Analyzing an Interactive Chatbot and its Impact on Academic Reference Services

 

Session Description:
Chatbots (also known as conversational agents, artificial conversation entities, or chatterboxes) are computer applications that imitate human personality. Our libraries chatbot is only one of a few academic library chatbots in existence in the United States. The chatbot helps with simple directional and/or factual questions, can serve multiple patrons at one time, works 24×7 with very little mediation, and provides consistent answers. Statistical data for over 10,000 questions have been collected and will be analyzed to gain insights into how the conversational agent is used. Over 4, 000 transcripts will also be analyzed to determine how patrons are asking questions.

 

Posted in 2019 Contributed Paper.