QuestionPoint: 24/7 reference services

ANNOUNCEMENT: QuestionPoint Downtime Tonight

Dear QuestionPoint subscribers:

In an attempt to address Lost Connection issues and occasional sluggish response time, we will bring QuestionPoint down early tomorrow (2 July) morning to install some modifications. Please be advised that the service will be unavailable from 6:00 UTC (2:00 EDT) to approximately 7:00 UTC (3:00 EDT) tomorrow, 2 July.

It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least one minute prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.)

When service is restored, please check your "New" questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions.  An email announcement will be sent to the QuestionPoint listserv after service has been restored. If you experience any outage after the projected service period, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

As always, we regret any inconvenience to our users.

Sincerely,
The QuestionPoint Team

ALA 2009: User Group Agenda

Hello, fellow QPers,

We will hold a QuestionPoint User's Group meeting during ALA Annual.  Below are the particulars, including a tentative agenda:

Date:        12 July 2009 (Sunday)

Time:        1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Location:   Chicago Hilton, Lake Michigan Room

The agenda includes an update from the QuestionPoint Product Team, a brief presentation by Virginia Cole on the "text-a-librarian" pilot at Cornell University, and an opportunity for small group discussions focusing on "Top Five Things" (e.g., "Top Five Things You Need to See on Policy Pages").  There should also be ample time for questions.

Please join us, and do let me know if there are any topics you want to ensure we cover at the meeting.

Nancy Huling, University of Washington Libraries

QP User Council

ANNOUNCEMENT: Brief Downtime Tonight

Dear QuestionPoint User:

We are aware that some users are experiencing sluggish response times and occasional disconnects while using the chat monitor.  We plan to install a fix for the performance issue tonight, June 24 EDT.  Please be advised that the QuestionPoint service will be unavailable for approximately 30 minutes, from 01:00 UTC, June 25 (9:00 p.m. EDT, June 24) to 01:30 UTC (9:30 p.m. EDT). It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least one minute prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.)

When service is restored, please check your "New" questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions.

If you experience any outage after the projected service period, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.
We apologize for the inconvenience this is likely to cause.

Regards
The QuestionPoint Team

QuestionPoint downtime this Sunday June 21

Dear QuestionPoint users:

Please be advised that the QuestionPoint service will be unavailable Sunday morning, June 21, from 6:00 UTC (2:00 AM EDT) to approximately 8:00 UTC (4:00 AM EDT).

It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least one minute prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.)

It is possible that service will be restored sooner than scheduled; you may begin trying to login as early as 7:00 UTC (3:00 EDT) if you wish. When service is restored, please check your New questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions. An email announcement will be sent to the QuestionPoint listserv after service has been restored.

 
If you experience any outage after the projected service period, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

We are sorry for the inconvenience to our users.
Regards,
Your QuestionPoint team

Quality Tip: No Habla Español? Transfer to the Spanish Queue

Cooperative librarians have access to many resources, including our growing Spanish language Cooperative.  If during your shift you happen to pick up a patron who prefers to communicate in Spanish, help may be available from a librarian monitoring the Cooperative Spanish queue.  The Spanish queue is available whenever a bilingual librarian is online and monitoring that queue.   The Spanish queue is staffed by librarians from individual libraries such as Queens PL in New York, statewide services such as Maryland AskUsNow!, and Back Up staff who are bilingual in English and Spanish. The Spanish schedule varies, but here is the current one:  http://www.247ref.org/spanishschedule/libschedule.cfm

You can only transfer to the Spanish Queue if a bilingual librarian is monitoring the Spanish Queue at that time.   To transfer to the Spanish queue, follow these steps:

- Click Transfer

- Click Queues, to see if the Spanish Queue appears

- Select Spanish, then transfer

If the Spanish queue does not appear when you click Queues, then there are no bilingual librarians monitoring the Spanish queue at that time.

If you have any questions about the Spanish language service, including how your library or group can participate in this service, please contact Susan McGlamery at mcglames@oclc.org. 

¡Muchas gracias!

QuestionPoint events at ALA 2009

If you are attending ALA in Chicago, please make plans to attend these 2 QuestionPoint events!

1. QuestionPoint User Group meeting: Sunday July 12, 1:30 to 3:00 PM Chicago Hilton, Lake Michigan Room

2. Best Practices in Cooperative Virtual Reference: Survival tips for tough times, and what our users think of VR services

Budget woes? Natalie Tagge of Illinois' AskAway shares tips on sustaining a virtual reference service even as grant funding ends. And Lynn Connaway (OCLC Office of Research) and Marie Radford (Rutgers University) relate what they learned from users regarding their view of our services.

Time: Saturday, July 11, 1:30 to 3:00 PM Chicago Hilton, Lake Erie Room

Here is more detail about the presentations and our speakers:

"Way Sweet" or "Just Wrong": Users Reveal Critical Factors for Virtual Reference Service Excellence

What do virtual reference service (VRS) users think are the best and worst practices in live chat? The final phases of the Seeking Synchronicity grant project involved online surveys with 137 VRS users and in-depth phone interviews with 76 VRS users. Use of the Critical Incident Technique identified important factors in users' perceptions of success and failure. This presentation provides an overview of these findings with numerous candid examples from the users. We asked, they definitely answered. Be prepared to hear about the good, the bad, and the ugly in users' perceptions of live chat.

Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Scientist at OCLC Research whose research areas include the study of information-seeking behaviors, query log analysis, and data mining to provide evidence for making informed decisions for the development of library services and systems.

Marie L. Radford, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Rutgers University and a leading researcher and consultant in evaluating virtual reference and in investigating interpersonal communication in library contexts.

Sustainable Virtual Reference: AskAway IL's Best Practices for Future Quality of Service

The last year has been full of changes for the AskAway IL project: The IMLS grant that funded the AskAway IL project ended, budget cuts made travel for training and outreach unfeasible and AskAway IL will no longer have a full time coordinator in the near future. So woe is the AskAway IL project, right? Wrong! Find out how AskAway IL through the dedication of the over 200 libraries that participate in the project, the Illinois State Library's continued support and the hard work of a Statewide Virtual Reference Advisory Board have met goals for sustainability and continued quality to serve Illinois users.

Natalie Tagge is Illinois Virtual Reference Coordinator at the Illinois State Library. She is in charge of the AskAway Illinois virtual reference cooperative. In other lives, she worked on a dairy farm, taught high school and waited tables, all of which she finds relevant to her current profession.

Register to attend these 2 QuestionPoint events: www.oclc.org/info/ala/

Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you there!

 

Quality Tip: Use "Send Message to Librarian" if you selected the Wrong Resolution Code!

"Oops! I meant to send that to Followup!" you exclaim in dismay as you read the message on the screen: "Resolution code set: Answered." You had already verified the patron's email address because the patron had asked to receive a response from the local librarian.

What should you do now?

Fortunately, it is fairly easy to fix this not-so-uncommon situation!

First, go to the My QuestionPoint homepage and click the "Active" link (found in the "My Questions" section in the left-hand sidebar). There, you will see a list of sessions you have marked Answered; you can click on the correct question to open the full Question History.

When you click the "Send Message to Librarian" link (found in the middle of the "Question Detail" section of the patron's information, above the actual transcript text), you will see a message box preceded by the question ID and the local librarian's email address:

 

Before typing your message, you should take a look at the "To:" field to make sure that the message will be going to the email address of the library you wish to contact. (If you have any questions, just click the Cancel button and send to Quality instead).

Here is a sample message you can send:

I meant to send this question to followup but accidentally chose the Answered code. Would you send an Answer to the patron? Thank you!

<Your Name>, <your email address>

If you are a librarian who has received one of these messages, you can simply go into QuestionPoint and view the Question ID…just click the Answer button to send a response to the patron.

Note: If you are ever uncertain about a message you have received from a fellow librarian, please send an email to qpquality@gmail.com and the Quality Team will take a look at the situation.

Do you have any questions or comments about this Quality Tip? If so, please post a note to the Blog or contact Susan McGlamery at mcglames@oclc.org

UK Higher Education User Group meeting, May 20 2009

The HE user group meeting was held May 20, 2009 in the OCLC office in Birmingham.

1) Customer Update

Sandie Brunnen - Liverpool University

Chat is going well, they have the Qwidget and receive 2 chats for every 1 email. Chat is offered 9 AM to 5 PM.

Joe Schulkins, System Librarian - Liverpool University also present. Set up Qwidget at Liverpool. First time at a User Group meeting and interested in hearing about other developments.

Graeme Eddie – Edinburgh University

Have been using QuestionPoint for 8 years now and until 3-4 months ago have been only using the Ask module (email). Have been trialing chat part-time, but there has been little uptake on chat. Publicity wise, it has been a soft launch of chat, as there is some trepidation about the volume of calls if promote more widely. They do not have a converged service: the IT department is still using the in-house request system.

Staffing, 1 hr in the morning and 1 hr in the afternoon (not the same times each day), Monday to Friday. Finding that email is still predominantly used with very little chat, although this could be because the times are not consistent.

86% queries come from Edinburgh University, 7% UK & Ireland, 6% international.

Many questions from external sources are genealogical. Hope to implement the Qwidget in the future on their updated websites to re-capture ‘passing trade’.

Michael Dunne – Lancaster University

Went live with chat in September 2007, staffed Monday to Friday 9-5. Not a converged service. Very quiet in the morning. Added the Qwidget to the home page about a year ago, and saw a huge leap in the volume of questions after that. They may start to restrict hours next year as the mornings are very quiet. They are not a converged service, but if they were they would be busier.

Although promoted as a virtual reference service, they have been disappointed there have not been more in-depth reference questions, most are directional questions, password questions and fines/circulation questions. Wondering how you can get people to ask more reference and research questions?

They market the service with the new intake at the start of the year. They have links in the catalogue, on the homepage, on the contacts page and Michael also has it in his email signature. Would be interested to know how other academics are doing with the number of questions compared to FTE’s.

Simone Ngozi Okolo – University of London

Implemented chat in January 2009. Using both chat and email. Staffing is now 1-5 Monday to Friday, it started out as 11-3, but not much chat before 1pm. Publicising using the Qwidget from the outset, have it on the homepage and also dotted around within the website and are now looking to see how it is being used, and what pages people are coming in from. They have about 4-5 chats per day. With about 4 people staffing a session for an hour at a time, there are 20 staff that participate across all the sites – taking chat sessions and answering emails.

The pop-up can be a problem as not all pcs have sound. (Several other libraries commented on this: Enquire public libraries have speakers, and one of the libraries uses headsets). The types of question they are getting are about e-resources and accessing them. Many also about circulation, fines etc and others from outside the university and from other universities. It is going well, but hard to keep selling to staff and to keep them motivated. Compared to a year ago the email traffic has increased a lot, so it is certainly increasing awareness.

Franko Kowalczuk – King’s College

Have been using QuestionPoint for around 18 months. Franko manages QuestionPoint, 4 service desks and the help desk, they are a fully converged service. They want to actively get away from the ‘Librarian’ tagging, as it is not what they are called and they are much more IT focused. Removing the ‘librarian’ association in the chat would widen the scope of the service and make it a better tool. Last summer it went off the scale with around 400 – 600 chats a month being common, has since calmed down but traffic still high, approx 200 chats a month They have had a low key launch of the Qwidget, so waiting to see how that impacts. Launching a new Student Portal shortly.

Matt Thompson, Andy Dodds, Anne Williams – University of Birmingham

Has also used the Qwidget for inter-library communication, he was asking Frank at King’s about their service.

Using QuestionPoint since 2003. Last autumn a new team was set up dedicated to QuestionPoint and the Enquiry Desk: the Information Point team, which Matt is part of and it is run by Anne Williams.

Since setting up the Qwidget in September 2008, they have become much more visible, with the Qwidget being sited in the catalogue, help pages and the student portal.

The service runs from 10-6 and 6-8 and they are very happy with the success of the service, mostly due to the Qwidget. Two staff monitor the queue. Occasionally 2-3 simultaneous chats take place.

Andy Dodds and Anne Williams have had chat since 2004 and it wasn’t that popular, don’t know if it was wholly to do with positioning, as the look and feel of the form wasn’t ideal either. Birmingham University IT department had (and still has) its own messaging system which is very successful, so chat was always competing with this and until implementing the Qwidget it was failing. Since implementing the Qwidget the kudos of the library has increased exponentially with other departments wanting some of the kind of kudos they are having in overwhelmingly positive survey comments, which, until the Qwidget were unheard of. In the first month of implementing the Qwidget they had 1200 chats! And it has remained extremely popular since. There are not so many questions on second line subjects as before, but they are considering a second line service for the experts. The new service (Qwidget) is in the same place as the link for previous chat, but it is much more visible. Anne canvassed students in some market research before re-designing the webpages and embedding the Qwidget, some of the feedback was that the link for the chat form was situated on the right of the screen and looked like an advert, so people didn’t take much notice.

They use scripts for holding – asking for an email to get back to them offline, and regularly have 2 or 3 simultaneous sessions at busy times.

Implementation and take up of the Qwidget has enhanced the whole libraries reputation, never has a service in the university attracted such consistently positive feedback.

Would like to know more about referring to specialists.

Neerja Gautam - University of Wolverhampton

Using chat since 2006. Staffed 11am – 10pm term time and 12-5pm off term. After 5pm chats tend to trail off, with only 3-4 sessions after 5pm.

Launched the Qwidget about a year ago, and have got more questions. They are thinking about co-browse and email now.

The team are mostly left to it as it is so stable, so they are happy.

They undertook to review all of their transcripts, and it revealed over 200 types of query. This in turn has led them to develop a chat bot, to access the QuestionPoint knowledge base, they are hoping to go live with it in the new academic year. They will be the first university in the UK to do something like this, with the University of Hamburg already having one.

For information on Stella at the University of Hamburg see:

www.sub.uni-hamburg.de :

http://www.tilburguniversity.nl/services/lis/ticer/07carte/publicat/07christensen.pdf

Anne Beech – Natural England

Looking to acquire QuestionPoint, to be used not only in the library but across all the enquiry points - so interested in everyones views

Robert Cole – Liverpool University

Just implemented the Qwidget this year and queries have overtaken email 2:1 with a few hundred per month. They had a soft launch as again concerned about staffing with an increased volume of chats. Staffed 9-5 Monday to Friday with one librarian and also principal library assistants covering. Email questions have not dipped, but stayed mostly the same, so chat appealing to a different audience.

Carol McMaster - Anglia Ruskin University

Not a converged service and split geographically between 4 sites based around Chelmsford and Peterborough. They had a 2 phased approach, launching email first in late 2008 (November) and then chat earlier this year in March. They ran a competition to decide on a name for the service. Chat available 11.00am-4.00pm although as yet not much uptake. They had similar issues with staff not always seeing chats coming in due to the pop up alerts not displaying to the front. They have resolved this by staff having headphones. Has been a challenge managing the staffing of the service over the 4 sites.

2) Service Development Update – plans for 2009/2010 including QuestionPoint and mobile devices:

Susan McGlamery, Director, QuestionPoint Programs

QuestionPoint is in 24 countries, most recently Spain, Italy, UAE, Puerto Rico, Peru and Brazil, so the Spanish speaking countries are coming on board in droves.

On the librarian side, it is accessible in 11 languages, and many more languages on the patron side.

There are 2,300 libraries using QuestionPoint and most participate in the 24/7 cooperative, with non-US participants being the UK Enquire service and Mexico.

There are 20,000 questions in the global knowledge base accessible to everyone.

Information -

To keep up to date with information about the service, there is a QuestionPoint blog [http://questionpoint.blogs.com/], including information about upcoming installs, hints tips and quality tips.

Chat problems that may have occurred recently have been resolved, so you should be experiencing network issues accessing QuestionPoint. Please let us know if this is still not the case.

There is an encrypted version of QuestionPoint using the https:// protocol. This gets around data protection issues that certain institutions may have.

(Lancaster wondered if this would solve their IE issue with the VLE, FireFox works, but IE keeps prompting to advise secure/unsecure data, so had to remove from their VLE)

Reports – there has been simplification of the reports process, with a reports tab from the home page.

Forms manager – allows for self management and creation of email and chat forms.

(See Presentation slides)

3) Qwidget developments & review

Future features that are being looked at:

- Optimizimg the Qwidget for placing on institutional pages in Facebook (not in personal accounts)

- More options on customizing the Qwidget

- Using twitter type technology to text a question

- Full text searching of transcripts

(See Presentation slides)

A more specific statement regarding new enhancements planned for Summer 2009 will be sent to the QP listserv and blog within the next several weeks.

4) QuestionPoint Clinic including Quick Tips for key topics:

§ Handling multiple questions

§ Referring questions to a colleague/expert

§ Knowledge base

§ Patron accounts

§ New chat features

§ Reports

Christine Jones, Applicant Services Consultant and Susan McGlamery, Director, QuestionPoint Programs

(See Presentation slides)

5) Future enhancements requested by attendees

1. Edit/ Delete function buttons in transcript when a reply comes in: add to a header as it only displays as a footer, it opens another edit box anyway, so making it more obvious would help.

1. Refer to an email partner – do not strip out personal data. In some instances that person needs to reply directly to a customer as they have accessed the library rather than another IT related service. The library does not need the reply back for their records, only that it was sent to an email referral. If the personal information was included it would save it having to be cut and pasted into the comments and would be a more effective workflow.

1. Settings – as well as having ‘my addresses’ for emails, have ‘institutional addresses’ as many are the same contacts for the University and would save inputting for each User ID

1. Automatic messages – “A librarian will be with you shortly…..” should be able to be customized

1. Remove the term ‘Librarian’ and allow a customizable field to be inserted relevant to the needs of the institution.

1. Add access to the Knowledge Base within the chat monitor, so it can be searched whilst in chat and not accessing in another window

1. Knowledge Base – keywords and required update date should be required fields

1. Can an institutions particular vocabulary be imported instead of the LOC classifications? This would be useful for organizations that have a controlled thesaurus in use as at Natural England.

1. Activity stats in local time not EST – conversion of time zone in reporting

1. Spellchecker available to librarians

1. Indication that other person is chatting during a session. To be available on both the patron and librarian side.

1. Make known issues publicly available to the institutions. OCLC have a publicly visible list with OLIB products, makes visible who has requested what enhancements the most and may make anticipation of what may be included in forthcoming releases more obvious.

Susan explained there were quarterly meetings to discuss what is in the enhancement system it needs to be aligned to:

1. does it fit our mission
2. does it fit into the plan for the next release

The universities agreed it would be good to see a list of everything, to see who had requested it the most and if it is something they too would benefit from, as may just not have thought of it yet.

Would also be good to have a UK academic virtual user group meeting to find out things in between, as well as the generic QuestionPoint webinars.

QuestionPoint is planning quarterly virtual meetings. The last one was held 3 times in April: April 14, 15 and 16. The presentation for this meeting is posted to the Blog: http://questionpoint.blogs.com/questionpoint_247_referen/2009/04/virtual-user-group-meetings.html

Suggestions from the group that the user group could be more of a user community for the users and run by the users of the group. Information was given by Anne Beach, NE, on how the OCLC OLIB user Group is run.

6) New customers, potential prospects and other activities

New QuestionPoint customers added since last user meeting include Anglia Ruskin University and University of East London.

Manchester Metropolitan University signed a contract Have not implemented QuestionPoint to date but plan to do so during 2009.

In addition, Royal College of Nursing has joined the Chasing the Sun group of UK and Australian health/medical libraries.

In the public library sector – the Ask Scotland service will be launched in June. Ask Scotland is a virtual reference service, providing both a national collaborative service and the means for locally delivered services. Initially staffed co-operatively by public libraries in Scotland, the service brings together a network of professional librarian expertise from all over Scotland. The service will enable greater use of public libraries and their unique collections and resources to answer all Scottish history related queries. The national collaborative service is available via email, and is free to any member of the public. A chat service is anticipated to be launched later this year.

A UK focused QuestionPoint webinar was held on 23^rd April aimed at libraries interested in virtual reference. Franko Kowalczuk, King’s College London participated in the webinar and over 30 UK librarians signed up to attend and OCLC is in discussion with a number of leads. King’s College London has been visited by a number of librarians from the following institutions: Hertfordshire University, Westminster University, RCN, University of East London, Imperial College, Napier University, Falmouth University College, LSE and Victoria and Albert Museum.

London School of Economics and University of the West of England are currently trialing QuestionPoint.. Imperial College will trial shortly.

Here are the presentations shared at the meeting:

QuestionPoint clinic:

Question Point Clinic 200509

View more OpenOffice presentations from guest1683d36.

QuestionPoint update:

2009 Spring Uk He

View more OpenOffice presentations from guest1683d36.

ANNOUNCEMENT: QuestionPoint down time this Sunday, 7 June

Please be advised that as part of the previously announced system-wide maintenance for OCLC services, the QuestionPoint service will be unavailable from 5:00 UTC (1:00 EDT) to approximately 11:00 UTC (7:00 EDT) Sunday June 7.

It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least one minute prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.)

It is possible that service will be restored sooner than scheduled; you may begin trying to login as early as 9:00 UTC (5:00 EDT) if you wish. When service is restored, please check your “New” questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions.

An email announcement will be sent to the QuestionPoint listserv after service has been restored.

If you experience any outage after the projected service period, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

As always, we regret any inconvenience to our users.

Regards
The QuestionPoint Team

Do Not Use QP Reports and Service History

QuestionPoint “Reports” links and “Service History” links to the archived stats and transcripts  are currently experiencing technical difficulties.

In order to fix the problem as quickly as possible, we request that QuestionPoint users refrain from clicking on “Reports” or “Service History” until we send an “all clear” message, or until Thursday morning May 28.

QuestionPoint Ask, and Chat modules are otherwise unaffected and can be operated as usual.

Thank you for your cooperation in helping us rectify this problem.

QuestionPoint Emergency Install Wednesday May 13, 9PM EDT

Dear QuestionPoint Users:

Please be advised that at 9 PM, EDT tonight, May 13th,  in the U.S. ( 1:00 Thursday May 14th, UTC/11:00 AM Thursday May 14, AU EST) we will interrupt QuestionPoint service to perform critical maintenance. We expect to have service restored within 15 minutes. You must end any chat sessions in progress and log out of QuestionPoint approximately 2 minutes prior to that time, so as to avoid sudden session interruptions, hung sessions and stuck logons. If you do not end chat sessions before the service outage, they will be left in an open state, and cannot be accessed from the “Ask” lists for followup! At approximately 15 minutes after the shut down, you may begin to log back into QuestionPoint and resume chat monitoring or other activities.

Once service is restored, please check your “New” questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions.

If you experience any outage after the projected service period, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

We regret any inconvenience.

Regards
The QuestionPoint Team

ANNOUNCEMENT: QuestionPoint down time this Sunday, 10 May

Dear QuestionPoint Users:

Please be advised that the QuestionPoint service will be unavailable for the following time period to reinstall the changes originally installed on April 19.  These changes were subsequently rolled back to rule them out as the cause of performance and connection problems.  All changes being reinstalled are transparent to users. 

QuestionPoint will be unavailable from 0700 UTC (3:00 a.m. EDT) Sunday, 10 May, to approximately 0730 UTC (3:30 a.m. EDT). It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least one minute prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.)

When service is restored, please check your “New” questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions.

If you experience any outage after the projected service period, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

We regret any inconvenience.

Regards
The QuestionPoint Team

ANNOUNCEMENT: Must bring QuestionPoint down

Dear QuestionPoint subscribers:
Please be advised that the QuestionPoint service will be brought down tonight, Thursday, April 23, at midnight Eastern Daylight Time (0400 UTC tomorrow morning). We expect the system to be available again within 15 minutes.

It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least one minute prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential hung sessions. (You will be unable to click on any sessions left in-progress to get information to communicate with the patron.)

When service is restored, please check your “New” questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions. If you experience any outage after the projected service period, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

We regret any inconvenience.

Virtual User Group Meetings

QuestionPoint began a new series of Virtual User Group (VUG) meetings this past week (April 14-16). The meetings will be held quarterly and will be scheduled at three different times, to accommodate users in different parts of the world. The next round of VUG meetings will be held in July.

Each VUG will feature an update from a QP product manager on the QuestionPoint software and community, and on the 24/7 Cooperative. The update will be followed by a special topic discussion, selected by you. Topics may include marketing challenges and successes, best practices for cooperative services, tips and tricks for e-mail and chat forms, Qwidget implementations at your library, and so forth. To suggest a topic for our next VUG sessions, please fill out this form .

The April 2009 VUG meetings provided an update on QuestionPoint and the 24/7 Cooperative. Click here to see the slides.  Here are the highlights:

• Community
  • 24 countries
  • 2300 libraries
  • 1500 libraries in the 24/7 Cooperative
  • 20,000+ records in the Global Knowledge Base
• Review of 2008 software installs (March and November)
  • Introduction of the Qwidget and the Forms Manager
  • Secure connection through https://
  • Reports simplification
• Under consideration/investigation for 2009
  • Qwidget evolution, including links and application for social sites such as Facebook
  • Mobile device development, including forms optimization, texting, and applications
• Review of helpful QuestionPoint features
  • WorldCat.org presence for QuestionPoint libraries
  • Knowledge Base access by end users
  • Referral options to expand information resources
  • Send Message to Librarian to communicate with referral partners
• 24/7 Cooperative Update
  • Recent members in New York City, the UK, Univ. of California libraries
  • Spanish Cooperative now has about 120 hours coverage; provide Spanish language staffing to join (no $$)
  • Answering percentages in the high-50s to mid-60s
  • Wait time averages mostly between 1 – 1-1/2 minutes

Here are some of the questions you asked us:

1. What are some of the different ways libraries have implemented the Qwidget to best serve the needs of their patrons?

Tips on Qwidget usage and implementations are posted in the QuestionPoint wiki, at http://wiki.questionpoint.org/Qwidget+Tips. Add your suggestions as well!

2. Qwidget roll up to the 24/7 Cooperative

Development work is needed to enable Qwidget roll up. Not all libraries with the Qwidget want those sessions seen by the Cooperative, so a “one size fits all” approach will not work. We are also watching the statistics for percentage of traffic increase attributable to Qwidget sessions to judge the overall effect this could have on the Cooperative and considering different models. We are cognizant that the quality of the service must be maintained without increasing cost.

3. How do Cooperative members calculate their answering percentage?

Divide the number of chat sessions your librarians accepted by the number of chat sessions your library’s patrons requested

4. Where is the best way to get the necessary numbers?

Go to Reports >> Institution >> Institution Report. Select the time period and Chat Service from the drop-down menu. Use the numbers found in the Number (Total) of Chat Sessions Accepted row and the Number of Chat Sessions Requested row. Group administrators should go to Reports >> Group >> Report by Single Subscription Group.

5. Does Cooperative answering percentage include times when a library is monitoring only its own local queue?

Yes. All sessions you pick up, regardless of where the patron comes from (ie local or Coop) is included in the “total of chat sessions answered”.

6. What is the difference between QuestionPoint and the 24/7 Cooperative?

QuestionPoint is the reference management “platform” or software used by the 24/7 Cooperative. The Cooperative is the group of libraries that agree to provide live coverage for one another via QuestionPoint’s chat software; they agree to a certain service level to ensure coverage and quality. Not all QuestionPoint subscribers are members of the 24/7 Cooperative.

 

If you have additional questions, please send them to us. We also hope you’ll send us your ideas for future VUGs. Is there a QuestionPoint feature you need to understand better? Are you concerned that you are not where your patrons need you to be on the Internet? Is your funding shrinking while your workload is expanding? Do you have good ideas about marketing to share with others? Does your library have challenges that don’t seem to be like those faced by other libraries? Are you interested in joining the 24/7 Cooperative but want to hear from member librarians about their experiences? Please enter your thoughts or questions on the form at https://www3.oclc.org/app/questionpoint/usercouncil/.

REFolution Preconference QuestionPoint Users Group Meeting (April 6, 2009 in PA)

As typed & grouped by Julie Strange, Maryland AskUsNow!

All comments are written as is. Any clarification by Julie is in [brackets].

QWIDGET

• qwidget roll up to 24/7 coop
• qwidget for individual library use (ie goes to your ref desk first and then to 24/7)
• Qwidget à coop/24/7
• Is there a way questions coming in on a Qwidget that could be on our library site could be routed directly to us when we are staffing the service? Or is there a way we could log into the Qwidget separately to staff it alone at extra times to get questions from our own users?
• more customizable widget design
• putting the qwidget on facebook
• Pop out the chat

TEXTING

• I want to text!
• text messaging (web interface for librarians staffing, the ability to text cell #'s, other info, to patron's service)
• Text messaging capabilities

REPORTING / ANALYSIS

• textual analysis of transcripts in reports
• Qualitative analysis
• Full text transcript search / analysis. Word frequency clouds would be amazing (ie Wordle)

POLICY PAGES

• systematic quality control of policy pages to enable better service to local patrons
• Policy pages- make sure all p. pages are up to date and see if p. pages for all participating libraries can be posted (not just the contributing libraries)
• Policy pages – best practices – keep reinforcing

LIBRARIAN / NON-QWIDGET INTERFACE

• new interface- slow and erratic
• need to logon a 2nd time more than once
• co-browse question. Is it working?
• user-library browser compatibility
• browser capability (IE or others)
• timing in chats (ex: 14:10:03)
• Better way to tell when patron has ended the session
• Hit List- are the catalog bib record links durable? We know by the look and feel what ILS we’re dealing with… or policy page?
• Open new URLS in new windows or tabs instead of refreshing screen
• Is there a way to send multiple URLS so multiple new screens come up and the customer has those sites to look at and choose from? I worry about patrons who don’t have or give email addresses and won’t get transcripts. I am trying to get info to them live.
• Can you have a window pop up when a new question comes in like with Meebo or Digsby?

DOCUMENTATION / TRAINING / MARKETING / PARTICIPATION

• online demo- if not already available
• demo for field librarians test questions- interactive demo
• need for statewide legal reference service for pro se litigants
• training to promote AskHerePA / In house demos
• school open houses (promo)
• Since most questions come from k-12 patrons, why don’t school librarians participate to answer questions?

OTHER

• When customers get surveys + put down negative comments, it would be helpful if customers were asked to put in detailed notes [about what they experienced, I’m assuming]
• Would there ever be a way in the future to have specific questions directed to subject specialists? For example, someone wanting a science answer could have a way to be directed to science oriented librarians?
• when statewide service (ex AskHerePA) is down is there a way to make the other services available?

ANNOUNCEMENT: Scheduled Maintenance for QuestionPoint

Dear QuestionPoint User:

Please be advised that the QuestionPoint service will be unavailable for the following time period for scheduled maintenance and service. Sunday, 19 April 2009, 0700 UTC (3:00 a.m. EDT) to approximately 0730 UTC (3:30 EDT).

It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least one minute prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any sessions left in-progress to get information to communicate with the patron.)

When service is restored, please check your “New” questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions.

If you experience any outage after the projected service period, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

We regret any inconvenience.
The QuestionPoint Team

Internet Explorer 8, Java and QuestionPoint

As many of you are aware, Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8)to the public.

During our tests with IE 8 and QuestionPoint, we found that the combination of Internet Explorer 8 and the Microsoft Virtual Machine (MSVM) is not compatible with our cobrowse functionality. If you use chat and want to use cobrowsing in any transactions, and your Virtual Machine is set to use MSVM (as opposed to Sun Java) please do not upgrade to IE 8.

The following combinations of Internet Explorer and Java engine have been successfully tested with our cobrowse functionality.

Browser	Java version
Internet Explorer 6	Microsoft Java Virtual Machine
Internet Explorer 6	Sun Java Version 6 Update 7
Internet Explorer 7	Microsoft Java Virtual Machine
Internet Explorer 7	Sun Java Version 6 Update 7
Internet Explorer 8	Sun Java Version 6 Update 7

Note Sun Java Version 6 is supported up to Update 7.

If you have any questions about setting up Java with IE, please see the QuestionPoint Guide to IE browser setup at http://questionpoint.org/support/documentation/gettingstarted/chatsetup.pdf.

Note that the setting for IE 7 and IE 8 are the same.

If you have any questions about IE 8, you can learn more at http://www.microsoft.com/ie

Quality Tip: Wait five minutes before ending a call with a non-responsive patron

Silence is golden, but not when it means our chatting patron suddenly falls silent. We rely on communication from the patron during the chat session to provide feedback as we negotiate the query or send resources. What to do when a patron stops responding?

Of course it is impossible to know why a particular patron is not responding. The patron could be experiencing technical difficulties, browsing in another window, or be away from the computer. On one occasion, a patron vanished for a time in order to put money in his parking meter.

Section 4.4.2 of the 24/7 Reference Collaborative Policies and Procedures explains the process that chatting librarians should use when a patron appears to be non-responsive. To ensure that the patron has sufficient time to return to the session, follow these procedures before ending the call:

The librarian may end the call immediately upon receiving a system-generated message indicating the patron has left the session:   

1. The "Patron is no longer connected" message is displayed four minutes after:

• the patron is accidentally disconnected due to a technical problem
• the patron navigates away from the window
• the patron clicks the browser X button and closes the window

Note: one minute before the message is displayed, a red diamond appears next to the patron's name

2. The "Patron ended chat session" note is immediately displayed after the patron ends the call correctly by clicking the "End Call" button.

If there is no message indicating patron has left, yet patron has been non-responsive, ask the patron if he/she is still there (and say you’ll end the call unless you get a response)

For example, you could have a scripted message similar to this:  "Are you still there?  I haven't received a response from you, so I'm thinking you're no longer with me.  Unless you respond soon, I will be ending this call and another librarian can continue helping you via email."

If the patron continues to be non-responsive and a system-generated message does not appear, the librarian may end the call five minutes after asking the direct question about the patron's status.

Since the software does not display a timestamp for the librarian's chat, how can the librarian know when five minutes has elapsed? Immediately after asking a direct question about the patron's status (e.g. "Are you still with me?" or "Are you still there?"), the librarian can go to the bottom-left corner of the Chat Monitor, click the Notes tab, and record the time as indicated by the clock at the top of the Chat Monitor, including the seconds (e.g. 20:04:23). 

If the patron left an email address, use the Follow Up By Patron Library resolution code so the local librarians can decide whether or not to continue helping the patron.

When the patron has entered an email address, a transcript will be automatically sent after the librarian ends the session. So, if there is an email address, try to send some information in answer to the question (a URL, a citation, a recommendation for a database).

In the goodbye message, don’t explicitly state that a local librarian will send an email follow up. Instead, inform the patron that the question will be sent to other librarians "for review." This will cover situations where the local librarian decides not to send an email follow up (e.g. question was sufficiently answered; patron was unaffiliated; patron subsequently logged in and was helped by another librarian).

Questions or comments about this topic? Comment below or email Susan McGlamery at mcglames@oclc.org.

Quality Tip: Surviving Busy Times, Part 2

Last week I discussed tips for staffing the service during times when many students enter the queue at once. Many times, these students are accessing the service at school, either in the library or during a study period. Last week, we discussed the importance of finding out how long the student is able to be online with you, getting an email, and sending lists of resources. See http://questionpoint.blogs.com/questionpoint_247_referen/2009/03/quality-tip-surviving-and-thriving-during-busy-times.html for last week’s tip.

This week, we will focus more on specific resources and search strategies you can use with students during busy times:

1. Use the library policy page to gain access to the library's databases.

Most likely, the student is accessing the service through a location that has provided access to the library's subscription databases. The policy page will contain a link to the library’s databases, as well as a library card number or a username/password for the chatting librarian to use. After searching in a separate window to test out search terms for relevancy, you can suggest a particular database for the student to try, as well as specific search terms.

Here are some advantages to showing a patron the library databases:

· The student becomes aware of the authoritative resources offered by the local library.

· Database pages are unlikely to be blocked by school filters.

2. Use Credo Reference, found in the "Cooperative Resources" section of the My QuestionPoint homepage.

Any librarian in the 24/7 Reference Cooperative can use Credo to help their online patrons. The URLs can be pasted into the live chat session for the student to use. Credo provides a portal to a variety of reputable reference resources from 55 publishers, including text and images. See this previous posting to the QuestionPoint Blog for more information: http://questionpoint.blogs.com/questionpoint_247_referen/2008/03/quality-tip-cre.html

3. Use Google Books efficiently.

A search in books.google.com will often quickly yield easy-to-assimilate, authoritative information that directly answers the student's question. To use Google Books efficiently, try these advanced search strategies:

· Add subject headings to limit the search, particularly this one: subject:"juvenile nonfiction"

· Limit the search to "Limited Preview and Full View" or simply "Full View" to maximize the information that the student can use.

· Remember that the archives of many popular magazines have been made available in their entirety. You can limit your search to just "Magazines" in the "Content" section of the Advanced Book Search.

· To quickly direct the patron to a specific location in the page you're viewing, go to the Search box at the top of the right-hand sidebar of the page and type a phrase from the middle of a relevant sentence. The search result in the right-hand sidebar will then display the page number and a brief excerpt of the text that can be copied and pasted to the patron. For example:

Page 109

The object of Hacky Sack was to keep the bag in the air, using the knees and the feet, without letting the bag touch the ground or the player's upper body. ...

4. Remember to check textbooks' websites.

If a student's question seems like it might be related to information in the student's textbook, ask the patron for the name of the textbook. The textbook website often has a study guide and other tutorials that may give the student the needed information.

5. Be aware that the sites you send might be blocked by school filters.

It is becoming increasingly common to hear students say that they cannot see a website we send to them because it was blocked by a school filter. If you analyze the content and judge it to be appropriate, you can try using the Google Cache or the Internet Archive to send the page from those resources instead.

Questions or comments about this topic? Comment below or email Susan McGlamery at mcglames@oclc.org.

QuestionPoint User Group Meeting at the REFolution Conference, PA

Reference services are evolving rapidly in response to changing customer demands and new technologies.  Prepare for tomorrow's challenges at...

ReFolution: Reference Service in a Constantly Changing World
April 6-7, 2009
Holiday Inn, Harrisburg - Hershey

Kicking off this unique and exciting event is the Pre-Conference OCLC QuestionPoint User's Group Meeting, featuring...

• OCLC Presentation and Demonstration of QuestionPoint software updates and developments
• OCLC Presentation on 24/7 Reference Cooperative
• Panel Discussion: Making Connections
• Roundtable Discussion (with starter topics)

Register for the full program before April 1st to take advantage of extended savings on your hotel stay! With the full program registration you can participate in the pre-conference activity as well as attending breakout sessions and product demonstrations, including hands-on learning experiences.

Join in discussions about your library's reference service practice and receive feedback from reference service experts. Learn about the many resources and technologies available to reference providers.

Other highlights Include:

• Keynote Address by Marie Radford, Rutgers University SCILS:
  Foreshadowing Reference Futures: Far Out or Forthcoming?
• Interactive, hands-on Reference Recess period to roll up your sleeves and play with the latest products and technologies from our sponsors

For more information, or to register for this event please visit:                         http://www.palinet.org/refolution

The REFolution is supported, in part, by
The Institute of Museum & Library Services under the provisions of
The Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and by HSLC/ACCESS PA

Quality Tip: Surviving and thriving during busy times

The Cooperative often experiences surges of user activity when several students ask questions at once. Occasionally these students are participating in a computer or library class, but they often are simply accessing the service during a break period such as lunchtime or "study hall" or "homeroom." These break periods typically do not last long, so students do not have much time to wait while the librarian searches for information. Don’t be daunted by these busy times! Use these strategies to make the most of your short time with these students:

1. Ask how much time the student has to wait while you search.

Often, a student will reply with specific information, such as "I have seven minutes before I have to go to my next class." If you are assisting several users simultaneously, this information will help you determine who should be helped first.

2. Whenever possible, ask the student for an email address.

Students typically respond favorably to a script such as " Do you have an email address so in case I find info right after you disconnect, I can still give it to you?"

3. Begin each session by initiating the reference conversation.

Ask at least one question about the student's topic to clarify the information need.  This also establishes two-way communication with the student.

4. Send a list of librarian-reviewed resources.

When you are helping several students at once, it can be useful to send a list of links to authoritative web sites about a particular subject so the student can choose a site that appears relevant (giving you time to help another student). KidsClick!, the Librarians' Internet Index, and the Internet Public Library are excellent resources for this purpose. Once you send a list, make sure to ask the student directly about the usefulness of the sites listed. Offer to look for additional information if needed.

5. Follow the Rude Patron guidelines as soon as the patron's remarks become derogatory.

Although it is important to provide professional level reference assistance to those who seek it, librarians do not have to communicate with patrons whose language or behavior is offensive, abusive, or insulting, including communication of a sexual or too personal nature.

If this occurs, first warn the patron that this behavior is not acceptable. Remind them that this is a library reference service, and that if their behavior continues then you will have to disconnect. This should be phrased positively rather than negatively, such as: "I would appreciate it if you didn't use that kind of language if we are going to continue - rather than "we don't tolerate that kind of language". If the patron persists in the rude behavior, end the session with a script such as "I am disconnecting. If you still need help finding information, please contact us again when you decide to be polite. Goodbye for now..." Use your professional judgment to determine when patrons are simply being rude, or when their behavior is unacceptable.

For the complete guidelines on how to deal with rude patrons, see section 4.5.1 of the 24/7 Reference Collaborative Policies and Procedures.

Next week we will explore more strategies for handling busy times. Meanwhile, if you have questions or comments about this topic, please comment below or email Susan McGlamery at mcglames@oclc.org

Virtual User Group Meetings

Dear QP subscribers:

We realize that relatively few of you are able to attend our service-wide user group meetings, which have usually been held at major library conferences in the United States.  We would very much like to be able to update all of you in person and give everyone an opportunity to participate in discussions centering on the QuestionPoint community, the software, plans for future development, and your virtual reference service issues and challenges.

Having said that, we're going to do the next best thing: reinstate our quarterly virtual user group meetings.  To that end, we have scheduled three sessions in mid-April.  By having three sessions, we hope we can accommodate users in Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, as well as Central and North America.  These sessions will be held using WebEx online and audio conferencing software.  When you register for a session, you will automatically receive an e-mail with log-in and call-in information. 

Here are the registration links for the three sessions:

-----------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, April 14 (Wed. a.m., April 15 in Australia).  Good for western U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Asia/Pacific.
11:00 p.m. GMT

To register for the meeting

Go to https://oclc.webex.com/oclc/j.php?ED=326268&RG=1&UID=0
-----------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, April 15.  Good for Europe, eastern U.S., Canada, and Middle East.
1:00 p.m. GMT
To register for this meeting
Go to https://oclc.webex.com/oclc/j.php?ED=380058&RG=1&UID=0

-----------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------
Thursday, April 16.  Good for U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
6:00 p.m. GMT
To register for this meeting
Go to https://oclc.webex.com/oclc/j.php?ED=384043&RG=1&UID=0

-----------------------------------------------------

We'll send out an agenda to registrants closer to meeting time.  In the meantime, we hope you'll be considering topics you'd like us to cover.  We look forward to talking with you soon!

Sincerely,

QuestionPoint Team

Tuesday's Tip: Establish Rapport through Humor

The transcript below is a great example of a way to establish rapport through humor. When children access the service just wanting to "chat," it is an opportunity to show them that librarians can find information about whatever topic they randomly mention. Our experience has shown that if they are disconnected, they will keep logging into the service--but if a librarian tries to establish rapport and meet them at their level (while maintaining professionalism!), their sessions will last a normal length (about 15 minutes for an average session) and they are less likely to log in repeatedly. Hopefully, they'll remember their positive experiences when they really do need information in the future.

Patron (19:42): I need help with divition
Librarian (19:44): Hi, <patron’s name>,
Librarian (19:44): Hello! Welcome to our chat service. My name is Jane, and I am a librarian from the XYZ library in <state>. No one from your library is available at the moment, so I will be assisting you now.

Librarian (19:45): Do you mean division as in math homework?
Patron (19:45): are all librariens hot?
Librarian (19:46): if they don't have air conditioning
Patron (19:46): your funny
Librarian (19:46): thanks
Librarian (19:46): What's up with your division?
Patron (19:47): I LIKE CHOCOLATE MILK WITH CHEESE CUBES IN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Librarian (19:48): interesting! What kind of cheese?
Patron (19:49): SWISS man you are HILARIOUS
Librarian (19:49): http://www.kidsclick.org/cgi-bin/searchkids.pl?searchtype=subject&keywords=math+general&title=Math+General
Librarian (19:50): Here are some links to lots of websites about math
Librarian (19:50): Do you need to know something specific about division?
Librarian (19:50): I "half" to know
Patron (19:50): why arent u funny any more
Librarian (19:50): hey that was funny
Librarian (19:50): I "half" to know--get it?
Patron (19:51): dude you're awesome
Patron (19:52): why aren't u takin
Librarian (19:53): Well, technically I am supposed to help you answer any questions you have
Librarian (19:53): Do you have any questions for me?
Patron (19:54): do you like Charlie the gorilla
Librarian (19:54): Otherwise I'm going to have to "split" (haha) so I can help other people
Patron (19:55): 3.1415926 is pie
Librarian (19:55): yes, pi
Patron (19:56): but do you like Charlie the gorilla?
Librarian (19:56): http://www.exploratorium.edu/pi/history_of_pi/index.html
Librarian (19:56): here's a history of pi
Librarian (19:57): I had not heard of Charlie the gorilla before--but it has to do with the Toronto Zoo?
Librarian (19:58): http://www.torontozoo.com/AboutTheZoo/History.asp
Librarian (19:58): He made a lot of money
Patron (19:58): I guts to splat time for cheese
Librarian (19:59): "Charles" the gorilla raises $37,000 through his artwork.
Librarian (20:00): Okay, thanks for using our service--if you have any questions, librarians are here to help.
Patron (20:00): bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee <librarian’s name> b.t.w. you are AWESOME
Librarian (20:00): Thanks! (grin)
Librarian (20:00): have a good night
Librarian (20:00): Librarian ended chat session.

Questions or comments about this post? Comment below or email Susan McGlamery at mcglames@oclc.org

Documentation update

Recent QuestionPoint documentation updates: online help for using QuestionPoint forms management to create and manage chat forms and e-mail question forms (2009-02-24); QuestionPoint overview PDF booklet (2009-02-16); Reports PDF quick reference (2009-02-02); IM and Transfer in Chat PDF booklet (2009-01-28)

Links to the updated or added documentation and descriptions of the changes are available in the What's New area of the QuestionPoint Documentation page.

The QuestionPoint team welcomes your comments and suggestions about the documentation. Please contact me or click the Comments? link on the Documentation page.

Ken Thomas
Documentation writer
QuestionPoint team
thomask@oclc.org
voice: 614-764-6343, 800-848-5878 ext. 6343
fax: 614-718-7308

Quality Tip: How to Find a Full-Text Journal Article

1. Ask the patron for as much info as possible (article title, journal title, authors, date) to determine if the patron needs an article from a library database or an article placed on Reserve by an instructor (if the latter, consult the library policy page for the procedure for accessing Course Reserves).
   
2. If the patron needs an article from a database, check the library policy page "Databases" section to see if the local librarians offered guidance.
   
3. Look on the library website for a tool that will allows librarians and patrons to search for a publication title and find out which subscription databases carry that publication in full-text (this tool also gives coverage dates).
   
4. If the library does not seem to have this tool, try searching the library catalog for the journal title to see if there are electronic or print holdings.
   
5. If the library does not offer access to the journal, check to see if the library offers interlibrary loan service (some academic libraries offer it to all students, some just to grad students, and some just to faculty).
   
6. Consider obtaining or verifying the patron's email address and/or deadline so you can code the question as Follow Up by Local Library.

Here are some ways that our member libraries are using this tool on their library webpages:

• The King County Library System's databases page has a link on the bottom that says:
  Full-Text Magazines & Journals In KCLS Databases
  Check here for a list of full-text magazines and journals that are available through our database subscriptions.

 

• The Seattle Public Library has a script available entitled "Finding a Specific Article":
  If you're looking for a specific newspaper or magazine article, you can find which database(s) provide access to which newspaper/magazine/journal titles on this page: http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=collection_db_electronic

 

• The Boston Public Library's database page has a link called "Search full-text E-Journals by journal title": http://yj2rx5vx3s.search.serialssolutions.com/

 

• Clicking on the "Electronic Journals" link on the home page for the University of Washington libraries brings up a page with a tool called "Find e-journals by title": http://www.lib.washington.edu/types/ejournals/

 

• The University of Maryland--College Park library's tool is on the "E-Journals" tab in ResearchPort (chatting librarians may log into ResearchPort using the username and password provided in the library policy page).

 

• The Baruch College library policy page says:

To find a specific periodical in full-text (1) Click "Journals, Magazines" on the home page, then click the "Full Text Journals" link. (2) Type in the name of the periodical and hit search. If that periodical is available in full-text in any of our databases, you will see a list of which databases have it and what years are available.

• The E-Journals tab on the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee library's home page has a link entitled "Citation Linker (Find It!)” and the library policy page gives a link to SFX help:
  Find It! Help - Guide to our OpenURL system (SFX)

 

Here are some sample results retrieved after using these tools:

• T+D (Alexandria, Va.)
  from 01/01/1987 to present in ProQuest Discovery
  from 05/01/2001 to 05/01/2004 in Business & Company Resource Center, Expanded Academic ASAP, General OneFile and General Reference Center Gold

 

• Annual review of sociology  (0360-0572)
  from 1975 to 2000 in JSTOR Arts and Sciences I Collection
  from 08/01/1990 to 1 year ago in Academic Search Premier
  from 08/01/1990 to 1 year ago in Business Source Premier
  from 01/01/1993 to 01/01/2004 in Business & Company Resource Center
  from 01/01/1995 to 08/01/2005 in ABI/INFORM Global
  from 01/01/1996 to present in Annual Reviews

 

• Journal of nonverbal behavior [0191-5886]
  We have in print 2nd Floor North in Periodicals
  Available from 1992 volume: 16 until 2003 volume: 27
  Full Text Online Communication & Mass Media
  Available from 1992
  Most recent 1 year(s) not available
  Full Text Online Springer/Kluwer Academic Journals
  Available from 1976 volume: 1 issue:1
  Social Sciences: Sociology
  Social Sciences: Behavioral Science (Psychology) and Counselling

Did you know . . .

. . . that you have recourse to a world of expertise, if your library’s or group’s resources cannot satisfy your patron’s question? As a subscriber to QuestionPoint, your library automatically has the option to participate in the Global Reference Network (GRN).

Originally conceived by the Library of Congress, the GRN has been offered as part of QuestionPoint since 2002. The vision for this cooperative was to facilitate the information fulfillment needs of patrons by sharing resources, expertise, and even time through a network of many library types and geographic locations. When a library does not have the needed resources to satisfy a question it’s received, it could route that question to a more appropriate library for an answer.

For small libraries, the GRN helps to level the playing field. No longer does this library have to say “Sorry” to a patron with an information need of greater depth than the collection. For larger libraries, the GRN can help relieve load by routing to a library with a more specialized collection or a public library with a more generalized collection, rather than spending hours researching an unfamiliar subject area or saying no to an out-of-scope education level. For all library patrons, the message is “We can get an answer for you,” rather than “You will have to call so-and-so or travel to such-and-such a library.”

Librarian selects the GRN

Originally built on a system that matches a question coded by the requesting librarian with a library whose subject strengths, as specified in their QuestionPoint profile, match the coded question, the GRN was intended to largely function as a hands-off matching tool. We soon found, however, that a simple matching algorithm leaves something to be desired until profile volume (and thus the volume of subject strengths, locations, times available, etc.) grows to a critical mass. So we introduced a selection tool to use in tandem with automatic matching: from several matching libraries the requesting librarian selects the most appropriate.

Coding the question

Selecting a matching library

Note that in the illustration above, the weighted, matching score is exactly the same for 8 libraries, so the routing librarian has a quite a choice. In the final column, none of the libraries have had a question routed to them this week. The second number represents what that library profiled itself to commit to answering per week, should they be called on to do so (should questions be routed to them).

Over 3500 questions have been routed through the GRN since 2003. In 2008 alone, close to 100 libraries were involved in routing and/or answering the questions. Remember, as a QuestionPoint library you are eligible to participate in the GRN. Although there are no rules for ratio of questions asked to questions answered, community consideration encourages libraries that route questions to consider profiling themselves for also receiving (answering) questions should the need arise. Commitments can always be changed through profiling.

For more information about the Global Reference Network, go to http://www.questionpoint.org/crs/html/help/lv/ask/ask_refer_globalinfo.html. To learn how to participate in the GRN as an answering library, go to http://www.questionpoint.org/crs/html/help/lv/profile/pr_gen_profimpr.html. To learn how to route questions, go to http://www.viewletcentral.com/vc/viewlet/706112206/. Member guidelines are available at http://www.questionpoint.org/policies/memberguidelines.html.

Quality Tip: To Google or not to Google? Try going directly to an official source

Sometimes librarians get in the habit of going to Google as the first resource consulted. However, it may be faster and more relevant to go directly to an official site.

Consider this chat session:

Patron: where can i find a list of all the U.S. presidents in chronological order?

Librarian:  Hello! This is the reference librarian. I'm reading your question...

Librarian:  Here is a site that looks good.  I am sending you the page

Librarian: http://mingo.info-science.uiowa.edu/~welch/refclass/preschrono.htm

Patron:  this is ok, but i was looking for something that had the years in office, too.  anything on that?

Librarian:  Try this site.  You do need to click on each president to get the information you are looking for, but it is very thorough.

Librarian: http://www.geocities.com/peterroberts.geo/Relig-Politics/PresOrder.html

Librarian:  Will this work?

Patron:  yeah, it's awesome!

Librarian:  O.K.  glad it worked.  Thanks for using <name of service>.

Patron:  thanks for all your help.

Patron:  Patron ended chat session.

It’s very likely that the librarian used a search engine such as Google to find these websites. The first website admits that it is not a complete listing--after all, it is only an academic library’s list of print resources: “If a President does not appear on this list, Cole Library has no print resources on that President.” The second website does not give the years of office that the patron requested, other than (as the librarian suggested) clicking on each president to view more details.

Instead, it would have been better to go directly to a site that would be an authority on the subject, such as: http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/chronological.html

How do you know which sites to visit unless you use a search engine? If a print resource comes to mind, check if there is an online equivalent (e.g. Occupational Outlook Handbook). Try browsing through librarian-based websites that describe internet ready-reference resources, such as QuestionPoint’s Ready Reference Resources:  http://questionpoint.pbwiki.com/readyref

This resource, on the QuestionPoint wiki, has links by category and a search box.  A search of “presidents” will get you the link to the Internet Public Library’s POTUS collection, which has the list of presidents in order, with dates of their terms, and links to further information:  http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/

Other ready reference resources to start with include:

Internet Public Library: http://www.ipl.org/

Librarians’ Index to the Internet: http://www.lii.org

Internet Library for Librarians: http://www.itcompany.com/inforetriever/

BUBL LINK Catalogue of Internet Resources: http://bubl.ac.uk/

If you have other good starting points, share them here in the comments section.  Any suggestions for Quality Tips?  Email Susan McGlamery at mcglames@oclc.org

 

QuestionPoint and VR events at ACRL

If you will be attending the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) conference in 1-1/2 weeks, we hope you'll plan to go to the QuestionPoint user group meeting on Friday, March 13.  It will be in the Sheraton Seattle Aspen Room, 10 - 11 a.m.  We'll provide an overview on the latest QuestionPoint development and an update on planning.  Then we want to hear from you: concerns, workflow issues, usage tips for others, questions.  So we have some idea how many to expect, please register for this meeting at https://www3.oclc.org/app/acrl_registration/. 

The next morning, Saturday, March 14, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., the roundtable discussion on Collaborative Reference in a 24/7 World will be of particular interest to many of you.  That discussion will be at the conference center,  Ballroom 6E, RT #9.  Come share your experiences with chat, email, widgets, and collaborative reference with colleagues. Share tips on promoting the service and meeting the needs of today's 24/7 students.
We look forward to seeing you there!

Please contact Paula Rumbaugh (rumbaugh@oclc.org) or Lauri McIntosh (mcintosl@oclc.org) if you have any questions.

Quality Tip: Do Not Ignore Patrons' Rude Behavior

How can chatting librarians determine when a patron's behavior has reached an unacceptable limit? When should chatting librarians follow the Rude Patron guidelines described in section 4.5.1 of the 24/7 Reference Collaborative Policies and Procedures document?

The chatting librarian should follow the Rude Patron guidelines as soon as the patron's remarks become derogatory.

Two transcripts of the same session are pasted below. The first transcript contains the actual text of the session where the librarian ignored the patron's abusive behavior and insisted on addressing the patron's information need. The second transcript illustrates how the Rude Patron guidelines should have been applied once the patron started disparaging the librarian.

At the beginning of the session, the librarian immediately asked if the anonymous patron wished to provide contact information. However, the librarian's first question should have been related to the patron's topic, so the patron would know that the librarian was listening. It's possible that the patron felt "unheard" and resorted to rude behavior in an attempt to get the librarian to acknowledge his comments. Because the librarian ignored the rude behavior, the patron continued to intensify his remarks but was never informed about the boundaries for acceptable use of this service.

Transcript #1: Actual Session

Patron: why doesn't marijuana prohibiton work?

Librarian: Hi!

Librarian: My name is <name>, and I'm a reference librarian from <name>. Since no one from your library is available at the moment, I will be assisting you now. I'm reading your question to see how I can help you...

Librarian: Do you have an email address in case we get disconnected, I can still give you the info?

Patron: no sryyyyyyyyyyy

Librarian: Ok, do you have time to wait while I show you how to search your library databases?

Patron: no i kinda need this now

Librarian: <pushes page from library database>

Librarian: Ok

Patron: what is this

Librarian: I am typing:

Librarian: marijuana

Patron: ok, great...

Patron: and...

Patron: out of all the times i'

Librarian: <article page pushed from database>

Librarian: This is full-text

Librarian: scroll to the bottom

Patron: you might possibly be the worst librarian i've ever had to talk to

Librarian: you'll see the section "Why I said Yes"

Patron: your mother should have had an abortion

Librarian: It discusses why the parent said No

Librarian: but the daughter said Yes

Librarian: to marijuana

Patron: I dont care why the parent says no

Librarian: But the Yes part

Patron: i want to know why prohibiton doesn't work

Librarian: Right, I'm thinking that the Yes section

Librarian: would give reasons why the prohibition doesn't work

Librarian: Let's see...

Patron: did you read it

Librarian: Like for instance,

Librarian: "I had a sense of adventure, and I certainly didn't want to be in the library all the time. I sought out others who felt the same way. And in my age of invincibility, none of the tragic stories seemed like they could happen to me. "

Librarian: Is this the type of info you are trying to find about why prohibition doesn't work?

Patron: that has litterally nothing to do with prohibiton

Patron: did you finish middle school

Librarian: Ok, are you talking more about the legal aspects of prohibition,

Librarian: or economic,

Librarian: or social,

Librarian: or psychological?

Patron: no retard, i'm talking about the literal aspect.

Patron: you couldn't be more stupid

Librarian: Let me see what else I can find,

Librarian: So why prohibition doesn't work for individual people who decide to do it anyway?

Patron: yeah, sure, whatever

Librarian: <article page pushed from database>

Librarian: <different article page pushed from database>

Librarian: This one has the full-text as HTML so you don't have to click on PDF

Patron: thanks idiot. go crawl back in your hole

Librarian: Does this one seem more relevant?

Librarian: It begins:

Librarian: "Prohibition doesn't work. It never has and never will. Even if it did work, what right does the government have to dictate what adult citizens may or may not put into their own bodies? Absolutely no right."

Patron: dude, i know how to read

Librarian: Ok, great, does this article seem useful to you?

Patron: no. you suck. your mother should have had an abortion

Librarian: Ok, what part of the article that you read was not helpful?

Librarian: Knowing what was not helpful can help me find something better for you.

Patron: you weren't exactly helpful..

Librarian: I would like to help you

Librarian: Will you help me help you?

Patron: well, you're not

Patron: no

Librarian: Okay,

Librarian: Can you think of any other way that I can help you now?

Patron: you probably wanna punch me in the face right now...

Librarian: Hm, actually I didn't think about that

Librarian: I would just like to help you find the info you need!

Librarian: Is there anything I can help you with at this time?

Patron: well you suck at it. go find a real job you lazy bum

Librarian: By the way,

Librarian: if you have an email address,

Librarian: you can email those articles to yourself

Librarian: from that database I showed you

Patron: i hate you

Patron: bill clinton is more helpful than you

Librarian: Would you like me to find different articles that might be more useful to you?

Patron: no

Librarian: Okay

Patron: write this global warming paper for my friend

Librarian: If you would like help finding information in the future, please contact us again. Goodbye for now...

Librarian: Librarian ended chat session.

Transcript #2: Application of the Rude Patron Guidelines

Patron: why doesn't marijuana prohibiton work?

Librarian: Hi!

Librarian: My name is <name>, and I'm a reference librarian from <name>. Since no one from your library is available at the moment, I will be assisting you now. I'm reading your question to see how I can help you...

Librarian: Do you have an email address in case we get disconnected, I can still give you the info?

Patron: no sryyyyyyyyyyy

Librarian: Ok, do you have time to wait while I show you how to search your library databases?

Patron: no i kinda need this now

Librarian: <pushes page from library database>

Librarian: Ok

Patron: what is this

Librarian: I am typing:

Librarian: marijuana

Patron: ok, great...

Patron: and...

Patron: out of all the times i'

Librarian: <article page pushed from database>

Librarian: This is full-text

Librarian: scroll to the bottom

Patron: you might possibly be the worst librarian i've ever had to talk to

At this point, since the patron expressed dissatisfaction with the librarian's assistance, the librarian has two options: the librarian could ask if the patron would like to be transferred to a different librarian (the patron would have to wait longer to receive help) or the librarian could send a warning message, ending with a direct question:

Librarian: I am sorry you feel that way; however, we prefer to handle sessions professionally and with civility. If you are willing to use polite and respectful chat, we can go on, or you can return when you have more time and patience. Which would you prefer?

Then, if the patron persists in the rude behavior, the librarian should disconnect the call:

Patron: your mother should have had an abortion

Librarian: I am disconnecting. If you still need help finding information, please contact us again when you decide to be polite. Goodbye for now...

The Quality Team is here to help with tips and guidelines.  If you would like advice about a particular session, go ahead and send the session to Quality.  It is true that our advice and guidance will come after the session is complete, but we may be able to offer suggestions for the future.

Questions or comments about this post? Other suggestions on how to approach this session? Comment below or email Susan McGlamery at mcglames@oclc.org.

Features/Fixes for 22 February 2009

Release Notes for 22 February 2009

Contents

1. New Features

     1.1 New FLASH code in Co-browse

     1.2 New Links on Home Page

     1.3 New Field Added to E-mail Forms Manager

2. Changes

     2.1 Library Card Number Field in Policy Page Increased

3. Fixes

     3.1 Notification When Ask Admin Assigns to Institution Admin

     3.2 NEW Status at Two Libraries Simultaneously

     3.3 Co-browse Indicates Join Co-browse

     3.4 Forms Assignment

     3.5 Default “look and Feel” for e-mail forms

1. New Features

1.1 New FLASH code in Co-browse

The installation of 23 November 2008 implemented the new Flash version in the QuestionPoint chat monitor. However, the co-browse functionality continued to use the older version. We are happy to announce that, as of this Sunday, 22 February, co-browse will also make use of the new Flash. As well as now having the same look and feel as the chat monitor, the new version will allow you to resize the co-browse window without affecting the font size.

 

1.2 New Links on Home Page

Two new links appear on the Home page, My QuestionPoint. The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association, has published two sets of guidelines: one for providing virtual reference services, and another for organizing cooperative reference services. Access to both documents is now just a click away from your QuestionPoint home page.

1.3 New Field Added to E-Mail Forms Manager

A footer field can now be added, via the Forms Manager, to e-mail forms. This capability, already available for chat forms, is a text area just above the submit button, in which instructions or various necessary communications to the user can be displayed. If administrators choose to add this field to the library’s e-mailed web form, it will not count as one of 10 allowable customizable fields.

2. Changes

2.1 Library Card Number Field in Policy Page Increased

The Library Card Number field has been increased to 500 characters, so administrators can enter information here that is necessary for a chatting librarian to access critical home library information. A cautionary note has also been added in red typeface, warning the chatting librarian to not share this information with the patron.

3. Fixes

3.1 Notification When Ask Admin Assigns to Institution Admin

For some time, the Institution Administrator was not being notified through e-mail when an Ask Administrator assigns a new question to him or her. This has been fixed; the system now e-mails the proper notification.

3.2 NEW Status at Two Libraries Simultaneously

We discovered that when a patron replies to an e-mailed transcript, the question status in QuestionPoint changed to NEW for both the library that handled the chat sessions and the patron’s library. This has now been fixed so that only the patron’s library sees the NEW status. The status for the chat library does not change.

3.3 Co-browse Indicates Join Co-browse

When a new co-browse session is opened, the speed an reliability of the librarian note “Joined cobrowse” has been improved.

3.4 Forms Assignment

Some libraries that have implemented new e-mail intake forms via the Forms Manager feature in the Administration module, noticed that automatic assignments were not working. That has now been rectified; automatic assignments now work correctly.

3.5 Default “look and Feel” for e-mail forms

In the Forms Manager, e-mail forms were not correctly reflecting the look-and-feel defaults when set up for various languages. Forms Manager users with forms in more than one language will see this working properly after Sunday’s install.