“Ask a librarian”: Comparing virtual reference services in an Israeli academic library

• Two types of VR services, chat and email, were used differently by academic library patrons.
• In chat VR service, in most cases patrons did not fulfill their information needs.
• Face-to-face reference service was preferred by librarians.
• Librarians felt that the “best” reference service is the one that suits users' needs.

This study considered two Web-based virtual reference services (VRS) at an academic library in Israel: chat (116 interactions) and email (213 exchanges). The contents of a set of questions and answers in both VRS services were analyzed, along with an open-ended questionnaire administered to the library's reference team (n = 16). Differences were found in the question and answer distributions. Face-to-face reference is preferred by the librarians although they acknowledge that the best fitting service is dependent on the users' preferences and their information needs.