.. -*- mode: rst -*.. -*- coding: utf-8 -*..

_Stories-LibraryStory: ======================================= Mentor Public Library and Pandorabots ======================================= Libraries across the US face potentially steep budget cuts as tax revenues decli ne. Meanwhile library usage has increased as patrons look to escape the recessi on for the comforts of freely accessible books and WiFi access. Mentor Public library is located in Mentor Ohio, USA and has more than 36,000 pa trons. This case study speaks about the Mentor Public Library's decision to prov ide patrons library information through an artificially intelligent chatbot, nam ed "`Emma the MPL Catbot <http://www.mentorpl.org/catbot.html>`_". A chatbot is an artificially intelligent computer program capable of interacting with patron s, that provides answers to questions frequently encountered by library staff. Mentor Library chose to release Emma as free software, and is available under th e name `infoTabby <http://code.google.com/p/aiml-en-us-ovrp-infotabby/>`_ on Goo gle code. Emma is now an instance of the infoTabby project. Mentor Public Library developed Emma using products and services available from Pandorabots, a chatbot development company. Emma is hosted on a Pandorabots serv er. Emma augments traditional library staff, by providing accurate and timely a nswers to a variety of common questions. Emma helps librarians as well as patron s keep up with the new technological developments in traditional and digital ref erence services, according to a statement from Mentor. Library patrons access in formation around the clock via handhelds, cell phone text messaging and online v irtual environments, a spokesman for the library said. Launched in November 2009, the online question-and-answer service provides detai ls about accessing Library services. The library is using Emma to track the typ es of questions and resources requested to make allocate resources for library p atrons. Libraries are reporting increased use by patrons, and point to economic conditio ns as one possible cause. At the same time libraries are facing potentially ste ep cutbacks as State and local towns grapple with decreased tax revenues. David Newyear, developer of Emma's content, compiled a list of frequently encoun tered questions as the first step toward building the Pandorabot. Questions inc luded: When are you open? or Where can I find this in the library?. Today, Emma has answered more than 30,000 questions, and currently answers about 1000 questions per week. When first deployed, Emma was able to answer only 15% of the questions, but now she is hitting the mid 80s or better. David Newyear gave an excellent presentation about Emma, available in a two part video (`The Cat Who Sat Down at the Reference Desk (video) - David Newyear (par t 1 of 2) <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpRT7NnXU7Q>`_ and `The Cat Who Sat Do wn at the Reference Desk (video) - David Newyear (part 2 of 2) <http://www.youtu be.com/watch?v=pCKaVwUGdqo>`_) and as a slide presentation (`The Cat Who Sat Dow n at the Reference Desk (pdf) - David Newyear <http://www.slideshare.net/DavidNe wyear/the-cat-who-sat-down-at-the-reference-desk-7723911>`_). In April 2011, Emmas aiml code was released as open source and forms the basis fo r an improved version of Emma known as infoTabby. infoTabby is available to librari

es at no cost through Google Code: `The infoTabby project <http://code.google.co m/p/aiml-en-us-ovrp-infotabby/>`_. According to David N, local libraries typically serve quite different population s, and says it is easy to develop custom library bots using Pandorabots technolo gy reflecting the diverse needs of different libraries. Because infoTabby is able to include non-English content, non-English speakers a re able to easily access the Pandorabot for their specific needs. Libraries serving rural populations typically accessible by car can offer servic e enhancements (guided searching, linking to demos, 24 hour service availability ) with Emma. Future versions of infoTabby will be able to read books out loud, thus helping v ision-impaired people and providing story-telling services to children. Please contact info@pandorabots.com for more information Article Links ============= `Catbot Makes Purr-fect Impression at Mentor Public Library <http://www.chatbots .org/conversational/agent/catbot_makes_purr_fect_impression_at_mentor_public_lib rary/>`_ `David Newyear wins an award for his catbot program <http://ala.org/ala/newspres scenter/news/pr.cfm?id=6161>`_ `The Cat Who Sat Down at the Reference Desk (video) - David Newyear (part 1 of 2 ) <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpRT7NnXU7Q>`_ `The Cat Who Sat Down at the Reference Desk (video) - David Newyear (part 2 of 2 ) <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCKaVwUGdqo>`_ `The Cat Who Sat Down at the Reference Desk (pdf) - David Newyear <http://www.sl ideshare.net/DavidNewyear/the-cat-who-sat-down-at-the-reference-desk-7723911>`_ .. References .. ========== .. .. `Bridging the virtual and the physical space : Kornelia - a chatbot for publ ic libraries <http://www.slideshare.net/JasminHuegi/bridging-the-virtual-and-the -physical-space-kornelia-a-chatbot-for-public-libraries>`_ .. .. `A Trend from Germany: Library Chatbots in Electronic Reference <http://www. slideshare.net/xenzen/a-trend-from-germany-library-chatbots-in-electronic-refere nce-presentation>`_ - 2007 by anne christensen .. .. `Paper: Chatbots now smarter, more connected, and more emotional <http://www .hypergridbusiness.com/2010/11/paper-chatbots-now-smarter-more-connected-and-mor e-emotional/>`_ .. .. "Another example of a chatbot deployment is the LISA library chatbot at the University of Wolverhampton. .. .. The chatbot was built on Dadens Discourse chatbot engine. According to John D owd, Hybrid Services Manager within the Learning and Information Services depart

ment at the university, 85 percent of people surveyed said they found the chatbo t helpful and 80 percent said they enjoyed using the chatbot. .. .. According to Dowd, survey takers said, Its much more user-friendly way of find ing information on the website than search engines, and, Its a really good idea bec ause it takes you to pages on the internet you might never have come across or b een aware of. .. .. Of those using the librarys chat service, a full 100 percent said they would use the chatbot first to help find answers to their questions, the university re ported. .. .. Since the pilot and survey results, LISA has been improved further and is no w providing help and support 24/7 on the University of Wolverhampton librarys web pages." .. .. .. Next Steps .. ========== .. .. Places to run the article: .. .. http://www.dlib.org/ .. .. Library Conferences .. =================== .. .. .. `EnvisionWare Conference Schedule <http://www.envisionware.com/conferences>` _ .. .. .. `EnvisionWare other conferences <http://www.envisionware.com/en/book/export/ html/135>`_ .. .. `International Conferences <http://www.conferencealerts.com/library.htm>`_ .. .. `The World's Largest & Most Dynamic Library Conference & Exhibition June 2328, 2011 / Ernest N. Morial Convention Center / New Orleans, Louisiana .. <http://www.alaannual.org/>`_ .. .. .. `World Library and Information Congress : 77th IFLA General Conference and A ssembly 13-18 August 2011, San Juan, Puerto Rico <http://conference.ifla.org/i fla77>`_ .. .. `Other lists of library conferences <http://www.nwmissouri.edu/library/Owens /conferences.HTML>`_ ..