Student Desk Assistants vs. Professional Librarians: How Do Their Chat Transcripts Compare?

How effective are student assistants at answering chat reference questions? Can they provide the quality of service that we expect from our professional staff? When preparing for an in-service professional development activity for a group of reference librarians who staffed our chat reference service, I was surprised to find that a few of the exemplar examples of chat reference transactions were performed by student reference assistants rather than professional librarians. Was this a fluke? Was there a pattern to this? Is there something about students that make them more adept at answering questions in this format? I will share my findings from analyzing hundreds of chat reference transactions, using generally accepted standards for quality chat reference transactions. What can professional librarians learn from student employees and what do students still need to learn from us? Come and learn how student employees can be a valuable component of your chat reference staff.