ANTswers is an experimental chatbot that can answer questions about the UC Irvine Libraries. ANTswers is a web-based application, run on a remote library server and is accessed through a web interface page. ANTswers’ personality and persona is based on the UCI mascot, Peter the Anteater. ANTswers responds to simple and short questions. The first link in a response opens in a preview window, all other links open in a new window. Each transaction is reviewed and a data form is filled out to track usage; such as date, time, answer rate, etc.

Quantitative data - observational. Review of chat transcripts and submission of statistics form.