- Situation 1: You are having a virtual meeting with a colleague at a nearby branch; discussing a potential collaborative program between the two branches.
- Situation 2: You are conducting a virtual reference interview with a patron; this is your first time meeting this patron, so you have no background information about their interests or likes.
- Use your imagination and write a brief paragraph explaining the details of both situations. (Explain the collaborative program and specify what the patron is searching for, etc.)
Then write about …
- The benefits of having the meeting online rather than in person
- Any challenges, inconveniences, or issues you encountered
- If you would meet online with this person again
- If you would meet with anyone else online, and who might that be
- Would a traditional in person meeting have been better? Why?
The collaborative program would be computer classes offered at two different branches. Each week the two partners would take turns offering computer classes to both branches patrons via videoconferencing technology. The benefits would be preparation for half as many computer classes. Challenges would be whether there are technical difficulties at either of the branches, updates to computer software, availability of the space, etc. Depending on whether or not the two collaborators are comfortable with the technology will help to determine whether the meeting occurred again. It's preferable to have knowledgeable, confident users operate the equipment. Training in person is sometimes better to address specific problems occurring with the equipment and give specialized assistance to students one on one without engaging the entire group.
Conducting a reference interview with someone makes it difficult to walk the patron to the area of interest and browse for materials on the subjects they are researching. I was working with a patron looking for materials that would give her information on horse training. A virtual meeting would allow for Internet research but research in the physical space would require the patron to use someone that was in the actual physical space to help them locate the actual materials in the library space itself.