Serving the Need: Engaging in Virtual Video Reference with Students

In March 2020, many academic librarians were abruptly forced into an online service environment due to the global COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Although some librarians had been providing synchronous video reference consultations prior to the pandemic, evidence of the practice in Library Science literature is scant. This paper presents scenarios sourced from anonymized student responses to a digital badge on the library’s chat reference service to illustrate when a video consultation may be the appropriate modality to address an information need.