Sometimes chatting librarians are so eager to end their shift that they transfer their current session to another librarian without bothering to send a preliminary IM message to their “target” librarian. We call this a blind transfer and it can be disruptive, as the target librarian is taken by surprise. On the other hand, there are librarians so anxious to help their own patrons that they jump into on-going sessions with their patron – without warning the original chatting librarian. While at first glance these two situations seem diametrically opposed (in the first case the librarian is anxious to leave, in the other case anxious to join in), both reveal a lack of courtesy to the chatting librarian – and the patron.
QuestionPoint has a backchannel IM, available to each QP librarian. Click on the IM tab in your chat monitor and you can send (and receive) chat messages to or from any librarian who is monitoring the same chat queues. Consider these best practices if you must leave your current session, or are ready to join a session currently in progress with another librarian:
If you are with a patron but need to leave, you can transfer that patron to another librarian - but ask the librarian recipient first, via IM. You can send the IM message as part of the transfer process: there is a link to IM once you click the Transfer tab. See Section 5.3 of the Policies for best practices regarding transferring sessions.
If, on the other hand, you are tempted to jump into a session currently in progress with another librarian, be sure to first check with the chatting librarian who is currently handling the session, via IM. Usually the chatting librarian will be happy to transfer the session to you, and this will free him or her up to pick up another patron. We’ve added a new policy to cover “jumping in”: Section 5.4: http://wiki.questionpoint.org/w/page/13839422/247-Policies#54nbspJumpingintoSessions
For more information on the mechanics of IM and Transfer, please view our tutorial: http://www.oclc.org/support/training/portfolios/discovery/questionpoint/tutorials/using-im-and-xfr.en.html , and take a look at our blog posting from March 12 as well.
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