For more than a decade, AskAway has been providing students, faculty, and staff with real-time, virtual access to research and reference support. This massively collaborative library chat service is maintained by the BC Electronic Library Network and staffed by post-secondary libraries across British Columbia and the Yukon. For UBC Library users, the service is encapsulated in a simple chat window on the library’s website, which connects you with real people for research and library assistance and invites you to type in your question. But behind the seamless user experience lies an intricate web of teamwork and coordination and a mission to facilitate equitable access to quality information for all post-secondary learners.
We sat down with three library professionals at the heart of AskAway at UBC to learn more about how the service has evolved and why it remains a keystone of academic libraries in British Columbia and the Yukon.
Collaboration at scale
UBC Library plays a significant role in AskAway’s operations, hosting the largest team of service providers among participating institutions.
When a library user asks a question on AskAway, that question is routed first to a service provider at their own institution, but if there are no providers available, the question goes into a provincial queue, where it can be picked up and answered by a service provider from any of the other participating institutions.
“The service extends research support well beyond the limitations of library buildings and hours,” says Patricia Foster, Senior Circulation and Reserve Assistant at Woodward Library, who has been part of the AskAway team at UBC since almost its inception.
The human side of virtual reference
As AskAway has evolved—both in terms of the technology, but also user behaviour—
UBC Library continues to find new ways to adapt to these changes. The rise of Generative AI tools, for instance, has presented several new challenges for UBC and other AskAway providers.
“I feel like a big change within the last year is the question of robots,” says Elizabeth Cardoso Fernandes, Humanities & Social Sciences Librarian at Koerner Library, and UBC Library’s AskAway coordinator on the Vancouver campus.
In the past, she explains, AskAway users would start a chat session by introducing themselves—usually with a quick hello—before diving into their query. But now, a chat will often start without preamble (“Find me five articles on this topic”) as the user assumes that it’s a chatbot. When the user finds out that it’s a human on the other end, they are often pleasantly surprised.
“The other new challenge has been explaining to patrons that some resources simply don’t exist. When a student runs an assignment through an app like ChatGPT, for example, they will get something called hallucinated citations, which are citations that don’t exist,” says Fernandes, explaining that a Generative AI app will simply fabricate bibliographic citations when there is no clear source the app can point to. “The app will create a citation with real journal titles and real authors who are respected in their fields of knowledge, but the article itself won’t exist.”
AskAway users will ask for help finding this phantom resource, and librarians like Fernandes will spend time searching with them only to have to explain that the resource they need is a fabricated citation. An open access study published last year in Nature, found that in literature reviews compiled by ChatGPT-3.5 and ChatGPT-4, up to 55% of GPT-3.5 citations and 18% of GPT-4 citations were found to be fabricated.
“We are supporting patrons to become independent researchers, which now includes setting expectations around Generative AI,” says Fernandes.
Building connections and continuous learning
In 2021, UBC Library piloted proactive chat widgets on its website that allow users to access AskAway directly from the library’s homepage. This small adjustment resulted in an increase in quick reference and citation questions, demonstrating how small innovations can make library resources more accessible.
However, while AskAway relies on technology to provide the service, its core strength lies in the human connections it fosters. At UBC Library, every question represents an opportunity to support independent learning, as librarians and library staff not only provide answers, but also teach users how to find and evaluate information on their own.
This commitment extends to behind-the-scenes collaboration with other AskAway partners. UBC librarians work closely with colleagues across the province to share best practices and refine the service. As Donna Langille, Open Education Librarian and AskAway coordinator at UBC Library Okanagan, explains, “It’s a team effort. We rely on one another to ensure every shift is covered and every question is answered.”
UBC Library’s participation in AskAway reflects its dedication to fostering a culture of learning that transcends physical and institutional boundaries. During the COVID-19 pandemic, UBC librarians, including Patricia Foster at Woodward Library, joined other AskAway partners to analyze shifts in user behavior, contributing valuable insights to the library community. This research underscored how AskAway continues to adapt to meet evolving educational needs.
Ten years on, AskAway is more than a chat service—it’s a vital tool for connecting learners at post-secondary institutions in British Columbia and the Yukon with the resources and expertise they need.
To access the service, visit the UBC Library website.
