Il servizio Chiedi al bibliotecario di Unimore e partners

Abstract

This article describes Chiedi al Bibliotecario (“Ask a librarian”), a service of the library system of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, in collaboration with various partners in the area of Modena and Reggio Emilia. This is an asynchronous digital reference service, provided by seven university libraries, seven public libraries and two private libraries. The project was launched in 2007, the service has been active since late 2008 and now answers around 450 questions every year. The librarians’ activity is supported by a number of working tools, which help to achieve a standardization of responses. The workflow is governed by a manager and cross-cutting activities are carried out by working groups. Quality control is entrusted to the manager and monitored by People and Customer Satisfaction Surveys. Strengths and residual weaknesses form the complex balance of this experience that can still improve and expand.