by Caleb Tucker-Raymond
At least nineteen United States and three Canadian provinces offer a statewide virtual reference service in order to reach out and meet their citizens’ information needs, and build collaboration between libraries. The catch is that all of them have to license or purchase software to provide it.
Now, two of those services are working together to build a new kind of virtual reference service and the software to provide it. Ohio’s KnowItNow and Oregon’s L-net have been partners in software development since June 2007. The group identified OpenFire, an open source instant messaging software platform from Jive Software, and worked on customizations to meet the needs of library reference service. Both services recognized shortcomings in both the library marketplace for virtual reference software and in commercial instant messaging software for providing library reference service.
“This is an exciting opportunity for two states to collaborate – both of whom have a long history of providing excellent library service to their residents. We now have a shared product utilizing Open Source Software. With this launch we are offering an enhanced online reference experience to all the residents of our states”, says Jo Budler, State Librarian of Ohio.
Ohio’s KnowItNow service expects to answer 120,000 reference questions online this year, and Oregon’s L-net will handle around 25,000. Both services migrated in September 2008.