A Content Analysis of Chat Transcripts in the Georgetown Law Library

This content analysis study seeks to assess the use of the chat reference service by students, faculty, and alumni at the Georgetown University Law Library—a large, urban academic library located in Washington, DC—during 2008. The transcripts yielded 2,303 reference queries, sixty-four percent of which were ready reference-oriented or instructional in nature. Twenty-five percent of the 2,303 references were known item-type queries, and the final six percent and five percent were, respectively, policy and technical queries. Student users led on all four query types, whereas faculty tended to ask more known-item and technical questions than alumni. The top three months for chat use were September, March, and February. The results indicate that professional librarians familiar with Georgetown's collections should staff the service.