QuestionPoint: 24/7 reference services

Notes d'Installation prévue pour 14 octobre, 2012

Nouvelles fonctionnalités et améliorations

1        Qwidget

1.1       Avis aux bibliothécaires du Chat concernant l’adresse électronique des utilisateurs.

Deux nouveaux avis ont été ajoutés à l’interface de dialogue en ligne (Chat) du bibliothécaire pour l’avertir que l’utilisateur en ligne a fourni une adresse électronique.   

Le premier avis « L’utilisateur a ajouté une adresse électronique » apparaîtra dans le moniteur de Chat dans le cadre d’une session en cours avec un utilisateur du Qwidget qui a ajouté son adresse électronique après le début de la session. Ce message informera le bibliothécaire qu’il n’a pas à demander à l’utilisateur son adresse électronique pour assurer le suivi de sa question s’il y a lieu.

Exemple :

Le deuxième avis  « L’utilisateur a choisi de rester anonyme (aucune adresse électronique pour suivi)» servira à confirmer que, même si l’utilisateur a fourni une adresse électronique afin de recevoir une transcription de sa session, il a également choisi de ne PAS révéler cette adresse à QuestionPoint.

        

Par conséquent, la bibliothèque n’aura pas l’adresse électronique dans le dossier à des fins de suivi.  Ce message informe le bibliothécaire qu’il ne pourra pas assurer le suivi de la question si la case « anonyme » reste cochée. La case « anonyme » peut toutefois être cochée ou décochée au cours de session. Le bibliothécaire peut donc suggérer à l’utilisateur de modifier cette option s’il y a lieu durant la session. L’adresse électronique de l’utilisateur restera invisible au bibliothécaire dans le moniteur de Chat, mais sera disponible dans l’historique de la session.

1.2      Confirmation personnalisable de courriel envoyé à partir du Qwidget « fermé ».

Après l’envoi de leur question, les utilisateurs qui envoient un message par courriel à partir du Qwidget « fermé » (service non disponible) verront le message de confirmation par défaut suivant pendant environ 10 secondes : Merci. Votre question a été soumise.   Ce message peut être personnalisé dans le module  Administration de QuestionPoint.

 

1.3    Plusieurs Qwidgets permis sur une même page Web.

La version 3 du populaire « Qwidget » pour le Chat est maintenant disponible. En mettant à niveau la version 2 du Qwidget ou en téléchargeant la version 3, vous pourrez maintenant héberger jusqu’à 5 Qwidgets sur une page Web. Voici quelques exemples où cette possibilité est avantageuse :    

•  les bibliothèques qui ont plusieurs Profils de services (SUP) peuvent avoir plusieurs Qwidgets différents sur la même page Web;
• les Qwidgets « bannières » peuvent être affichés sur toutes les pages de votre site, si désiré, sans affecter l’affichage de vos autres « Widgets »;
• des Qwidgets en diverses langues peuvent être affichés dans une même page Web.

 Plusieurs Qwidgets  sur une même page Web

2        Plus de participants au projet pilot.

Nous avons terminé avec succès la première phase du récent projet pilote « QuestionPoint via email service » (QuestionPoint par courriel), et sommes heureux d’annoncer que plus de bibliothèques seront invitées à offrir cette fonctionnalité. Si vous êtes intéressé à ce que votre bibliothèque permette aux utilisateurs de soumettre des questions en utilisant une simple adresse électronique, en plus de votre formulaire de question Web, veuillez contacter Carol Bonnefil (bonnefic@oclc.org) pour plus de détails.

 

3        Recherches/Rapports/Révisions

3.1       Modification du libellé sous Réviser les transcriptions/ Zones du formulaire.

Dans le module Référence, sous Réviser les transactions / Données des formulaires Web d’utilisateur,  dans la liste déroulante « Par type de transaction », l’option « Formulaire de question » a été changée pour « Formulaire/Courriel » afin de mieux décrire tous les types de questions inclus dans le rapport. En choisissant « Formulaire/Courriel », la liste contiendra toutes les questions soumises via le « formulaire de courriel » de QuestionPoint  de même que celles soumises via l’adresse électronique QuestionPoint pour votre bibliothèque (nouveau service en phase pilote.  Voir la section 1.2)

3.2        Modification du libellé sous Questions/recherche avancée.

Dans le module Référence, sous l’onglet Questions, cliquez sur le lien Recherche avancée. Dans l’écran Recherche avancée, dans la liste déroulante « Type de transaction », l’option « Formulaire de question uniquement » a été changée pour « Courriel/Formulaire/Sur place (Ajouter question) » afin de refléter cette limite de recherche.

4        Explications sur le formatage dans l’écran Modification des politiques.

 

Dans l’écran Modification des politiques (disponible pour les administrateurs de QuestionPoint et administrateurs de référence dans le module Profil), des explications ont été ajoutées pour créer des hyperliens vers des URL à l’intérieur des zones : 

 « Ajouter des parenthèses en chevron (< et >) à toute URL pour la convertir en hyperlien sauf indication contraire pour certaines zones. »

Ces explications sont un rappel que les étiquettes HTML compliquées ne sont pas nécessaires pour convertir des URL en hyperliens. Sauf indications contraires, l’ajout d’un chevron au début et à la fin d’une URL, c’est-à-dire < >, convertira l’URL en hyperlien dans la Page de politiques de la bibliothèque.

5        Exportation des transcriptions.

Une nouvelle fonctionnalité personnalisable est disponible pour les bibliothèques qui veulent exporter de façon continue leurs transcriptions vers leurs propres systèmes hébergés. En utilisant S-FTP, les transcriptions peuvent être exportées vers un environnement externe. Tous les incidents causant la modification du contenu ou du statut d’une transcription engendreront l’exportation de la transcription, permettant la duplication presque synchrone des informations des transactions sur votre système hébergé et permettant l’exploration des données, les rapports statistiques personnalisés et d’autres opérations liées à vos transactions dans QuestionPoint. Pour plus d’informations sur ce service personnalisé, veuillez contacter Carol Bonnefil (bonnefic@oclc.org) 

Corrections

1        Corrections apportées au Qwidget.

1.1       L’affichage des URL dans l’historique du Chat dans le Qwidget n’était pas consistant.

Auparavant, les URL très longues n’étaient pas toujours bouclées (affichées sur la ligne suivante) ce qui causait un mauvais affichage des Qwidgets sur la page Web.

         Les URL apparaissent maintenant à l’intérieur du cadre, peu importe leur longueur.    

                                                                                           

1.2       L’adresse électronique de l’utilisateur est effacée après l’envoi de la question à partir du Qwidget « fermé ».

Après qu’un utilisateur a inscrit son adresse électronique et sa question, et utilise le bouton « Soumettre », son adresse est maintenant immédiatement effacée de l’écran (il n’est plus nécessaire de rafraîchir l’écran) afin de mieux protéger les renseignements sur l’utilisateur dans un environnement public.

2         Le rapport iSoft « Service de Chat- Rapport quotidien » pour le 8 juillet 2012 a été récupéré.

Des bibliothèques ont rapporté que les statistiques quotidiennes sur les sessions de Chat du 8 juillet 2012 n’étaient pas affichées correctement dans le module Rapports.  Ce problème a été corrigé et toutes les statistiques pour le 8 juillet 2012 ont été mises à jour. Les totaux mensuels pour juillet 2012 ne peuvent pas être rétroactivement corrigés pour inclure les statistiques du 8 juillet. Pour obtenir le bon total pour un rapport mensuel, trimestriel ou annuel pour 2012, le total pour le rapport quotidien du 8 juillet 2012 devra être ajouté manuellement au rapport mensuel, trimestriel ou annuel. Une note a été ajoutée dans l’écran Rapports en guise de rappel.

3        Les données des formulaires Web d’utilisateur correspondent maintenant aux rapports hors ligne.

Les colonnes de données dans les rapports Excel sur les Données des formulaires Web d’utilisateur correspondent maintenant aux données des rapports hors-ligne dans le module Référence, sous l’onglet Réviser les transcriptions.

4        Listes de questions dans le compte des abonnés.

Les sessions dans le compte des abonnés sont maintenant triées en ordre chronologique par défaut.

Release Notes for October 14, 2012 install

New Features/Improvements

1.     Qwidget

    1.1       Notifications to chatting librarian regarding patron email addresses.

Two new incident notifications have been added to the Librarian chat interface to help alert chatting librarians to the fact that Patrons have entered an email address.   

The first notification:  “Patron has added an email address” will appear in the librarian’s chat monitor as part of an in-progress chat session with a Qwidget patron who has added their email address after the session has begun. This will alert the chatting librarian that he or she doesn’t have to request an email address from a patron in order to allow the possibility of the patron’s library follow-up with that patron.

Ex 1:

The second notification: “Patron has chosen to remain anonymous (no email address available for follow-up)” will serve as confirmation that although the patron may have entered an email address in order to receive a transcript at the conclusion of a Qwidget session, they have also chosen NOT to reveal that email address to QuestionPoint.

Ex 2:

 This means that the library will not have an email address as part of the record, to use for any follow-up purposes.  The incident is displayed to the chatting librarian so that he or she will be aware that follow-up will not be possible if that anonymous check box stays checked. The “anonymous” check box can be changed while the session is in progress however, so the incident may also serve as a point of conversation between the librarian and patron, to help the patron decide whether he or she wants to change the option and include the email address without anonymity in order to allow follow-up if necessary.

The email address is still not visible to the chatting librarian in the patron information area of the chat monitor, but the new notifications in the chat history will serve as an alert that the email address is at least in play for the session follow-up capability.

1.2    Customizable confirmation of email sent from “closed” Qwidget

Patrons who send an email message from the Closed Qwidget screen will now see a confirmation message for approximately 10 seconds after their question has been submitted:

The default message is: “Thank you. Your question has been submitted”.  This message can be customized from within theQuestionPoint Admin module.

1.3    Multiple Qwidgets allowed on the same webpage.

Version 3 of our popular “Qwidget” chat widget is now available. By upgrading your Version 2 Qwidget or downloading the newly-revised Version 3 Qwidget code, you can now host up to 5 Qwidgets on one webpage.  Some examples of why this was a highly desired feature:    

• libraries with multiple SUPs can have several different Subject Qwidgets co-exist on the same webpage;
• “Banner” Qwidgets can  display across all of the pages on your site if desired and not impact your embedded  LibGuides Qwidgets;
• Multiple language Qwidgets can simultaneously display on one page, if you have bi-lingual WebPages.

    

 

2      Email pilot expanded

We have successfully concluded the first phase of the recent “QuestionPoint via email service” pilot, and are happy to announce that more libraries will be invited to participate in offering this feature. If your library is interested allowing patrons to submit reference questions to your library using a simple email address in addition to your web-based “email form”, please contact Carol Bonnefil (bonnefic@oclc.org) for more details.

3      Searches/Reports/Reviews

3.1      Label change on Review Transcripts: Form Field Reports

On the Form Field Reports selection page, the item of “Question Form link”  in the drop-down box of types of reports available has been changed to “Webform/Email” to better describe all of the types of questions included in that report.  Choosing “Webform/Email” will produce a list of all of the questions submitted using the QuestionPoint “email form” as well as questions submitted to your library’s QuestionPoint email address (a new service currently in Pilot phase.  See section 1.2 )

 

3.2      Label change on Search Transcripts, Transaction Type Limiter:

On the Advanced Search screen of Search Transcripts in the Ask Module, the Transaction Type limiter “Email Transaction Only” has been changed to reflect the actual search function limiter of “Email/Webform/Walk-up (Add Question) only”.

4    Policy Page formatting explanation added

 On the Policy Page edit field (available to Admins and Ask Admins in the Profile Module), and explanation of how to create hot-links to URLs within the fields has been added: 

“Add angle brackets to any URL to convert to a hyperlink, except where noted in specific field instructions.”

This will remind librarians that html complicated html tags are not necessary to convert URLs to hotlinks. Except for where noted in a particular field, the addition of left and right angle brackets at the beginning and end of a URL, respectively, < >,  will convert it to a hotlink on the actual Policy Page display.

5      Transcript exports

A new custom feature is available for libraries that wish to continuously export their transcripts into their own hosted environments. Using S-FTP, transcripts can be exported to a remote self-hosted environment. All incidents that cause a change in transcript content or status will trigger an export of the transcript, permitting nearly-synchronous duplicate transaction information on your locally hosted machine and allowing for data mining, reports capabilities customized to your own liking, and further activity upon all of your QuestionPoint transactions. For more information on this custom service, please contact Carol Bonnefil (bonnefic@oclc.org) 

Fixes

1        Qwidget fixes.

1.1       Display of URLS in chat history in Qwidget was inconsistent.

Prior to this install, lengthy URLs could fail to “wrap” in the frame, thereby causing Qwidgets to display improperly on the webpage.

         URLs are now contained in the frame, regardless of length.

                                                      

1.2       Patron’s email address is removed from view after email question is   submitted from Closed Qwidget.

After a patron enters their email address and question, and uses the “Submit” button, the patron’s email address is now immediately removed from the screen, rather than upon page refresh, in order to better protect the patron’s privacy in a public venue.

2         ISoft Daily Chat Stats report for July 8, 2012 have been recovered.

It was reported that the daily stats for chat sessions which occurred on 7/8/12 were not correctly displaying in the Reports module.  This has been corrected and all statistics for 7/8/12 have been updated.  Monthly totals for July 2012 cannot be retroactively corrected to include the statistics for July 8^th activity.  To achieve a correct total for a Monthly, Quarterly or Annual report  for 2012, the total from the Daily report for 7/8/2012 will have be manually added to the respective Mnth/Qtr/Yr end report.  A note has been added to the Reports page to remind users of this.

3        Online Patron Form Field Reports now match Offline Reports.

Data columns in Online Patron Form Field Excel reports now match same data in the offline reports in Ask Module>Review Transcripts.

4        Patron Account Question Lists

Patron’s sessions in their QuestionPoint Patron account are now default sorted in chronological order.

Losing Meebo? Get Qwidget!

Is your “local” chat service imperiled due to the loss of Meebo Messenger or MeeboMe widgets? Now may be the right time for your library to take another look at QuestionPoint’s Qwidget.

If your library already subscribes to QuestionPoint, then you are only a copy and paste step away from embedding the Qwidget on any or all pages of your library website.

Why Qwidget?

The Qwidget provides an inviting and intuitive interface for your chat service. Libraries have reported significant increases in traffic once the Qwidget is deployed.

Move your local services to Qwidget and you will receive these benefits:

· Statistics and reports covering all your chat activities

· One login to monitor all your chat queues

· Cooperative monitoring possibilities

· Scripted Messages and URLs.

· Integrated with email and referral options for seamless follow-up

Where can you place your Qwidget?

Practically anywhere! In addition to your library webpages, place your Qwidget in the catalog, in LibGuides, on Facebook, as a QR Code, or “collapse” it on your website’s banner. See the QP wiki at http://bit.ly/QwidgetTips for instructions and more suggestions.

Qwidget on the Go:

Your Qwidget is optimized for iOS (Apple) mobile browsers and is thus accessible through iPhone, iPad and iTouch. (Qwidget does function on a variety of Android devices as well, but we can’t guarantee an optimized experience, due to the variety and breadth of Android device operating systems.)

If you are part of a cooperative group:

If your library is sharing a chat queue with other libraries, then your Qwidget will be open for business whenever you or any of your shared Primary Queue partners are online. Example: the ABC library group shares a chat queue, and Library X belongs to the ABC group. When any ABC librarian is monitoring the queue, then chat is available at all Qwidgets of every ABC library. If X is monitoring chat, then the X Qwidget is open. X will see patrons from all ABC libraries. If X is not online, the X Qwidgets are still open so long as another ABC librarian is online.

If X wants to see only X patrons (and not all ABC patrons), then X will need an individual chat queue, available for a modest fee. This allows X librarians to log in and monitor the X Qwidget according to their local needs. X can also monitor the ABC queue, as per any agreed cooperative schedule. The fee for the separate queue depends on your group arrangement.

24/7 Qwidget?

Libraries that participate in the 24/7 Reference Cooperative may, if eligible, join the Qwidget Roll-Up program. See the Coop FAQ at http://bit.ly/247FAQ for more details.

For more information, please contact support@oclc.org

Updated Directions for Adding the Qwidget to Facebook

Dear QuestionPoint community,

As you might have noticed, Facebook has changed how Apps and Tabs are displayed on Pages. As a result of these changes, we have updated the basic and advanced directions for adding the Qwidget to Facebook.

The most significant changes are with the new App Icon and how you install your App to Facebook once it is complete.

The directions can be found at:

Basic: http://www5.oclc.org/questionpoint/fb/QPBasicQwidgetFacebookv3.docx

Advanced: http://www5.oclc.org/questionpoint/fb/QPAdvancedQwidgetFacebookv3.docx 

Please know that while we do our best to update the directions for adding the Qwidget to Facebook, it is critical for all Facebook developers to track the Facebook Developer Roadmap located at http://developers.facebook.com/roadmap/ and the Developer blog @ http://developers.facebook.com/blog/archive

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me directly.

David Leslie

Product Implementation and Support Analyst

 

 

Updated Qwidget Directions for Facebook

Dear QuestionPoint community,

As you might have noticed, Facebook has changed how Apps and Tabs are displayed on Pages. As a result of these changes, we have updated the basic and advanced directions for adding the Qwidget to Facebook.

The most significant changes are with the new App Icon and how you install your App to Facebook once it is complete.

The directions can be found at:

Basic: http://www5.oclc.org/questionpoint/fb/QPBasicQwidgetFacebookv3.docx

Advanced: http://www5.oclc.org/questionpoint/fb/QPAdvancedQwidgetFacebookv3.docx 

Please know that while we do our best to update the directions for adding the Qwidget to Facebook, it is critical for all Facebook developers to track the Facebook Developer Roadmap located at http://developers.facebook.com/roadmap/ and the Developer blog @ http://developers.facebook.com/blog/archive

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me directly.

David Leslie

Product Implementation and Support Analyst

 

 

Brief QuestionPoint service interruption planned for Wed May 16 a 6:00 UTC (2AM ET)

Please be advised that the QuestionPoint service will be unavailable during a brief (2 minute) service interruption of QuestionPoint on Wednesday May 16

for the following time period: from 6:00 UTC (2:00 a.m. EST) for approximately 2 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 in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.)  After the 2 minutes are over, you may again log in and resume your QuestionPoint activities as usual.

• New Feature:

 Chat Spam “Captcha” mechanism.  Administrators will be able to interpose a “Captcha” challenge for their chat forms.  This is available at the institution level, in the Admistration Module>Forms>Spam Filter.  To enable the Captcha, choose the “Chat” check box, and then click “Save”.  After patrons fill in the chat form on your websites, they will be challenged to enter a series of letters, displayed in a distorted image on the screen. If they do so successfully, the chat session will then pass through to the librarians online. There is audio assistance for those who may have difficulty seeing or interpreting the characters.

• Bug Fix:

 It was recently reported that extremely long URLs sent to patrons in chat, might not display properly in  the patron’s chat history (although they were visible in the emailed chat transcript and inside of QuestionPoint accounts). This bug has been fixed and long URLs should now display properly in the chat history. Please note, that this fix is unrelated to the previously reported “known issue” of webpage display in the chat viewport.  Long links generated from Google searches that contain the Google domain name in the URL will continue to return the “page can’t be displayed” note in the viewport, however, the URL, now visible, is clickable in order to open the page in a separate window.

• Updated Qwidget for Facebook  Instructions:

Updated instructions for placing a Qwidget on your Facebook account have been published to the QuestionPoint Wiki.

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

Updated directions for adding the Qwidget to Facebook

Dear QuestionPoint community,

As you might have noticed, Facebook has announced and has already made some significant changes to how applications (apps) are built for Facebook. As a result of these changes, we have updated the basic and advanced directions for adding the Qwidget to Facebook.

The updated directions cover these four significant changes you will need to be aware of if you use the QuestionPoint qwidget on Facebook.

• Starting Oct 1 all Facebook canvas applications such as the qwidget must be assessable via SSL. This means you will need to have your qwidget hosted on a server Facebook can access that supports HTTPS as well as HTTP. For more information on this, please see http://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/497/

 

• Changes to the user interface of the Facebook Developer tool

 

• An option to have your application’s files hosted by an integrated provider such as Heroku

 

• An update to the Facebook PHP files which are used in the Advanced directions.

 

You can find these updated directions at

Basic: http://www5.oclc.org/questionpoint/fb/QPBasicQwidgetFacebookv2.docx

Advanced: http://www5.oclc.org/questionpoint/fbqwidget/QPAdvancedQwidgetfacebookv2.docx

 

Please know that while we do our best to update the directions for adding the Qwidget to Facebook, it is critical for all Facebook developers to track the Facebook Developer Roadmap located at http://developers.facebook.com/roadmap/ and the Developer blog @ http://developers.facebook.com/blog/archive   

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me directly.

David Leslie

Product Implmentation and Support Analyst

QuestionPoint team

 

Qwidget typing problem for some patrons using Firefox 3.6 or higher

Dear QuestionPoint Chat Users:

We would like to discuss an issue rasied on the list server regarding patrons using the Qwidget through Firefox version 3.6 and higher. 

As mentioned on the list serve, we have learned though reports by users, and by our own testing, that problems of slow or interrupted text input might be experienced by patrons using Firefox version 3.6 and higher (including the newly released Firefox 4).

This is due to an issue between the Qwidget and changes made by Mozilla to improve Firefox's processing speed. The severity of the issue for Firefox users will vary based on a combination of these factors:

- The amount of bandwidth the patron is using at the time. This includes number of opened browser windows and tabs (not just Firefox's) and use of streaming media.

- The number of network hops between the user's computer and the QuestionPoint server."Network hops" means the number of internet routers that handle the patron's message between their computer and the QuestionPoint server. The network hops will change from session to session based on things like the patron's internet provider and the patron's physical location. The greater the number of network hops between the user and the QuestionPoint servers, the greater the risk of the problem occurring during the session.

 - How fast the network hops are processing the patron's requests. Speed is measured by how much time it takes each hop to handle the patron's message. The longer the amount of time it takes each hop to process the patron's message, the greater the risk of the problem occurring. Speed can be affected based on the amount of traffic being handled by the hop at a given time. 

While the problem is not pervasive, it is significant, and we are working on possible fixes to improve the Qwidget experience for patrons using these versions of Firefox. 

Meanwhile, if you notice that Firefox patrons are experiencing difficulties, we recommend that you ask the patron to close any streaming media services as well as any extra Firefox tabs that they may have open. If this does not resolve the problem, then please ask them if they would be willing to end the session and come back with a different browser such as Internet Explorer, Chrome or Safari.  

Please continue to send any reports of this problem along with the transcript ID to Support@oclc.org, so that we may compile as much anecdotal material on this issue as possible as we work towards a fix.

QR Codes for your Qwidget

This tip for generating QR codes for the Qwidget using bit.ly was posted to the QuestionPoint listserv by Bill Pardue, Reference & Virtual Services Supervisor at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

From Bill Pardue:

The issue:  determining what URL to associate with a QR code for the mobile qwidget

The problem: 

I thought that mobile users would pass the actual mobile qwidget URL along as the referrer, but instead you see the page from which the patron went to the mobile widget (and it stays with their bookmarked icon, so whenever they connect, that's the referrer you'll see). That clearly makes sense when working with mobile users who've encountered the qwidget in the course of using your site, so I see no reason to change that.

It's a bit trickier if they save the qwidget from there and return to it later.

For example, with our iPad, I went to the mobile qwidget and saved it as an icon after first visiting our catalog page (http://iii.ahml.info).

Now, every time I use that icon from the iPad home screen, my sessions look like they came from our catalog page.

The solution: 

It's probably a good idea to think about what referrer page to associate with a "pure" link to the mobile qwidget, like you might set up with a QR code. I was able to put together a sample URL below that would look like it's being generated from our homepage. Note that all colons and slashes in our URL have been converted to hex codes (%3A, %2F). Also notice the "instid" and "skin" fields, which you'd need to modify to your ID and preferences.

http://www.questionpoint.org/crs/qwidget/mobileQwidget.jsp?langcode=1&instid=12292&skin=blue&size=standard&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ahml.info%2F

As long as we're on QR codes and qwidgets, etc.,I had the idea to generate a bit.ly code for our mobile qwidget's URL (http://bit.ly/AskAHML), especially for users with iPads and camera-less iPod Touches, etc.

It then dawned on me that I should use the bit.ly URL to generate the actual QR code. That way, we could track how many times the QR code is used. Note: this will just show how many times it's initially entered into a device...if they bookmark it, they'll have stored the QP URL, so bit.ly won't count subsequent use.

Even cooler, I just found bit.ly's trick of natively generating QR codes. Two ways:

1. Put in your QR code and add ".qr" at the end: http://bit.ly/AskAHML.qr. You'll be taken to a page with the QR code for that bit.ly URL. Just copy/paste as needed.
2. In bit.ly's main page for your account, click on the click-through stat for any of your links to see a full overview of its related activity. A QR code appears on the right.

Here's a fun article that Richard Kong passed along to me about Bit.ly vs. Google on shortners and QR codes: http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/13/bitly-qr/

Apologies if that's old hat to any/everyone!

Do you have QR Code tips to share?  Just post to this blog or send to the QuestionPoint listserv!  For directions on how to subscribe to the QP listserv, visit http://www.questionpoint.org/community/listserv/questionpoint-l.html

Using the Qwidget on Mobile Devices and with QR Codes

Jaclyn McKewan, the Virtual Services & Training Librarian for the Ask Us 24/7 service (Western New York Library Resources Council), has made a video on YouTube on how the Qwidget is used on mobile devices.

She also shows how to make a QR code for your Qwidget URL, so mobile devices with cameras can capture the code and have the Qwidget immediately at hand, whenever they need it, through a mobile app.

Watch her video here:

Using Mobile Qwidget and QR Codes with Ask Us 24/7 by Jaclyn1978

Also check out Jaclyn’s other videos on Ask Us 247 on her YouTube Channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/Jaclyn1978