Blind Co-Browsing, Teachable Moments, and the Power of Gaming

IT was near Christmas, so my university library's virtual reference service, with online push and co-browse technology, was on hiatus. That left us with blind co-browsing by telephone. On the other end of the telephone line was a senior university student doing a psychology paper on the possible connection

I had asked her at the beginning of her call, "What have you already tried?" She named a large multitopic database with a really shabby "subject-heading" system. Her results, she told me, had been many but mostly irrelevant. She hadn't tried a subject-heading search, but I could have told her it wouldn't do her much good.

"Your problem," I told her, taking courage, "is that you need to und the right database. Do you think you can get to PsycINFO?"

"Yes." There was a pause, and then she said, "I've got it."

"So do I," I said. "There's a green bar near the top, and on it is a tab for the thesaurus."