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Reflecting on the new ACRL Framework, a deficiency was observed in literature on the assessment of information literacy instruction in chat reference. An evaluation of recent chat transactions was undertaken and the purpose of the study was twofold. The purpose of this study is to discover if and how librarians were teaching information literacy skills in chat reference transactions and identify best practices to develop training and resources.

To start, a literature review was performed to identify current industry standards. A rubric, influenced by the ACRL Framework, was developed to evaluate chat transactions from one semester. Results from the assessment were compiled and interpreted to determine current practices.

This study identified the necessity of balancing customer service and instruction to manage student expectations and encourage successful chats. Best practices and strategies that librarians can use to provide a well-rounded service were culled for the development of training and resources.

Reference assumes a large portion of the services that academic librarians provide to students. As technology advances, librarians are relying on virtual platforms, including chat reference, as convenient and useful tools to provide reference services to the academic community. While face-to-face reference encourages information literacy instruction, it is challenging to perform the same instruction in a virtual setting where expectations are based on retail models. With the growing use of virtual services, evaluating the success of chat reference based on industry standards is imperative.

This analysis of chat reference transcripts assesses differences in how librarians and graduate assistants (GAs) incorporate teaching strategies in responding to chat reference inquiries in social sciences, health sciences, humanities, STEM and business/economics at a large, public R1 university in the United States.

Researchers with disciplinary assignments in five different subject domains conducted qualitative analysis of a purposive sample of 982 transcripts of chat interactions during four semesters in 2021 and 2022.

Some form of information literacy instruction (ILI) occurred in 58% of the transcripts, with slightly less teaching occurring in social sciences inquiries than in other subject areas. Of transcripts that included teaching strategies, search procedures predominated, followed by a mix of concepts and procedures, and the least with concepts only. Chat providers taught concepts specific to social sciences, health sciences and humanities, but not to STEM or business.

The study compares transcripts at one institution; findings may be most applicable to large, research institutions that seek to incorporate ILI in online reference services.

Chat reference training should include best practices for ILI relevant to specific subject domains for providers without background in those disciplines and recommendations for referrals to subject specialists.

Existing ILI literature does not address the question of how chat providers teach concepts rooted in a specific subject domain or offer a comparison of teaching strategies employed in different disciplines, by librarians versus GAs or staff.