The development and validation of a music appreciation expert system and its acceptance by community college librarians

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an artificial intelligence computer program called an expert system to help community college librarians answer reference questions in the music appreciation area and to test its acceptance by them. Factors likely to influence the acceptance and use of expert systems for community college reference work and community college librarians' perceptions of the ability of expert systems to provide accurate answers to reference questions, to preserve the corporate memory, and to make their jobs easier were investigated.;Music appreciation reference questions were obtained from reference librarians in Illinois community colleges. Using knowledge engineering methods, a prototype expert system was built and pilot tested by the researcher. Field testing of the expert system, MUSICREF, involved a randomly selected sample of reference librarians in Illinois community colleges. During the on-site visits, the Illinois community college librarians used the expert system to answer typical reference questions in music appreciation and completed a questionnaire designed to find out about their perceptions of expert systems in general and MUSICREF in particular.;Results of the study suggest that librarians found an expert system such as MUSICREF to be almost unanimously acceptable in helping answer reference questions in music appreciation when a professional librarian is not on duty. Institutional demographics such as collection size, library hours, number of hours per week a librarian is on duty, or number of FTE librarians did not affect acceptance of MUSICREF. Educational level, length and level of experience, and degree of familiarity with other automated technologies did not affect acceptance of MUSICREF. Librarians did not perceive an expert system as a threat to their job security. Librarians perceived the need for a series of expert systems designed around major curriculum areas; that expert systems can provide accurate answers to reference questions; that expert systems can help preserve the corporate memory; and that expert systems can make their jobs easier.