Reaching Additional Users with Proactive Chat

Despite a general decline in recent years in academic libraries’ reference desk statistics, research indicates that library users continue to have complex research questions but are largely unaware that librarians are waiting and ready to assist them. The challenge for librarians is to connect with users at their point of need. At Bowling Green State University, we are making a move in this direction with proactive (pop-up) chat widgets embedded within our library Web pages, catalog, and databases. Since implementation, the number of chat reference questions received has more than doubled, helping us reach additional users from on-and off-campus.