, business and management, education and law. Degrees are awarded at both the undergraduate and the postgraduate level. The OU method of delivering courses is called``supported open learning'' ± students work essentially on their own at home, with high quality course materials mailed to them. These materials typically include print materials, audiotapes and videotapes, with some courses also being taught online. Every student has support from a tutor (employed part-time by the OU), who provides optional face-to-face group tutorial sessions (once or twice a month) and marks assignments.OU distance learners can access electronic information resources via Open Library[3], the OU's virtual library service available via the Web, and they can get further help and support by either e-mailing or telephoning the library's learner support team during office hours. However, many OU students work full-time or part-time, studying in the evenings and at weekends, and around 50 per cent of enquiries are received outside office hours, while approximately 60 per cent of these enquiries are of a routine and repeat nature. It has also been estimated that around 70 per cent of answers to user enquiries can be found using existing information on the Open Library Web site. As a result, some students may have to wait until Monday morning before receiving a response from the learner support team with an answer to what is

Communication, Collaboration, and Enhancing the Learning Experience: Developing a Collaborative Virtual Enquiry Service in University Libraries in the North of England

“…The literature revealed considerable activity in the use of chat and instant messaging by individual libraries, particularly in the USA (see for example Bicknell-Holmes, 2008). In the UK, the Open University was one of the leaders in online digital reference (Payne & Bradbury, 2002). A virtual enquiry project at Edinburgh Napier University (Barry, Bedoya, Groom & Patterson, 2009) provided a useful overview of the use of virtual reference services (defined as the use of instant messaging or webchat for enquiries, which allow users to interact with library staff in real time) in academic libraries.…”

Identifying Reusable Resources in Digital Reference Responses

“…15 The rejection of resource mining may, however, simply be a technical limitation: even the most sophisticated question answering systems are not yet capable of answering many questions submitted to a reference service, which may be on any subject, ambiguous, poorly phrased, and the thousand shocks that natural language is heir to. 16 There is, in fact, only one digital reference service of which the author is aware that reuses answers in response to new questions: the Mad Scientist Network (MADSci, www.madsci.org).…”

Virtual reference in UK academic libraries

“…With a few notable exceptions, such as the Open University (who were trialling real‐time reference software in 2001 and now have “Librarians on call”) (Payne and Bradbury, 2002), the majority of virtual reference services in the UK are relatively new.…”