Närhet och distans i det virtuella referenssamtalet. En studie av Fråga bibliotekets chattfunktion.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of social distance used by the librarians and users in the virtual reference interview. With a conversational analysis and applied politeness theory 49 chat transcripts where analysed in order to answer the question of how the interlocutors positioned themselves regarding the social distance between them. By identifying what communicative strategies where used the following results were found. Generally the social distance between librarians and users is low in the Swedish virtual reference interview. Even though both parties used informal and casual language the results indicate that the librarians face wants were valued slightly higher than the users which were illustrated by a some what higher social distance in the stages of the conversations when the librarians face was under most threat. The conversations were relatively symmetrical and it was also concluded that feedback and positive utterances contributed to lowering the social distance. Thus the analysed transcripts can be said represent a form of institutional conversation that is of a personal and informal character.