QuestionPoint: 24/7 reference services

Webinars: Best Practices in Virtual Reference, Spring/Summer 2013

Please join us for these upcoming webinars in our popular series on Best Practices in Virtual Reference. All webinars are free, and they’ll be recorded and posted on the QuestionPoint website for future viewing. Each webinar begins at Noon Eastern Time (-4 UTC) and lasts approximately one hour.

- Register for the meeting

- You will get a confirmation email with instructions for joining the meeting

1. Engaging with Patrons Online: June 14

What makes a chat session good and what makes a chat session exceptional? How do you know you’re truly helping a patron? Sometimes it’s not always clear from working with a patron in a virtual setting to know when you have satisfied their request. There has been a large amount of research done on how to reach and engage with patrons in that online environment. Carla Pfahl, Coordinator of AskMN (Minnesota’s statewide virtual reference service), and Merrie Davidson, Social Sciences Librarian and fellow AskMN librarian at the University of St. Thomas, will look at how to conduct a reference interview and what makes an exceptional reference transaction.

Date: June 14 at Noon, Eastern Time (UTC –4)

To register for this meeting:

- Go to

https://oclc.webex.com/oclc/j.php?ED=200677787&RG=1&UID=0&RT=MTgjMTE%3D

- Register for the meeting

- You will get a confirmation email with instructions for joining the meeting

2. Chasing the Sun: a 24/7 chat service by medical librarians for health professionals: July 2

The Chasing the Sun service enables health professionals to contact a medical librarian whenever help is required in using information resources after normal library hours. Although most hospital-based health professionals have 24/7 online access to a collection of bibliographic databases and full text products via their library services, but sometimes expert help is needed to use the resources or to perform a search outside of normal business hours. Chasing the Sun was started by medical librarians in Australia and England to take advantage of global time differences and offer out-of-hours librarian support for health professionals, in a cost-effective way. Join Mary Peterson, SA (South Australia) Health Library Network Knowledge Manager to find out more ... and, if you are a medical librarian, how your library can join this global cooperative group!

Date: July 2 at Noon, Eastern Time (UTC –4)

To register for this meeting:

- Go to

https://oclc.webex.com/oclc/j.php?ED=200678197&UID=481807147&RT=MTgjMTE%3D

- Register for the meeting

- You will get a confirmation email with instructions for joining the meeting

Stay tuned for additional webinars in the series!

Release Notes for February 24, 2013 install

February 24, 2012 Release Notes 

1        Improvements

1.1       Notification emails to librarians

Three important automatic email notifications sent to librarians have been updated to include additional account information.

New librarian account email notification, “Question assigned” email notification, and “Question reassigned” email notification now all include the librarian name, and account number of the addressee, and Library name with which the account is affiliated, in order to help librarians with multiple accounts at different institutions or SUPs clearly understand where and how to log in to handle the issue being raised by the email.

1.2       New explanatory text added to QuestionPoint Qwidget code snippet

It has come to our attention that when Qwidget code is copied and pasted into various communication tools (Word, Outlook, etc.)  to forward to webmasters for inclusion on client websites, or directly into certain Content Management interfaces, certain characters necessary to the functionality of the code such as quotation marks, can become corrupted or converted into “Smart quotes”.  To remind those who are working with the content management or interface tools to check the quotation marks and return them to “plain text” quotation marks, the following explanation has been added to the code snippet:

<!-- NOTE - After pasting the code to your page, check it to ensure it does not contain any text formatting such as smart or curly quotation marks.-->

Please note that it is NOT necessary for existing Qwidget code on any of your websites to be changed, updated, or altered to include this explanation. It is purely informational; to help the web designers insert new code correctly for new Qwidgets.

2        Fixes

2.1       “Custom Message” settings in the Admin module are now applied to “email pilot” clients .

If your library is configured to allow the use of an email address for patrons to submit new questions into QuestionPoint, confirmations, responses and notification emails outgoing from QuestionPoint to those newly submitted questions will now apply the custom messages configured in the Admin module.

2.2       Translation

A number of QuestionPoint email notifications and various terms in QuestionPoint have received updated entities, to facilitate or clarify terminology or grammar used in other languages.

3        24/7 Reference Cooperative

3.1       Quality comments are now private.

When sessions are referred to Quality, the notes or comments included in the referral are now private and only visible to the Quality team, the librarian who submitted the referral, and the admins of the patron’s library.    All concerned parties can see that the referral has occurred by virtue of the yellow “referred” bar in the question detail in “Review transcripts”, but comments remain private.

4        Website Update

On March 2^nd, as part of an overall OCLC upgrade, QuestionPoint’s Support, Documentation and Training website will be migrating to a new domain and structure.

4.1       www.questionpoint.org

www.questionpoint.org will continue to function as an information landing page for current users. All of the subject informational pages, such as Documentation, Support, Training, etc. will have new URLS under oclc.org/support directories.  Bookmarked pages will be redirected to these new pages, and you will be able to access them via www.questionpoint.org  as well. 

No links to KB, patron forms, Qwidget code links, Librarian and patron logins, or any other pages that access the QuestionPoint application will be affected by this transition!  All URLs to the QuestionPoint application itself will remain as is.

We expect to have a seamless experience for our users after the migration, but if you experience any difficulty accessing previously bookmarked material, or if you are uncertain as to where to go for QuestionPoint information, please contact us via our feedback form: https://www.oclc.org/forms/questionpoint/feedback.en.html

Maintenance Install November 1, 2012 6:OO GMT (2:00 A.M. EDST)

The QuestionPoint service will be unavailable for the following time period for scheduled maintenance and service: 6:00 GMT (2:00 A.M. EDST) to approximately 6:15 GMT  (2:15 EDST) Thursday November 1, 2012.  It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least two minutes 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.

QuestionPoint Service Install, October 14, 2012, 2:00 A.M. ET (06:00 GM)

We will be installing a QuestionPoint features upgrade this Sunday, October 14, 2012.

Release Notes can be viewed here on the Blog.  Please be advised that the QuestionPoint service will be unavailable for the following time period: from 6:00 UTC (2:00 a.m. EST) to approximately 7:00 UTC (3:00 a.m. EST). 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.)

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

 

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.

Notes d'Installation prévue pour 13 mai, 2012

1        Nouvelles fonctionnalités et améliorations

1.1  Sécurité augmentée pour les fichiers joints

Nous avons ajouté des critères de sécurité additionnels pour la nouvelle fonctionnalité permettant aux bibliothécaires stocker des fichiers joints. Ceci augmentera les mesures de sécurité actuelles afin de mieux protéger l’accès aux fichiers joints stockés.

1.2  Confidentialité des utilisateurs

Pour les bibliothèques qui utilisent des formulaires de question créés avec le « Gestionnaire de formulaires » de QuestionPoint, nous avons supprimé le lien (mention) qui menait vers les Conditions générales d’utilisation d’OCLC. Nous suggérons fortement aux bibliothèques qui utilisent ces formulaires (créés dans Administration> Établissement> Formulaires> Gestionnaire de formulaires et Groupe d’abonnement> Gestionnaire de Chat) de créer un lien vers les politiques de confidentialité de la bibliothèque (ou d’inclure une mention) en utilisant le bas de page du formulaire. Si vous avez besoin de plus d’informations, n’hésitez pas à contacter votre fournisseur de service QuestionPoint.

1.3  Pages de politiques

Affichage des zones associées avec le message d’erreur lorsque le WorldCat Registry est en panne.

Depuis la dernière installation, les bibliothèques peuvent relier des zones de leurs Pages de politiques aux données qui se trouvent dans le WorldCat Registry. Lors des rares fois où les données du  WorldCat Registry  ne sont pas disponibles (entretien ou panne), les bibliothécaires qui utilisent les Pages de politiques lors d’une session de Chat (discussion en ligne) verront le message d’erreur suivant :

« Impossible d’afficher les données reliées au WorldCat Registry. Le Registry est peut-être temporairement non disponible ou la zone associée du Registry ne contient aucune donnée. »

Veuillez noter que les données « copiées » seront disponibles même si le WorldCat Registry ne l’est pas. Seules les données « reliées » ne seront pas disponibles durant la panne.

1.4  Administrateurs de groupes : affichage des sondages des établissements membres dans les Questions archivées

Les résultats de sondages affichés sont maintenant dans les Données actives et les Questions archivées, et les administrateurs de groupes peuvent maintenant voir les sondages de leurs établissements membres lors des deux types de recherche.

1.5  Améliorations apportées au rapport sur les Zones du formulaire 

    1.5.1   Formulaires pour « Ajout de question » (ajout manuel) et Qwidget

Les formulaires pour « Ajout de question » (ajout manuel) ou pour les sessions avec le Qwidget sont maintenant identifiables parmi les sessions par courriel et par Chat, dans les résultats des rapports en ligne et hors-ligne sur les Zones du formulaire. Le tri et l’identification de chaque type de session seront simplifiés lors de la production de rapports ou du regroupement de statistiques.

     1.5.2   Adresses électroniques complètes

Les adresses électroniques complètes des utilisateurs sont maintenant disponibles dans les rapports en ligne et hors-ligne si cette option a été sélectionnée dans administration> établissement> paramètres.

    1.5.3   Alignement

Les zones affichées dans les rapports sont maintenant bien alignées afin que les données dans les colonnes identiques des rapports en ligne et hors-ligne soient alignées.

1.6   Identification d’une nouvelle page qui brise les cadres

La page http://fmx.sagepub.com brise le cadre de la fenêtre d’affichage de l’utilisateur (abonné) et cache la section réservée au Chat si cette page est envoyée durant la session de Chat. Nous l’avons donc ajoutée à la Liste de pages qui brisent les cadres. Par conséquent, cette page ne sera pas affichée dans la fenêtre d’affichage de l’utilisateur si elle est envoyée sous forme de lien. L’utilisateur devra cliquer sur le lien dans sa fenêtre de Chat pour ouvrir la page dans une fenêtre séparée s’il veut voir cette page durant la session de Chat. La liste de pages qui brisent les cadres dans QuestionPoint est régulièrement mise à jour. Vous pouvez accéder à cette liste dans la page d’accueil Mon QuestionPoint, sous Ressources (droite de l’écran).

                      

2        Correctifs

2.1   Chat

    2.1.1   « Chat pour tests » versus « Chat réel »

Un problème, apparu lors de la mise à disposition du nouveau formulaire pour l’ajout manuel d’une question, a été corrigé. Dorénavant, seules les sessions initiées via le lien « Formulaire utilisateur test pour le Chat » dans l’écran d’accueil « Mon QuestionPoint » contiendront la case « Test » et seront initiées comme sessions pour tests dans le Moniteur de Chat du bibliothécaire.

    2.1.2   Case « Test » dans le formulaire test pour le Chat

Cette case sera de nouveau cochée lorsque le formulaire est ouvert. Les bibliothèques qui veulent tester le Chat avec un formulaire qui sera vu par les bibliothécaires du « Chat réel » devront décocher la case « Test » pour que les questions soient affichées à ces bibliothécaires.

2.2   Enregistrement des paramètres pour les rapports hors ligne

Lors du choix des paramètres pour les types de données désirées dans les rapports hors-ligne, il est maintenant possible d’enregistrer les paramètres de la page 2 (limites de recherche) et de la page 3 (données des zones et sélection de formats) dans les rapports. Ceci permettra de générer de nouveau ces rapports sans avoir à sélectionner les paramètres chaque fois.

2.3   Rapport pour l’administrateur de groupe

    2.3.1   Rapport sur les Codes Descriptifs

Le rapport des Codes descriptifs pour le groupe a été modifié afin de ne présenter que les Codes descriptifs configurés pour les bibliothèques du groupe. Si le même code est utilisé par plusieurs bibliothèques du même Groupe d’abonnement, il y aura quand même des codes « en double » puisque chaque code est considéré comme étant unique à un établissement. 

    2.3.2   Contenu

De plus, lors de la sélection de « Tous » dans les rapports de groupe, une erreur était générée  lorsque les numéros de sessions auxquelles certains Codes descriptifs sélectionnés étaient assignés n’apparaissaient pas dans le rapport. Ce problème a été corrigé et les rapports contiennent maintenant les numéros de sessions auxquelles ont été assignés les Codes descriptifs sélectionnés. 

2.4   Correction du jeu de caractères thaï 

Les caractères thaïs sont maintenant affichés correctement dans les rapports hors ligne. 

 

2.5   Correction de la messagerie instantanée avec Upside Wireless

Les bibliothèques QuestionPoint qui possèdent des liens à des comptes d’Upside Wireless verront dorénavant les noms à jour des comptes d’Upside Wireless dans leur module Administration si elles modifient des noms de compte par le biais de comptes d’Upside Wireless.

3        Problèmes connus du Chat

Plusieurs moteurs de recherche commerciaux, dont Google et Yahoo, ont modifié leur philosophie quant à l’utilisation du contenu. Ils ne facilitent plus la réutilisation de leurs écrans de recherche sous forme de structure de cadres HTML utilisée par l’interface de Chat pour utilisateur de QuestionPoint. Vous pouvez continuer d’utiliser ces moteurs de recherche lors des sessions avec les utilisateurs, mais soyez avisés que les pages ne seront peut-être pas automatiquement ouvertes dans la fenêtre d’affichage de l’utilisateur. Selon le navigateur utilisé (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.), l’utilisateur devra peut-être cliquer sur le lien dans sa fenêtre de Chat pour voir la page, ce qui forcera la page à s’ouvrir dans une fenêtre séparée. Les utilisateurs d’Internet Explorer recevront un message avec le lien. Toutefois, les utilisateurs de Firefox ne recevront aucun message et il est possible qu’une page blanche soit affichée au lieu de la fenêtre d’affichage de l’utilisateur.

Ce problème ne s’applique pas aux adresses URL de sites Web qui sont copiées et collées après une recherche avec Google. Il ne s’applique qu’aux adresses URL dans lesquelles le mot « google » apparaît dans l’adresse.

Nous vous recommandons de continuer à vérifier auprès de l’utilisateur l’état de l’affichage des pages envoyées, et de suggérer à l’utilisateur de cliquer sur n’importe quel lien là où la page n’a pas été affichée.

Release Notes for May 13, 2012 install

1        New Features/Improvements

1.1  Enhanced Security for Attachments

We have added additional security criteria for the new librarian attachment storage capability. This will increase existing measures to protect against unauthorized access to the stored attachments.

1.2  Patron Privacy

For those libraries using forms created using the QuestionPoint “Forms Manager”, we have removed the default statement linking to OCLC Patron terms and conditions.  We strongly encourage libraries who use those particular forms (created from Admin Module>Forms> Forms Manager & Subscription Group>Chat Manager) to create a link to and/or explanation of their library’s Privacy Policies, using the “Footer Field” in the Form builder.  If you have any questions about this, please contact your QuestionPoint Support provider.

1.3  Policy Pages: Display linked fields with error message when Registry is unavailable

Our previous install allowed libraries to link fields in their Policy Pages to data already contained in their WorldCat Registry.  On the rare occasion that the Registry data is not available due to maintenance or outage, librarians using the Policy Pages during a chat session will see the following error message:

           “Cannot display data linked to the WC Registry. This may be because the Registry is temporarily unavailable or the linked Registry field has no data.”

Note that “copied” data will still be available if the Registry is down. Only “linked” data is unavailable during a Registry outage or omission.

1.4  BME Admins can see Member Institutions’ Surveys in Service History

Survey results display are now consistent between Active Data and Service History and BME Admins can now see Surveys of their member institutions in both types of search results.

1.5  Form Field Report enhancements

1.5.1  Qwidget and Walk up identification

“Add Question (aka Walkup) Forms” and Qwidget sessions are now individually identifiable from “Email” and “Chat” respectively, in the Online and Off-line Form Field Reports results.  Sorting and identification of each type of session will be simplified when preparing reports or gathering statistics.

1.5.2 Full patron email addresses

Full patron email addresses are now available in Off-Line Reports as well as Online Form Field Reports, if that option has been selected in Admin Module>Settings.

1.5.3 Formatting

Reported fields are now consistently aligned in spreadsheets so that columns Online and Off-line Reports for the same information are matched.

1.6  New Frame-Busting Page Identified

http://fmx.sagepub.com  has been found to break the patron’s viewport frame and overtake the chat frame if sent during a chat session. We have therefore added it to the list of “known framebusters”.  This means that it will not display in the viewport if sent as a link.  The patron will have to click on the link in chat history to open it in a separate window, if they want to see it during the chat session. 

Note: The “Frame-busters” page in QuestionPoint is periodically updated to add these sorts of pages as discovered and reported by you, our users.  The link to the Frame-busters page is on the right-hand side of the My QuestionPoint homepage, under “Resources”.

2        Fixes

2.1  Chat

2.1.1 “Practice Chat” vs. “Accessible Chat” identifier fixed.

A bug introduced when the new Walk up form was implemented has now been fixed.  Only sessions instigated from the “Practice Chat” link on the “My QuestionPoint” home page will contain the “practice chat” check box, and be identified as “Practice” in the librarian chat monitor.

2.1.2  “Practice Chat” Check box on Practice Chat form is now Checked by default.

This returns the Practice Chat form check box option to its original configuration.  It will now be pre-checked when opened. Those libraries that wish to access the “Live service” librarians while using the Practice Chat form will have to uncheck the “practice” checkbox to have those questions seen.

2.1.3 Off-Line Reports Parameters saved.

When choosing parameters for the type of data requested in Off-line Reports, users can now save page 2 (Search limitation parameters) and page 3 (field data and format selector) data in their saved Reports.  This will facilitate report re-use, in that repetitive reports can be re-run without having to reselect data each time the report is desired.

2.2  Reports for the Group Administrator

2.2.1 Descriptive Code Report List display.

Group level Descriptive Codes report has been fixed to only display the Descriptive Codes actually configured by the libraries represented in the Group.  If the same code is used amongst multiple libraries in the same BME, there will still be multiple “duplicate” labels, as each institution’s code is considered unique.

2.2.2 Descriptive Code Report content.

Additionally, when selecting “All” institutions, an error occurred when sessions IDs to which some of the selected Descriptive Codes had been assigned did not display correctly in the report.  This problem has been fixed and sessions IDs to which the selected Descriptive Codes have been assigned now display in the report.

2.3  Thai Character set fixed

Thai language character set is now correctly displayed in Off-line Reports.

2.4  Upside Wireless Texting fixes

QuestionPoint institutions with linked Upside Wireless accounts will now see updated UW account names in their Admin Module if they have changed the name through their Upside Wireless configuration accounts.

3        Known Issue in Chat

Sending Search Engine Page URLs in Chat

Several commercial search engines, including Google and Yahoo, have changed their philosophy about content usage.  They are no longer facilitating reuse of their search pages in the type of HTML frame structure used by the QuestionPoint patron chat interface.  You can continue to use these search engines while in a session with patrons, but please be aware that if you send the actual Google results pages, the pages may not automatically open in the Viewport. Depending upon which browser and (I.E, Firefox, etc.) used, the patron may need to click the hotlink from the chat history for the URL that was sent. This will force the search page to open in a separate window.   While I.E. users will receive a message in the Viewport with a helpful hot-link, Firefox users receive no such assistance, and the Viewport may switch to a blank white page.

This does not affect URLs of websites that are copied and pasted after a Google search has been completed.  It only relates to URLS that actually contain “google” in the address itself.

We recommend that you continue to check with the patron frequently regarding pages sent, and suggest that the patron click on any link where the page itself did not display.

Free Webinar: Finding Your Virtual Reference Users Online

Seeking Synchronicity found that one of the biggest obstacles to a successful virtual reference service was getting users to simply know the service existed. How do you find your users online? How do they find you?

Look at what signs have been effective in letting users know about the service. What works best in both drawing users’ attention and getting them to know what the service is about? With our constantly changing technical vocabulary, are you really saying what you want to say?

Date: 17 May 2012
Time: 1:00 PM–2:00 PM, Eastern

Speakers: Joanne John, coordinator of Enquire, the UK’s national public library virtual reference cooperative, and Bill Pardue, librarian at Arlington Heights Memorial Library in Illinois.

Register for this event

Free QuestionPoint Training Classes

It's time again for free QuestionPoint classes, available online as part of OCLC's new training program. These classes are conducted by OCLC trainers and training partners (Amigos) and are designed to help members refresh or maintain skills, ensure effective use of OCLC subscription services, and learn new applications to help members leverage their investments in the cooperative.

The QuestionPoint classes are available on a quarterly basis and will be conducted in English. To see the list of classes and scheduled dates, go to http://training.oclc.org/training  Choose "QuestionPoint" under Reference and Discovery.

You will need to register at the training portal in order to attend any of the classes, but registration and the courses themselves are free.

This series of classes begins on April 30th, so register today!

User Group Meeting This Thursday

Our next QuestionPoint user group meeting will be held this Thursday, March 15, at the Public Library Association conference in Philadelphia.

If you won't be in Philadelphia, you can join us via WebEx!! To join the online meeting, you must register first. Once you register, the meeting link will be sent to your email address.  Register here for the online meeting.

In addition to the QuestionPoint update, we will also have two guest speakers:
Betty Morganstern, Information Services Librarian at Anne Arundel County Public Library (Maryland) and Bill Pardue, Digital Services Librarian at Arlington Heights Public Library (Illinois). Betty and Bill will discuss how they've promoted their virtual reference service at their respective libraries.

To attend in Philadelphia:
Date: Thursday March 15
Location: Courtyard by Marriott Downtown, room: Salon IVM
Time: 12:30 - 1:30 pm ET