The QuestionPoint User Group meeting was held January 17, 2010 at the Boston Public Library, from 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM.
Beth Cackowski, QandANJ and Vince Mariner, AskHerePA were co-chairs. Vince called the meeting to order shortly after 1:30 PM. Approximately 35 people attended the meeting.
After introductions, Susan McGlamery, QuestionPoint senior product manager, presented the QuestionPoint update (see accompanying PowerPoint presentation)
A. QP software update:
New features include KB web service and Qwidget evolution, including Qwidget on Facebook, WorldCat Local, and via selected mobile devices (iPhone O/S, Palm and Android devices). Of the attendees, Cornell and McGill U have embedded the Qwidget in WorldCat Local.
B. Text a Librarian
QuestionPoint is currently developing an API so text messages sent from users to the library via Text a Librarian (“TAL”) will appear in the QuestionPoint interface. Librarians could work completely within QP to review and respond to text messages. Text messages will be included in the usual QP reports, along with email, chat and Qwidget statistics. Representatives Gabe Macias and Jamieson Chandler attended the meeting and were available for questions. For more information on Text a Librarian, see http://www.textalibrarian.com/. Of the attendees, Cornell, Free Library of Philadephia and Andover are current TAL subscribers.
Questions/discussion from user group:
- how immediate does the librarian response need to be (discussion re user expectations)
- Is there much back and forth between user and librarian? Cornell: not so much; others mentioned that they do go back & forth in their personal texting, so maybe users wouldn’t mind
- TAL: some libraries market the service as a way for users to send comments/suggestions to the library
- Libraries should not put so many limits on questions that are eligible for texting. Strategies for handling complex queries was discussed.
- Collaborative texting: most agreed best to start with individual institution, but could see possibility of group answering texts for each other. Advantage: more immediate responses for larger coverage hours
- Worcester PL is in the My InfoQuest free pilot, and Ping (Worcester) likes the collaborative service. Ping says many of the texts could be answered by anyone and are not all local. Apparently no pricing has been provided for My InfoQuest, it is still free for participants (provided by Altarama)
C. 24/7 Reference Cooperative discussion
- Quality 2009: Top 10 issues for Quality were presented. Each issue will have a Quality tip
The number one issue is failure of chatting librarian to check the policy page. We had discussion of policy pages. Susan will plan another Policy Page day soon. Resolution codes were also discussed, including the names of the resolution codes as well as when to do follow up (follow up discussion was tabled due to lack of time)
D. Other suggestions:
- Virtual User Group meetings: someone asked when we were doing this again, VUGs of past were praised. We are scheduling virtual user group meetings for the first week of February 2010 – the announcement will be posted soon!
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 3:00 PM
View the QP user group slides here:
Respectfully submitted,
Susan McGlamery, [email protected]
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