Measuring the impact of cultural diversity on desired mobile reference services

Purpose: – This research aims to present evidence that cultural diversity influences students' desire to utilize library resources and reference services on their mobile devices.Design/methodology/approach – A paper survey was administered voluntarily to undergraduate students to analyze how cultural diversity impacts the types of mobile device‐based reference services students desired and how likely they were to access librarians for live research assistance on their mobile devices.Findings – The paper provides evidence that cultural diversity and gender impacts desired mobile device reference services among undergraduate students. White male and African American female students reported a higher likelihood and desire to access librarians for live assistance on their mobile devices. White females indicated, to a large extent, a desire to access e‐books and e‐magazines on their mobile devices more than any other group. Anecdotally, White females also preferred chat‐based reference inside Facebook.Research...

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