QuestionPoint: 24/7 reference services

QuestionPoint User Group notes, ACRL 2011

QuestionPoint held a user group meeting at the ACRL,conference in Philadelphia, on Friday April 1, 2011.  Carol Bonnefil of the QuestionPoint team provided the QP update; slides are available here:

QP User Group, ACRL 2011

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The group discussed the latest enhancement planned for QuestionPoint, Full Transaction Searching.  This feature is scheduled to be released on May 8.  The ability to "act upon questions" was requested from the "Review Transcripts" area.

 

During the discussion portion, the following topics came up:

"Class bombs":   Although more of an issue with the public library services, some academic libraries reported this as an issue.  This has been a discussion item with the 24/7 Reference Advisory Board, and the Board will look at adding a specific policy for this in the 24/7 Reference Policies. 

When to send to Quality:  One librarian reported sending more Quality comments in the past, especially regarding Back Up staff, but now she doesn’t send as many because (1) Back Up staff have measurably improved and (2) there is a question whether the librarians who are "targeted" would learn something by virtue of the comment.   Others commented that sometimes a librarian gets traumatized by being called out.   Susan McGlamery (Cooperative Manager) comment:  this has a lot to do with how the Quality comments are communicated.  Libraries are encouraged to send sessions to Quality whenever there are any concerns about any session, and of course it’s great to send compliments to Quality too!   This is really the best way we have of ensuring that Coop patrons get the best service possible.  See  Procedures for Sending to Quality in the 24/7 Reference Policies.  Some common reasons to send to Quality:  incorrect resolution code, incorrect information provided/failure to consult library’s policy page.

QP User Group notes, ALA Midwinter 2011

The QuestionPoint user group meeting was held on Sunday, January 9 from 4:00 – 5:30 PM at ALA Midwinter in San Diego, California.  Approximately 30 people attended. 

Susan McGlamery provided the QP Community update (latest numbers are provided monthly in the QP Blog; see http://bit.ly/ekxBta for the Dec 2010 report).  Carol Bonnefil then reviewed the latest changes to QP chat, including queue roll up and wait messages, as well as changes to the Ask module.  Susan then reviewed the changes made to the Policy Page template (Sept 19 install). This prompted a lively discussion on the policy pages and issues within the 24/7 Reference Cooperative of libraries that need to provide better/clearer information on their policy pages, as well as librarians who do not seem to use the policy pages when answering questions.  The Qwidget Roll Up pilot was briefly discussed (libraries that participate in the 24/7 Reference Cooperative with an Answering Percentage of at least 75% may opt for their Qwidget to roll up to the Cooperative, thus ensuring a 24/7 Qwidget).   Here are the presentation slides for the meeting:

QP user group ALA MW 2011

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Several discussion topics had been proposed by chair Vince Mariner, including: 

•centralized training

•Integrating questions answered into QP’s live chat and reports

•National Virtual Reference Service (US)

•Assessment: using QP as an assessment tool; other metrics/tools needed?

•Texting: notification of new text message (for TAL integration)

However, the preceding discussions relating to queue roll up, policy pages and Cooperative policies took up most of the meeting time, such that no time was left for the planned discussion topics.  Those attending the meeting suggested additional discussion topics:

· Discussion groups based on library/user types (academic queues, public queues, back-up staff)

· Incorporating Jing (?) into QP service

· More virtual meetings to discuss QP

· Continue virtual reference topics

Most of you were unable to attend the user group, so we have scheduled a series of Virtual User Group meetings.  The announcement for these meetings and registration link will be posted on the Blog today.

Virtual User Group meetings: Feb 8 and 9

We look forward to “seeing” you at the First 2011 QuestionPoint Virtual User Group meeting!  This virtual meeting will be held at 3 different times February 8-9, to accommodate the many time zones of the QuestionPoint global community.  We will cover the enhancements that have been implemented since our last meeting and provide information on what we expect to install for our next release, currently planned for mid-April.   We’ll also share feedback from the User Group meeting held at ALA Midwinter.

Our update should take around 20 minutes.  The remaining hour will be yours to discuss topics of interest to you.  Between now and February 8 please e-mail me topics on which you’d like to hear some discussion.  Send your requests to [email protected].

Please choose one of the following sessions. (Times are shown for both the Eastern time zone in the U.S. and GMT time for international participants.)  Registration is required so we can distribute the necessary log-in/call-in information to you.  Please be sure that messages from [email protected] are allowed through to you so your confirmation and log-in information is not caught in a spam blocker.

Tuesday, 8 February, 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM ET (13:00 to 14:30 GMT)  We hope this time will be convenient for European, South African, and Middle Eastern users. Please register at https://oclc.webex.com/oclc/j.php?ED=149537987&RG=1&UID=0&RT=MiMxMQ%3D%3D. 

Tuesday, 8 February, 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM ET (4:00 PM to 5:30 PM PT; 00:00 to 01:30, 9 February, GMT)  We expect western North American and Central American users to find this time best for them, as well as Australian and Asian users.  Please register at https://oclc.webex.com/oclc/j.php?ED=149538322&RG=1&UID=0&RT=MiMxMQ%3D%3D.

Wednesday, 9 February, 11:00 to 12:30 ET (16:00 to 17:30 GMT)  Best for eastern and central North America and South America.  Please register at https://oclc.webex.com/oclc/j.php?ED=149538452&RG=1&UID=0&RT=MiMxMQ%3D%3D. 

Sessions will be conducted in English; they will be recorded for those who cannot attend.

--The QuestionPoint Team

QuestionPoint Monthly Report: July 2010

QuestionPoint Members

2,190	Active SUPs (service unit profiles)
1,315	SUPs in the 24/7 Reference Cooperative
29	Languages can be handled by QuestionPoint libraries
5,809,761	Transactions had passed through QuestionPoint as of midnight Eastern Time, 31 July.
2,705,061	Patrons have asked questions via libraries with QP since 2002
22,629	Active records in the Global Knowledge Base
492	Libraries have contributed active, searchable records to the GKB

QuestionPoint libraries are in 31 Countries (listed by region):

Australia	Italy
New Zealand	The Netherlands
China	Russia
Korea	Serbia
Japan	Slovenia
India	Spain
Thailand	United Kingdom
Saudi Arabia	Canada
United Arab Emirates	Mexico
Botswana	United States
South Africa	Jamaica
Croatia	Puerto Rico
France	Trinidad & Tabago
Greece	Brazil
Germany	Chile
	Peru

73% (or 1,599) of the QuestionPoint libraries are in the U.S. The  number of libraries outside the U.S. (27%) represents a slight increase over the 20-22% average non-U.S. participation since 2002. Serbia is the most recent country to join this special, highly informed community!

QuestionPoint Statistics for July 2010

40,394	Questions received via E-mail and Text Messages
31,792	Chat sessions requested
8,114	Chat sessions requested via Qwidget
30,318	Chat sessions accepted
7,329	Chat sessions at non-24/7 Reference Cooperative libraries
456	Sessions requested after hours at non-24/7 Reference Cooperative libraries (6% of all requests)
52	Most concurrent chat sessions
16	Average concurrent chat sessions

24/7 Reference Cooperative Statistics

69.7%	Overall “Answering Percentage” (Cooperative libraries picked up 69.7% of all chat sessions, and Back Up staff picked up 28%
7,561	Academic sessions requested; Coop members answered 5,506 (73%)
16,902	Public sessions requested; Coop members answered 11,550 (68%)
751	Sessions Abandoned (Patron disconnected before librarian picked up, may include some practice sessions)

July Questions of Note

This question was asked of the Ask Scotland national service:

Q: When did the first women's magazine appear in Great Britain and what was it called?

A: The first woman's magazine to appear in Great Britain appears to be the Ladies' Mercury, published for only four issues in 1690. Source information is available at

AskScotland KB record

In French

The Global Kowledge Base has many contributions from libraries in France. Here is an example from BiblioSésame, the French public library group:

Q: Je recherche un texte de littérature allemande, du XIXe siècle je crois, de genre fantastique. Je l'ai étudié en faculté et impossible de me remémorer l'auteur et le titre. Il y est question d'un homme qui passe un pacte avec une sorte de ...

(I’m looking for a text in German literature from the 19th century, I think, in the fantastic genre. I read it in college but I can’t remember the author or title. It’s about a man who makes a pact with some sort of ghost, phantom knight, so he can preserve the lands from damage from broken dikes.)

To see the answer, please go to: BiblioSésame KB record

Discussion: Is texting still relevant with mobile Qwidget available?

One of the topics discussed at the ALA User Group meeting concerned texting.  A user group attendee asked: is texting still relevant now that the Qwidget is available on mobile devices such as the iPhone?  Those attending the meeting made the following points:

· Yes – despite high visibility of smartphones, most people still have non-data mobile phones.

· Texting is asynchronous – someone can get back to you at a later time.  Conversely, using the Qwidget on a smartphone dictates that the conversation flow in real-time (of course, if the librarian is not available, the user can send a message to the library via the email option…)

· In-depth reference questions, as well as directional or ready reference are being asked via text – format does not hinder the patron.

· Some libraries still don’t have or can’t get Qwidget on their website.

What do you think?  Feel free to post your comments to the blog!

QuestionPoint User Group meeting notes, ALA 2010

The QuestionPoint User Group meeting was held at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington DC on June 27, 2010.

Nancy Huling, chair of the QuestionPoint User Council, opened the meeting shortly after 1:30 PM.  After introductions, Susan McGlamery, senior product manager for QuestionPoint, presented the QuestionPoint overview (see accompanying PowerPoint presentation).  The two new features introduced on June 13, Librarian is Typing indicator and Customized Descriptive Codes, were discussed.

Several questions were asked about the custom descriptive codes.  Libraries participating in the 24/7 Reference Cooperative face a situation where the chatting librarian is usually not from the patron’s institution.  This may be an issue since the chatting librarian can append a descriptive code at the end of a session, and a code assigned by a chatting librarian may not be the code that the patron library would have chosen.  Fortunately, the chatting librarian will only see the descriptive code list of the patron library, which will help.  Other ooperative the chatting librarian is often not at the patron’s institution (in the Cooperative, the descriptive codes of the patron’s library appear at the end of a chat session).  Other recommendations include:

· If a chatting librarian has added descriptive codes to one of your sessions and you want to remove the code, simply go to the Full question view and click Add Descriptive Code. You will now be able to change the descriptive codes added by another librarian.  You can replace one code with another.  To completely remove a code that’s been added, simply choose the first option on the list ([Select Code]) as your code.  This will cause a blank code to appear.

· If you do not want any codes to appear in your descriptive code list, you could set up a new list with only one code: None

Here is the complete QuestionPoint presentation:

QuestionPoint user group June 2010

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Discussion topics

Attendees were asked to come up with topics for discussion.  The topics that the group suggested were:

• Is texting still relevant with mobile Qwidget available?
• What are people doing to motivate staff – to improve skills?  How to deal with staff burnout?
• How to handle questions from LIS students?
• Anyone using Jing or screencasting on the fly?
• Sustainability—how to handle budget cutbacks?
• What are the potential limits on the service?  Staffing? Time? 
• Innovative uses of QP ?
• Do you get constructive feedback from users that affects the online presentation of your services?
• Policy pages: how to encourage use in own institution and in the cooperative?

In the next several weeks, we will explore each discussion topic in a separate blog posting.  I will include any discussion that occurred at ALA, but please do add your comments to the blog discussion.  There were so many discussion topics and so little time that the user group at ALA only discussed 3 of these topics, so all can participate in this community discussion!

QuestionPoint events at PLA conference, 2010

QuestionPoint is hosting two sessions at the PLA conference in Portland, both on Friday, March 26:

QuestionPoint Users Group Meeting

Friday, March 26

9:30-11:30 AM

OCLC suite, room #1455

Join your QuestionPoint colleagues to share your experiences with QuestionPoint and the 24/7 Reference Cooperative, and hear about plans for the ongoing enhancement of QuestionPoint.

Virtual Reference Collaboration Sharing Session: OCLC's QuestionPoint and Mosio’s Text a Librarian

Friday, March 26

12:30 – 2:30 PM

Doubletree Hotel Portland , Hawthorne/Sellwood/Ross Island Room

Find out how your library can communicate with users online and on-the-go, through the new collaboration of QuestionPoint and Text a Librarian. Join us to learn more about this exciting new offering, as well as other new enhancements from QuestionPoint.

Please register here if you are planning on attending either or both of these events: https://www3.oclc.org/app/pla_registration/

February 2010 Virtual User Group Meetings

Thanks to all our users for helping to make the first 2010 Virtual User Group meeting a success. Just under 100 users joined us for the QuestionPoint update on software and community and a discussion on future enhancements for QuestionPoint and quality issues in the 24/7 Reference. The first session was hosted by Carol Bonnefil, Senior Product Analyst; the second by Paula Rumbaugh, Senior Product Analyst; and the third by Susan McGlamery, Senior Product Manager and Manager of the 24/7 Cooperative.

A. QP software update

New features we talked about 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).

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 will be able to 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.  Representative Gabe Macias attended the Thursday session and answered a few questions from attendees. For more information on Text a Librarian, visit http://www.textalibrarian.com/. 

Attached, below, is a link to the recording of the first session, held on February 3. If you wish to hear specifically the recording of one of the other two sessions and have not already received a link, please send your request to Becky Hawk ([email protected]). We are also attaching a link to the PPT that we used for the update.

A number of questions were asked throughout the three sessions of the meeting, primarily regarding the mobile Qwidget capability and how text messages will be handled in QuestionPoint after the launch of the Text a Librarian / QuestionPoint collaborative implementation.

Here are a few of those questions:

Is co-browse basically “dead”? Co-browse continues to be available on QuestionPoint, and we currently have no plans to discontinue it. However, it will get less and less usable, and we and others are investigating using other methods to demonstrate search techniques to users. Two products mentioned were Jing and Camtasia, with which the librarian can take a video of her movements and send that to the patron.
Will texting (referring to the Text a Librarian / QuestionPoint collaboration) be available in the UK? Unfortunately, we will not be able to offer that option to the UK community. We will be happy to hear from you, though, about any web service in the UK that provides a service similar to what TAL does in the U.S.

Can we continue to use the TAL interface if we subscribe to both Text a Librarian and QuestionPoint? You can but it is not advisable; in fact, there will be a message when you log into TAL cautioning you to handle the work from within QuestionPoint. The reason for that is that API built to handoff text messages to QuestionPoint and to receive answers back does not transfer any librarian information. Nor does it transfer work done within Text a Librarian to QuestionPoint. It acts as an intermediary, passing and recording messages from the patron to QP and back. Any work done from within TAL would not be recorded in QuestionPoint; the QP question history would be incomplete, statuses out of date, and librarian work unrecorded.

Can we use the “old” style Qwidget in Facebook or for mobile patrons? No, you must use the new style Qwidget, which was implemented in Aug. 2009. If you have not upgraded to that version, we encourage you to do so: set-up is as simple as it has always been, but you and your patrons will experience more flexibility and options.

What you said you want to see in QuestionPoint:

Full-text searching of questions and by e-mail address.
A search mechanism on the policy page. In the meantime, we suggest you use the browser’s “Find” feature to help get your around a policy page.
Ability to export all reports to Excel and a link to a graphing feature. Just a reminder that you can highlight any and all Reports data with your browser, copy, and paste into an Excel spreadsheet cell.

An updated QuestionPoint interface, especially terminology.

More kinds of notification in Ask, such as different sounds for different kinds of transactions (e.g., follow-ups vs. e-mail)

Combined Review Transcripts and Question Lists, as there is not a clear distinction between the two kinds of lists. Librarians want to be able to do activity from the Review Transcripts area, such as send answers to patron, referring to other libraries. We do know that BME administrators have often needed this kind of functionality. Since this involves permissions for someone not logged in as an institution administrator or librarian to manipulate data for an institution, this is not an insignificant enhancement, technically or legally.

An Undo button to change resolution code.

Conference mode for IM in chat.

Ability to send surveys out to patrons later, not associated with a particular question

Various new reports, e.g., turnaround time for e-mails.

New Profile fields, such as a field about recurring assignments; an FAQ toward the top. A different policy page template for academics vs publics.

Quality issues you mentioned:

Most issues seem to revolve around problems chat librarians have in remembering that they aren’t necessarily helping a “Local” patron. What can QP do to make it more obvious to the chatting librarian that a patron isn’t Local (colors, bolding, for example)?
E-mail addresses are needed to do follow up! It is good practice to set up your Qwidget to require e-mail, now that that option is available. We suggested that libraries finding this to be an issue start a blog topic or entreat libraries via the listserv. There was a request to also see the patron e-mail from Qwidgets in the librarian interface, something that is not currently possible.

Apparently there are several instances of middle schoolers who somehow end up in the Academic queue. If anything can be done to prevent this, it would be appreciated.

What are the different philosophies and expectations of the various members in the Cooperative? Some institutions, e.g., want more chats marked for follow up because they often find that they want to include more information or more sources or more strategy. But they don't want to have to review all transcripts. On the other hand are libraries that want fewer marked for follow up. One attendee said her institution considers many chat questions in-depth research questions, but she suspects some other libraries assume chat to be a quick request for a quick answer. A discussion around this topic--Is it possible to more closely fulfill varying library expectations?—might make a good theme for the next Virtual User Group meeting.

To listen to the session of February 3, please go to:

https://oclc.webex.com/oclc/ldr.php?AT=pb&SP=MC&rID=37997267&rKey=e6442d81a06e8f38

Here are the slides we used for the update:

February 2010 Update

QP Virtual User Group February 2010

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Virtual User Group Meeting Scheduled

It’s time again for a QuestionPoint Virtual User Group meeting!  This virtual meeting will be held at 3 different times during the first week of February, to accommodate the many time zones of our QuestionPoint global community.  We will provide information on the latest enhancements to the Qwidget (mobile Qwidget, Qwidget on Facebook, and Qwidget customization options), our new knowledge base web service, and a community update.  We will also discuss our collaboration with Text a Librarian and plans for incorporating SMS texting into QuestionPoint,   This update is similar to the one provided at the user group meeting at ALA Midwinter, January 2010.

We want to hear your feedback too!  We will have 2 discussion topics during the meeting:

1.  Next steps for QuestionPoint software: tell us what you think.

2.  What are the top quality issues you see with cooperative reference services, such as the 24/7 Reference Cooperative?

We look forward to hearing your comments and ideas for QuestionPoint!

Please choose one of the following sessions.  Registration is required so we can distribute the necessary log-in/call-in information to you.

Wednesday Feb 3, 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM PT (7:00 PM to 8:30 PM ET; 00:00 to 01:30 GMT, Feb. 4)  Western North and South America, Hawaii, Australia, and Asia.  Please register at https://oclc.webex.com/oclc/j.php?ED=132951852&RG=1&UID=0

Thursday Feb 4, 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM ET (20:00 to 21:30 GMT)  We expect most of QuestionPoint's North American and South American users to find this time best for them.  Please register at https://oclc.webex.com/oclc/j.php?ED=132945357&RG=1&UID=0

Friday Feb 5, 13:00 to 14:30 GMT (8:00 AM to 9:30 AM ET)  We hope this time will be convenient for our European, South African, and Middle Eastern users.  Please register at https://oclc.webex.com/oclc/j.php?ED=132946172&RG=1&UID=0

Sessions will be recorded for those who cannot attend.

ALA Midwinter 2010, QP user group meeting notes

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:

QP User Group at ALA MW 2010

View more presentations from OCLC.

Respectfully submitted,

Susan McGlamery, [email protected]