The Acceptance of Virtual Librarian using Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) to aid Communication, Interaction and Social Intelligence and Increase Users Experience

The field of information and library science as provider and custodian of information resources have witnessed the proliferation of information technology in the 21 st century. This paper presents insight from the study conducted on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), which is conceptually grounded empirically base on Embodies Conversational Agents (ECAs) implemented as a Virtual Librarian. The embodied conversational agent is capable of communication with human autonomously, and can interact with the environment and other agents or people. This is an innovative way of measuring its acceptance in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). The main goal is to determine the degree of acceptance, its effects on online communication, increased users’ experience and ultimately, interactions and social intelligence capabilities of the ECAs. The user experience in this context is limited to library users in the e-environment or (e-Library). The finding presents the usefulness of Virtual Librarian in self-service library operations, especially in circulation and reference services. It is recommended that further studies may be necessary to unpack other capabilities that may be used to broader library services vis-a-vis users’ HCI spectrum. The field of information and library science as provider and custodian of information resources have witnessed the proliferation of information technology in the 21 st century. This paper presents insight from the study conducted on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), which is conceptually grounded empirically base on Embodies Conversational Agents (ECAs) implemented as a Virtual Librarian. The embodied conversational agent is capable of communication with human autonomously, and can interact with the environment and other agents or people. This is an innovative way of measuring its acceptance in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). The main goal is to determine the degree of acceptance, its effects on online communication, increased users’ experience and ultimately, interactions and social intelligence capabilities of the ECAs. The user experience in this context is limited to library users in the e-environment or (e-Library). The finding presents the usefulness of Virtual Librarian in self-service library operations, especially in circulation and reference services. It is recommended that further studies may be necessary to unpack other capabilities that may be used to broader library services vis-a-vis users’ HCI spectrum.