QuestionPoint Install 13 November 2011

New Features

1.    Upside Wireless, another texting option

Libraries that have accounts with Upside Wireless (http://www.upsidewireless.com/) , a text messaging solution based in Canada (but also sold in the U.S. and UK and other select countries), can now integrate that account into QuestionPoint.  Administrators need to complete simple configuration steps in the Administration module to make the link between the two services active.  The images below illustrate.

As with Mosio’s Text a Librarian (integrated with QuestionPoint in March 2010), text messages will be delivered to the Ask module and answered from there.  Libraries will receive an e-mail alert from Upside Wireless, as well as a notification from QuestionPoint if QP notification is active.  Responses to Upside Wireless text messages can be a maximum of 160 characters, and a counter on the Answer page counts down as the librarian enters their response.  The Answer box will not accept characters beyond 160.
     The last image illustrates how one librarian used the URL “minifier” to shorten a URL, so her response would fit well within the 160-character limit.

2.    New fields added to Policy Pages

Two new fields have been added to the Policy Page template for Cooperative libraries:  e-Serials ISSN Search and Open URL Resolvers.  Both fields can be linked to fields in the WorldCat Registry if the Policy Page editor wishes.  The information could also be copied from the Registry and edited for Policy Page use.  The final option is for the editor to enter data directly into the field. 

In addition, the Parent Institution field can now also be linked to or copied from the Registry if the editor wishes.  The advantage of linking to a Registry record is that information that changes needs to be updated in only the Registry and not in each, individual OCLC service.   See the Policy Page guidelines at  http://wiki.questionpoint.org/w/page/13839472/Policy%20Page%20Guidelines  for the type of data that should go into these fields.

The image above illustrates the editor and chat librarian views of the new linkable fields.

3.    Form Field reviews

As part of the first, necessary steps to improving the reporting of information you collect on your various forms (e.g., webform, chat form), QuestionPoint has made a few changes to form field reviews (Ask >> Review Transcripts >> Form Fields).   The image below illustrates how administrators must first select the date and delivery format options, then the Session Type they want to review:  questions received via your question form link, i.e., webform and walk-up (Add Question) forms; chat sessions; and text messages.
     Depending on your selection of Session Type, the second part of the page is populated with the possible fields to report on.  Other changes include changing the default delivery format to the View Excel file and the default label layout to As column headings.
     It should be noted that the important work that is being implemented with this release is the restructuring of how form fields are named, maintained, and stored.  To take full advantage of the more flexible and more accurate (if you change form fields over time) structure, your library should use forms built within the QuestionPoint Forms Manager in the Administration module.  Note:  Those libraries that have been using Forms Manager forms will need to rebuild those forms to take full advantage of the improvements.  Instructions for that simple procedure will be published after the release.

4.    Practice chat form upgrade

The practice chat form has been upgraded and integrated into the Forms Manager.  If your library has a chat form built with the Forms Manager, your administrator can choose to have all the fields and options of that form also appear for the practice form.   Otherwise, the practice form will use default fields:  Name, E-mail, and Question.  In the case of defaults, all fields are optional. 

If you wish to practice or test, check the Practice checkbox so that your session comes into the Practice queue (the “chat librarian” must select the Practice queue on the chat monitor queue selection page).  Or if you want to test in a live environment, leave the box unchecked and choose a real queue to monitor in the chat monitor.  Sessions using the practice form are not included in statistics or form field reports.

The image below illustrates a practice form that is using fields configured in Forms Manager.

5.    Walk-up (Add Question) forms configuration integrated into Forms Manager

Also a result of the effort to improve form reporting, we have moved the configuration of walk-up forms from the Ask module and integrated it into the Forms Manager.  This places the control of all patron/question intake methods in one area and allows you to build forms more uniformly, if desired, as well as more efficiently, since you can use the same configured field(s) in more than one form.  Also, with walk-up forms now within the Forms Manager, you can build selection options such as drop-down menus, which were not possible heretofore for walk-up forms.

The following image illustrates where the walk-up form is configured within the Forms Manager.

And the next image shows what a configured walk-up form might look like.

6.    Irish language added

Administrators can now indicate Irish as a language strength in the Profile module, and editors can add Irish-language records to a local knowledge base or the Global KB.

 

Fixes

 

1.    Time zone fixes

In our previous install, we introduced greater flexibility in time zone configuration, which enabled multiple time zones per country.  Because different Daylight Savings (or Summer Time) dates have been adopted in certain regions of some countries, our automated “switch” did not correctly operate for all of the newly created zones.  This has now been corrected, and the automated drop-back/spring-forward will now function correctly for all of the time zones represented in QuestionPoint.

Comments

[Randy Miller]

I very much appreciate the continuous updating. It's important to keep improving features.

Since the last update, in the Queues table, when the "My Active" tab is selected, instead of seeing the first few words of the patron's last message in the "Patron's Last Message" column, I now see a time, like "18:05:04 (GMT.."

It was useful to see those first few words, as I could tell without opening a patron's chat when the "Patron is no longer connected" message had appeared and I could close that chat. It also helped to differentiate between patrons when I had multiple patrons online. The time information is not as useful.

Thanks.