Request for Survey Participants: Collaborative Virtual Reference Service

May 14th, 2012

The following call for survey participants with collaborative virtual reference service experience was sent to the Digitial Reference listserv. Interested parties can access the survey from the link below. Contact Emily Weak at emilyweak@yahoo.com with any questions.

Hello,

Are you a librarian who has personal experience working in a collaborative virtual reference service?

My co-author and I are currently performing research for a chapter in an
upcoming volume of Advances in Librarianship. In an effort to augment
our review of the literature with original voices, we are seeking survey
participants.

For the purposes of our research, collaborative virtual reference services
(CVRS) are generally defined as any collaboratively provided chat-based
reference service staffed and managed by librarians from multiple
libraries, often supported by specially designed virtual reference
software such as QuestionPoint.

Our survey has ten questions and should take between five and fifteen
minutes of your time.  Responses will help us provide better insights on
the benefits and challenges in establishing collaborative reference
services; these insights will assist librarians and libraries seeking to
work together.  Ultimately we hope our research will lead to enhanced
service quality and optimal user experience. If you have any questions
or concerns, please contact me at emilyweak@yahoo.com.

To participate, please follow this link: https://sjsuslis.us.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3lS8TS61MpZ7mUk

The survey will close on Sunday, June 10th, 2012.

Regards,
Emily Weak
MLIS, San Jose State University

Posted in Other stuff | No Comments »

OCLC Free Webinar: Marketing Your Virtual Reference Service

May 9th, 2012 
From the OCLC QuestionPoint team:

We invite you to attend a free webinar, Finding your users online, May
17 at 1 PM ET.

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
Bill Pardue, librarian at Arlington Heights Memorial Library in Illinois

To attend, please register for this event: http://bit.ly/zuDNJY 

For those unable to attend, a recording of the webinar will be posted
here: http://www.oclc.org/questionpoint/overview/websessions.htm 

Susan McGlamery
QuestionPoint product manager
mcglames@oclc.org

Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

March Statistics and User Feedback

April 13th, 2012

AskAway’s March form fields, usage statistics and survey information are now available on the AskAway Portal.
Compared to last March, we engaged in 7% more sessions. This translates to over 230 additional sessions, and a total of 3758 sessions, or over 118 sessions per day.

March usage statistics are available here: http://www.eln.bc.ca/askaway/index.php?page=statistics#usage

The trends highlighted in recent months by the form fields descriptive codes feature have continued this month, research being the most often applied descriptive code.
2050 sessions were labelled with at least one descriptive codes by AskAwayers this month; about 2/3 of the total sessions.
Of these questions:
38% were research
17% were ready-reference
16% were citation or writing help
8% were e-resources access or technical help

Other questions were referrals, circulation questions, directional queries and more.
Form Fields for March are available here: http://www.eln.bc.ca/askaway/index.php?page=statistics#form

We received exit survey responses from these institutions: BCIT, CC, CC, CU, DC, JIBC, KPU, LC, NIC, OC, SC, SFU, TRU, UBC, UFV, UNBC, UVic, VCC, VIU
Below are some of the comments we received this month. Full survey results are available here: http://www.eln.bc.ca/askaway/index.php?page=surveys

“it was my 1st time using ask away, and [Librarian's name] helped me. he made it a lot easier for me to work on my assignment! thank you, and keep it up guyz! Thank you! :)   I’m definitely coming back when i need to.”  — Simon Fraser University learner

“I’ve used this service about 3 times and all times the librarian has been quick at coming online and quick in responding and very helpful. It’s much easier than calling in and/or driving to school! ” — University of the Fraser Valley graduate learner

“I really enjoyed talking to the librarian because I felt reassured I was doing all my work accurately, thank you librarian!” — BC Institute of Technology learner

“I really appreciated online librarian service. It was the easiest way to ask a librarian for advice.”  — University of BC learner

As always, feel free to contact us with questions or comments.

– Reece, BC ELN

Posted in AskAway Updates | No Comments »

Embedding an AskAway Chat Qwidget in ProQuest Databases – Updated!

April 4th, 2012

ProQuest has now added the option to embed custom widgets into their databases!

UPDATE: The option to delete the qwidget is now available!

Already have an AskAway Qwidget in your EBSCO databases or library web pages? Why not check-out the new option in ProQuest to add a custom widget to all your standard-platform ProQuest databases like CBCA (the options to select individual databases or non-standard platforms like Chadwyck are not currently available).

You can re-use your already existing AskAway qwidget code OR create/update your AskAway qwidget code to embed in ProQuest.

To add your AskAway qwidget code to your ProQuest databases:

  1. Create or update your AskAway qwidget code to embed using the instructions located on the AskAway Portal in Administrator Tools –> Qwidget –> Create/Update a Qwidget for Your Library Website.
  2. Login to your ProQuest Admin Module (PAM) and navigate to the –> User Interface –> Branding –> the Tab labeled Widgets.
  3. Fill out the required fields and insert your AskAway qwidget code.
  4. The AskAway Qwidget can be embedded into the search interface or as a linked pop-up window.

Check out the Local Coordinators Wiki –> Embedding the Qwidget –> ProQuest Databases for information on which libraries are using the AskAway Qwidget in ProQuest databases as well as their tips.

Please note: To our knowledge, this has not been implemented by any AskAway libraries and documentation/instructions have not been created by ELN or ProQuest yet. Testing and trouble-shooting will be necessary. Please add your feedback & tips to the Local Coordinators Wiki or send them to the AskAway Admin Centre.

Connect & Customize Widgets with ProQuest
Connect & Customize Widgets with ProQuest

Posted in Local Knowledge, Technical Tips/Updates, Tips (General) | No Comments »

Ending an AskAway Session: How else can we help?

April 3rd, 2012

Knowing when to end an AskAway session can be tough sometimes. When AskAway is swamped, or the patron has been uncommunicative for awhile, or perhaps appears to be disconnecting from the session… How can we successfully close the session for the patron?

Here’s a few tips!  Make use of the many scripts available to consistently handle these situations. Located under Staff Tools >> Tools for your shift >> Scripts & URLs AND in your chat monitor.

  1. Let the patron know we’re handling multiple questions but their question is important to us. If we’re swamped handling in-depth questions can be difficult!  Use Scripts: Begin – Busy Swamped, Begin – Multiple Questions & Queue – Multiple Questions
  2. Offer additional options early on in the chat session. Letting them know additional Reference options are available can ease frustration. Use Scripts: Refer – Home Library, Refer – Subject Specialist & Queue – Impatient patron
  3. Make sure you check the patron has enough to get started. Ask if they’d like any additional assistance with their original question or if they have any other questions before closing. Use Scripts: Close – Anything else?
  4. Has your patron stopped communicating? Check-out the Patron Status Indicators in the chat monitor for current info on them. Try to wait for the “Patron is no longer connected.” message before closing the session and send them additional resources if possible. Use Scripts: TechTrouble – Refresh Browser & TechProb – More Resources
  5. Inform them you’re going to end the chat. Give them a chance to respond before closing the session and if your shift is ending try to transfer any idle questions to new librarians to follow-up or close. Use Scripts: Close – Left Session
  6. Tell your patron early on about the Email Transcript option. Patrons often return to the closed session and may feel frustrated it ended without explanation. If they accidentally disconnect or you need to close their session they’ll receive the transcript explaining what happened! Use Scripts: Begin – Transcript or Begin – Transcript (Qwidget) scripts

Questions or comments? Please feel free to contact the AskAway Admin Centre.

Posted in Challenging Questions, Local Knowledge, Policy & Procedural Issues, Tips (General) | No Comments »

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