QuestionPoint: 24/7 reference services

Quality Tip: Problems with a Policy Page? Use Policy Page Email Contact

Cooperative librarians rely on a library’s policy page in order to provide the best service possible to our users.  A library’s policy page provides information to Cooperative librarians when they are assisting patrons of that library or group. Thus the policy page should succinctly describe or link to the resources available to a library’s patrons, as well as any relevant policies or procedures relating to patron access to these resources.

If the information sought is not available on the library’s policy page, or if a link on the policy page is broken, please take time (either during or just after the session) to send a quick message to the patron library regarding any policy page issues or suggestions.  To do this, use the Policy Page Email Contact field on the policy page.  Click on the email link, and a text box will open.  Type your suggestion or question in the text box, and be sure to include your name, library and email address in the message.  That way, the patron library can get back to you with any questions or comments regarding your suggestion.  (If you don’t include your name or email address, the patron library will not know who sent the message and will be unable to reply to you).

The Policy Page Email Contact field will not appear if the library did not fill in this field when filling out their policy page.  In this case, you can either (1) add a librarian note to the session (librarian notes are not viewable by the patron) or (2) send an email to Susan McGlamery (mcglames@oclc.org ). 

Take a moment today to make sure your policy page has the Policy Page Email Contact field filled in!  Reminder:  this field should only contain an email address, with no HTML code.  This field is only for librarians – do not give this email address to patrons.

For tips on how to fill out your library’s policy page, see the Policy Page Guidelines on the QP wiki: http://wiki.questionpoint.org/Policy-Page-Guidelines

Policy pages are THE key resource for the Cooperative.  As a patron library, be sure your page contains all relevant information.  As a chatting librarian, be sure to check the library policy page for information about the library’s resources and services!  This will help you provide the best service to that library’s patrons.

Quality Tip: Strategies for Shorter Sessions

During busy times when there are many patrons waiting, is it possible to do shorter sessions that still meet the best practices standards and provide good service?

We looked at the strategies employed by some of the QuestionPoint Back Up librarians, since they routinely staff busy times and often have to handle several patrons at once.  Here is the strategy of one Back Up librarian, who we will call “Librarian K”.  Librarian K’s sessions have this in common:

• Best Practices: K follows these and the policies to a T
• Detachment: K is professional, does not appear flustered by rude patrons, and is non-judgmental regarding questions asked and
• Succinct: Sessions are kept relatively brief: the longest session was 28 minutes

This is how K handles a typical chat session:

• Ask a Question (clarify the request or find out more detail)
• Search for 2-8 minutes
• If site is found, sends site and says, "Can I help you with anything else?"
• If no information is found, says: “ I'm sorry, but I am not able to find this information in the resources available to me.  If you like, I can forward your question to the library for additional research. You would receive an answer via email.”
• K then sends to follow up if (1) patron wants follow up, and has left an email address (K always confirms patron’s email address with the patron during the session) or (2) patron does not respond but has left an email address.

As a result of following this process for many years, K is able to handle multiple simultaneous sessions, and gets good responses from patrons during sessions and in surveys.  We hope K’s approach will be a useful guide as you approach your next chat session during a busy time (or any time!).

QP issues? Let us know ABOUT them

After the service interruption yesterday (between 16:21 GMT and 16:45 GMT), the QuestionPoint service should be running normally. If you are experiencing any issues in a chat session, it is vital that you let us know immediately.  This helps us troubleshoot the issues.  If sessions seem slow, or you are getting the ‘updating’ screen, please do the following and provide us with the information:

• Right mouse click in chat and select the ‘About’ option
• Click on the ‘copy to clipboard’ button
• Paste into an email to your Customer Service Provider

Information regarding QuestionPoint issues is sent to the QuestionPoint listserv. If you have not already subscribed, here’s how to join:

 http://www.questionpoint.org/community/listserv/questionpoint-l.html

Thanks for your patience as we work to resolve these issues.

Quality Tip: What does 'Lost Call' REALLY mean? Not what you may think!

It does NOT mean that you were chatting with a patron and lost the call or that patron is "no longer connected."

It means that you did not receive any chat whatsoever from a patron who logged in anonymously.

This is the only time that Lost Call can be used:

• No Email AND No Chat --->  Lost Call

For a visual representation of the proper use of our Resolution Codes, please see the flowchart created by Julie Strange of Maryland AskUsNow!

http://askusnow.info/partners/h/ResolutionCodeFlow.pdf

Explanation:  If a patron provides an email address then the session MUST be coded as Follow Up By Patron's Library. even if there is no chat from patron during the session. This alerts the patron’s library to review the session and decide whether to send the patron an email followup.  The Lost Call code moves the session directly to the patron library's Closed folder, where the library typically would not look.  If patron does not provide an email but does interact with the librarian during the session, then disconnects or the call is dropped: code as Answered.  This allows patron library to review the interaction.

Sessions coded Lost Call appear (1) in the Closed list and (2) under “Review Transcripts” in the Ask module.  (Under Review Transcripts, you can specify the resolution code Lost Call).

Please comment to the Blog or email Susan McGlamery (mcglames@oclc.org) with any and all questions about the Lost Call code!

ALA 2009 Best Practices Panel: Presentations

Our Best Practices in Cooperative Virtual Reference Panel at ALA (Chicago 2009) featured researchers Lynn Connaway (OCLC Office of Research) and Marie Radford (Rutgers University) as well as practitioner and statewide coordinator Natalie Tagge (AskAway Illinois).

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.

Presentation:

Ala 09 Best Practices Connaway Radford Final

View more documents from Questionpoint Oclc.

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.

Presentation:

Tagge

View more documents from Questionpoint Oclc.

Feel free to post comments or questions to this Blog, and look for a new Best Practices panel at the ALA Midwinter conference in 2010!

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

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.