Noor Husna Mohamad Zayadi Master of Library and Information Science Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology University of Malaya 2010

1. WXGB6108 Research Foundation for LISResearch ProposalChapter 1 NoorHusnaMohamadZayadi WGB090005

2. RESEARCH TITLE Identifying Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service from the University of Malaya Library User’s Perspective

3. INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM Internet technology has changed the way in which communication and searching for information can be done easily today. With the development of the World Wide Web, digital reference services are beginning to take over some of the roles of the traditional reference services in the library. The changing role of the reference librarians.

4. Digital reference service offers services to the library users in several forms. Chat reference service is a service offered by library where librarian and users can ‘speak’ to each other on the Internet in a real time manner. Communication been done in the form of asking and answers enquiries and these usually takes minimum time of responses. cont

5. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM A research done by Carlson, 2007, stated that almost 85 percent of the students said they preferred face-to-face interactions with librarians. Through these findings, librarians have the responsibility to offer alternative ways to serve the other 15 percent students who have problems in face-to-face communication with librarians.

6. The problem of face-to-face communication with librarians is a form of library anxiety, a problem facing library users which limits their ability to get information. And this problem could be solved with library offering digital reference service such as chat reference service. IV1 : Library Anxiety cont

7. Preference of getting information at the place they’ve settled in to study is another issue to consider. Users who actually can’t go to the library or in this case for certain reasons such as doing research outside of the campus. IV2 : Remote Access cont

8. As the vast improvement of the technology nowadays, the need to get information as quickly as possible is vital and is possible, one way through the Internet. Promptness is highly important for library users especially researchers or students where they need to get the information as fast as possible. IV3 : Promptness cont

9. VARIABLES IV1 : Library Anxiety IV2 : Remote Access IV3 : Promptness DV : Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service

10. RQ1. Is there a relationship between Library Anxiety and Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service? RQ2. Is there a relationship between Remote Access and Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service? RQ3. Is there a relationship between Promptness and Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service? RESEARCH QUESTIONS

11. H1: There is a relationship between Library Anxiety and Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service. H2: There is a relationship between Remote Access and Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service. H3: There is a relationship between Promptness and Perceived Needs for a Chat Reference Service. RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

12. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Research on the chat reference service subject and especially in the area of identifying perceived needs for the service is still very rare. This research will benefit The University of Malaya Library users having problems of library anxiety, remote access and/or promptness in terms of information reference and information assistance.

13. SCOPE The emphasis in this research will be on real-time or synchronous services of chat reference service as opposed to other digital reference services by asynchronous methods. This research will focus on identifying perceived needs for a chat reference service in the University of Malaya Library.

14. DEFINITION OF TERMS