A Linguistic Analysis of Chat Reference Conversations With 18-24 Year-Old College Students

Thirty-one chat reference conversations were linguistically analyzed, compared to twenty-three instant messaging (IM) conversations held between students, and further correlated to students’ satisfaction with the reference interaction. Conversations between librarians and students in chat reference are more formal than those solely involving students, and the use of some linguistic patterns are correlated to user satisfaction. Language and “Chat Reference” Chat reference, here defined as a subset of virtual reference (which would further include email reference) is an increasingly common service offered by academic libraries to their patrons. It enables librarians to provide synchronous reference service online by “chatting” with patrons, and in many cases sharing files and web-pages through special software. Recent findings suggest the use of chat software and instant messaging (IM) among Americans of undergraduate age to communicate among one another is very prevalent and is increasing; 1 libraries providing reference through similar media, then, is rational and appropriate.