The Power of Proactivity: UOW Library's Successful Live Chat Implementation.

Since 2016, UOW Library staff have been engaged in developing a culture of agility, strong digital literacy, and experimental exploration as part of the Future-Ready Library and the Thriving Digital Library strategies. This culture enabled the trial and implementation of a proactive chat widget at University of Wollongong Library prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative and quantitative data show how valuable proactive chat was to the students and staff at UOW during a period of high uncertainty. Pro-active chat achieved the goal of equitable provision of resources to library users at a time when visitor and travel rules restricted physical access to UOW Library buildings and on-site staff. The pandemic has been declared over, however, UOW Library continues to utilise proactive chat and to build upon and expand its functionality. The lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic have shown that to withstand and succeed in the face of continued change to the provision of services in the GLAM sector, the attributes of agility and flexibility as well as strong and ongoing growth in digital literacy skills are vital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]