QuestionPoint: 24/7 reference services

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

2009-11-12T04:31:29-08:00

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

2009-10-27T10:15:46-07:00

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

2009-10-23T01:26:10-07:00

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.

Digital Reference Summit: Be Where Your Users Are

2009-10-20T05:52:23-07:00

WebJunction recently presented a 90 minute webinar on digital reference, with featured speakers Stephen Francoeur, Information Services Librarian, Baruch College (NY); Susan McGlamery, 24/7 Reference Cooperative Director; and Alison Miller, Internet Public Library. The program was presented on September 30 via a Wimba webinar, and had over 323 registrants, 196 attendees, and over 60 tweets.

You can view the recording and get more information here: http://www.webjunction.org/virtual-reference/-/articles/content/82380665

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

2009-10-15T00:44:47-07:00

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!

QuestionPoint Service install Sunday Sept 27th beginning at 0:00 AM EDT

2009-09-25T17:46:18-07:00

QuestionPoint will be brought down at 04:00 UTC/GMT Sunday Sept 27th (00:00 a.m. New York; 5:00 a.m. London; 8:00 a.m. Dubai; 9:30 a.m. Delhi; 2:00 p.m. Sydney). We expect the service to be unavailable for 6 hours.

We will be installing and testing elements designed to address the recent peformance issues, as well as retiring the librarian html chat monitor, as described in a previous posting. It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least five minutes prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.)

When service is restored (10:00 GMT, 6:00AM New York, 11:00 AM London, 2:00PM Dubai, 3:30 PM Delhi, 8:00 pm Sydney) , please check your "New" questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions.

If you experience any outage after the projected service restoration, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

We are sorry for any inconvenience the downtime may cause.

The QuestionPoint Team

HTML Chat retirement date is upon us

2009-09-24T17:05:43-07:00

On September 27, 2009, at 00:00AM EDT (4:00 UTC/GMT) QuestionPoint will close a chapter in its history by reitiring the original librarian html chat monitor. We have been messaging this upcoming change for several months, and provided links to information and trainings covering the flash version of the librarian Chat monitor.(http://www.questionpoint.org/education/index.html )

As you all know, QuestionPoint has grown considerably in the last 4 years, and it is no longer feasible for us to maintain 2 different chat architectures. The flash-based chat monitor has been a part of QuestionPoint for 3- ½ years, and current and future development is concentrated on that product. On Sunday Sept 27^th, all links to the html chat monitor will be removed from the program In addition, all options and schedules for setting up chat coverage via self-managed “virtual cooperative coverage groups” will be removed. If your library was using such a group to share chat responsibilities, and you have not yet moved to using Queues and Flash Chat, you need to contact Carol Bonnefil at bonnefic@oclc.org to review your groups structure and arrange for us to set up a Cooperative Group within the Flash structure OCLC .

No 24/7 Cooperative libraries are affected by this, nor are any previous 24/7 Reference libraries. In fact, the majority of QuestionPoint libraries have moved to flash chat over the last 2 years. If you do have any doubts about which version of chat you have been using, here is a screenshot of the My QuestionPoint page with the "Launch html chat" link circled and X’d in Red. That is going away, and you will need to begin using the "Launch Chat" link that is boxed in Green.

QuestionPoint Maintenance Scheduled for Sunday

2009-08-27T12:48:22-07:00

Dear QuestionPoint subscribers:

This Sunday morning, August 30, we will interrupt QuestionPoint service to update language files, make a few fixes, and install a network change to address the recent performance hits.

QuestionPoint will be brought down at 7:00 a.m. UTC (3:00 a.m. New York; 8:00 a.m. London; 11:00 a.m. Dubai; 12:30 p.m. Delhi; 5:00 p.m. Sydney). We expect service to be restored within ninety (90) minutes.

It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least five minutes prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.) When service is restored, please check your "New" questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions.

If you experience any outage after the projected service restoration, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

We are sorry for any inconvenience the downtime may cause.

The QuestionPoint Team

Release Notes for 23 August 2009

2009-08-20T13:14:48-07:00

New Feature

Qwidget Evolution

Our Qwidget is evolving! With this release, we introduce a more modern, flexible design that also provides clearer distinctions between patron and librarian in the transcript window. A new color palette enables you to choose among more and newer color options; there is also the potential for “power users” to completely customize the colors and color combinations.

· Additional new features are illustrated below, on the set-up page (Fig. 2)

· Pop-out Qwidget: The patron can pop out a separate, floating, resizable window that is persistent and can move with the patron so they don’t “lose” the Qwidget if they change the web page. See the window icon in the upper right corner of the illustrated Qwidget, beside the ‘x’.

· Links to web pages sent by the librarian will open in discrete windows, or tabs, and no longer overwrite the preceding web pages sent.

· Custom sizeability: The library can have a small, medium, or full-size Qwidget, more appropriate to the space allotted it on your web page.

· IP address masking: You can choose to mask even the IP address, to insure total patron anonymity.

· Email options: Libraries can now require the user to enter an email address before a session can be started, or “nudge” them to do so after a session has begun. The nudge would still be voluntary, and the patron can still choose to be “anonymous” (no email attached to the session), if they prefer. When either of these options is selected, an accompanying message box appears for you to enter your message. A default message is provided, but you can choose to enter your own explanation of the option, as you prefer.

· Privacy: The new Qwidget has improved exit-session safeguard, which clears the chat history from the Qwidget. This guards against another patron or PC user reading the transcript at public terminals.

2. Maintenance and Changes

Transparent to our users is a great deal of work that has gone into upgrading several QuestionPoint components to move us toward an updated and more flexible architecture. These upgrades should increase our facility to interoperate with other systems, both OCLC and third party, and to move more quickly when introducing new features. The upgrades have also increased our capacity to handle QuestionPoint’s growing number of users and to improve the interface for our international users.

3. Fixes

3.1 Cannot Submit Q&As to KB from Questions Lists. Users have been unable to submit answered questions to a knowledge base in batch mode, from a questions list. This is now fixed.

3.2 Follow Up by Me not Listed for Follow Up. In certain, rare scenarios, questions with a resolution code Follow Up by Me were not appearing in the chat librarian’s questions list as New. That problem has now been fixed.

3.3 Can send Answer When There Is No E-mail Address. It has been possible in the past to click on the Answer button and appear to have sent an answer to the patron, even though no e-mail address was provided. The librarian will now receive a caution when they open the Full Question page for a question/transcript with no e-mail address.

Patron email is blank

On continuing to the Answer page, the only actions the librarian can take are to Save Draft, Search KB, or Cancel.

ANNOUNCEMENT: New Release coming Sunday

2009-08-20T13:08:59-07:00

Dear QuestionPoint subscribers:

This Sunday morning, August 23, we will install a new QuestionPoint release.

QuestionPoint will be brought down at 7:00 a.m. UTC (3:00 a.m. New York; 8:00 a.m. London; 11:00 a.m. Dubai; 12:30 p.m. Delhi; 5:00 p.m. Sydney). We expect service to be restored within forty-five (45) minutes.

It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least five minutes prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.) When service is restored, please check your “New” questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions.

If you experience any outage after the projected service restoration, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

We are sorry for any inconvenience the downtime may cause.
The QuestionPoint Team

QuestionPoint New Release Coming Sunday!

2009-08-20T12:39:54-07:00

This Sunday morning, August 23, we will install a new QuestionPoint release. Please see the attached document for details on the release.

QuestionPoint will be brought down at 7:00 a.m. UTC (3:00 a.m. New York; 8:00 a.m. London; 11:00 a.m. Dubai; 12:30 p.m. Delhi; 5:00 p.m. Sydney). We expect service to be restored within forty-five (45) minutes.

It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least five minutes prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.) When service is restored, please check your “New” questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions.

If you experience any outage after the projected service restoration, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Release Notes for 23 August 2009

1. New Feature

Qwidget Evolution

Our Qwidget is evolving! With this release, we introduce a more modern, flexible design that also provides clearer distinctions between patron and librarian in the transcript window. A new color palette enables you to choose among more and newer color options; there is also the potential for “power users” to completely customize the colors and color combinations.

Figure 1

· Additional new features are illustrated below, on the set-up page (Fig. 2)

Figure 2

· Pop-out Qwidget: The patron can pop out a separate, floating, resizable window that is persistent and can move with the patron so they don’t “lose” the Qwidget if they change the web page. See the window icon in the upper right corner of the illustrated Qwidget, beside the ‘x’.

· Links to web pages sent by the librarian will open in discrete windows, or tabs, and no longer overwrite the preceding web pages sent.

· Custom sizeability: The library can have a small, medium, or full-size Qwidget, more appropriate to the space allotted it on your web page.

· IP address masking: You can choose to mask even the IP address, to insure total patron anonymity.

· Email options: Libraries can now require the user to enter an email address before a session can be started, or “nudge” them to do so after a session has begun. The nudge would still be voluntary, and the patron can still choose to be “anonymous” (no email attached to the session), if they prefer. When either of these options is selected, an accompanying message box appears for you to enter your message. A default message is provided, but you can choose to enter your own explanation of the option, as you prefer.

· Privacy: The new Qwidget has improved exit-session safeguard, which clears the chat history from the Qwidget. This guards against another patron or PC user reading the transcript at public terminals.

2. Maintenance and Changes

Transparent to our users is a great deal of work that has gone into upgrading several QuestionPoint components to move us toward an updated and more flexible architecture. These upgrades should increase our facility to interoperate with other systems, both OCLC and third party, and to move more quickly when introducing new features. The upgrades have also increased our capacity to handle QuestionPoint’s growing number of users and to improve the interface for our international users.

3. Fixes

3.1 Cannot Submit Q&As to KB from Questions Lists. Users have been unable to submit answered questions to a knowledge base in batch mode, from a questions list. This is now fixed.

3.2 Follow Up by Me not Listed for Follow Up. In certain, rare scenarios, questions with a resolution code Follow Up by Me were not appearing in the chat librarian’s questions list as New. That problem has now been fixed.

3.3 Can send Answer When There Is No E-mail Address. It has been possible in the past to click on the Answer button and appear to have sent an answer to the patron, even though no e-mail address was provided. The librarian will now receive a caution when they open the Full Question page for a question/transcript with no e-mail address.

Patron email is blank

On continuing to the Answer page, the only actions the librarian can take are to Save Draft, Search KB, or Cancel.

3.4 Chat Form Cannot Be Constructed without E-mail Field. It is now possible to create chat forms on which there is no field for an e-mail address.

User Group Meeting, In-Person and Virtual

2009-08-20T06:11:00-07:00

As most of you know, we have just completed a series of User Group meeting sessions, one in-person session at ALA and three virtual sessions. One VUG session (recording at http://vidego.multicastmedia.com/player.php?p=son2vp68) was held at a time that would be convenient for European, South African, and Middle East users. A second session was timed for the western Americas, Australian, and Asian users, and a third session for the Americas.

The agenda and content for all sessions were the same:

Update on network issues
Upcoming enhancements and features
Community update
Joining a virtual group for referral purposes
Discussion questions:

What would you like to see in a QP reference service using texting/SMS?
What do you need to see in library policy pages

Some users present acknowledged that response time problems had improved somewhat over the last few weeks as we continue to tweak the the QP database to optimize it in its new environment. We will continue to work with this to return QuestionPoint to its remarkably good response-time state before mid-May.

Attendees demonstrated considerable interest in the Qwidget “evolution” by the number of questions they asked, particularly concerning the plans to optimize the Qwidget for operation from an iPhone, Android, and Palm pre. We’re looking forward to user-librarian reception when we introduce the mobile Qwidget in the next several months.

Our first foray into texting via QuestionPoint also sparked interest and questions. Using the popular Twitter service—free to all, independent of mobile phone communications providers, and available worldwide—library users with Twitter accounts will be able to “tweet” a question to the library via the library’s Twitter account (posted on the library’s website and, behind the scenes, bound to its QuestionPoint account) and receive a private response back in the same format. The librarian, however, will be working within the familiar QuestionPoint interface to read and respond to all tweets.

After noting that we have added Peru and Brazil to our list of countries using QuestionPoint, we listed the newest members to the community. Reinforcing recent posts to this blog and to the QuestionPoint-L list, we also talked about the opportunity for 24/7 Cooperative users to join a virtual group online, so they can refer user misdirected questions to the proper 24/7 library. Details and step-by-step procedures to join are here: http://questionpoint.blogs.com/questionpoint_247_referen/2009/07/refer-sessions-to-other-coop-members-by-joining-the-247-cooperative-virtual-group.html.

At the in-person meeting at ALA, attendees said the following were the features they most wanted to see in a text-messaging service:

1. Have “texting as a Cooperative”, identifying local library with available policy pages

2. Automatic scripts with categories

3. In Ask mode, separate viewing only email, chat or text messages

4. Send text messages to email for possible further answer/referral

5. Be nimble: compete with ChaCha and KGB

6. Text to speak converter

During the VUG sessions, a couple of libraries in each session remarked on their experiences with a texting (SMS) service. The experiences they related seem to range from very slightly used to good, steady use. One attendee noted that their druthers would be to have all enquiry statistics rolled into one service, so they would want to see similar features for SMS and chat. Another suggested that like chat, they would want SMS as a cooperatively covered intake method, seconding one of the suggestions coming out of the ALA UG meeting.

Suggestions from all four sessions for additional information needed in policy pages included:

Job hunting info/links to pages and library’s own employment information ; minimum age to work @ library; volunteer policies for library;
No broken links – last updated note. Make sure all URLs are hyperlinks;
More dummy library cards. Specify the PIN protocol. Specify how patron should get PIN if it’s forgotten;
Define library lingo and who can do what: “hold”, “recall”, “reserve”;
Specify how to locate fulltext articles. Information on how to access e-books and audio books;
Step-by-step directions on “My Account” area, or provide dummy bar code so librarians can assist patrons;
Be sure the policy page email contact is filled in – send any corrections to this;
Be sure and put stuff not on the library web page into the policy page;
Get your librarians to USE THE POLICY PAGES;
Library equipment location and use;
Links to library floor plan, if available online;
Details of policies of library use (repeating some of what may appear in various places on a library’s web site);
Policies of lending among campuses in big university systems, such as the University of California;
How to retrieve/recover passwords;
Word policy page information as though speaking directly to a patron, since this information is often pasted right into a response;
Automatic reminder to update policy pages, as they all too quickly become outdated.

We hope all attendees and others who could not attend will be able to join us at our next Virtual User Group meeting, to be scheduled during the fall quarter. Our next in-person UG meeting will most likely be at ALA Midwinter 2010. Watch this space for announcements!

OCLC Minority Fellow Opportunity in QuestionPoint

2009-08-12T07:00:33-07:00

We are delighted to be part of the OCLC Minority Fellowship program for 2010. Please read the following announcement and spread the word!

Call for Applications for the
2010 OCLC Minority Librarian Fellowship Program

Application deadline: September 8, 2009

OCLC has announced the expansion and increased support of the OCLC Minority Librarian Fellowship program designed to provide a unique opportunity for aspiring library professionals from historically under-represented groups.

OCLC’s Minority Librarian Fellowship offers an opportunity unlike any other. As the world’s leading library cooperative, OCLC offers global exposure through its enterprise-wide product portfolios and operations. OCLC Minority Librarian Fellows will spend time in one of two assigned host units, Metadata Contract Services or QuestionPoint, working on content-specific projects in cataloging or cooperative reference services. In addition, the Minority Librarian Fellows will spend time in the Global and Regional Councils division, with an orientation to OCLC and the OCLC member community, participation in OCLC governance meetings, and opportunities for shared learning experiences with many library and information professionals. Each Fellow will have a unique and specifically tailored experience. More information is available online at:
http://www.oclc.org/us/en/community/careerdevelopment/minorityfellows/
Description of the fellowships
In 2010 there will be two fellowships with different assignments.
Cataloging and Metadata Services
The Cataloging fellow will participate in several Metadata services, including cataloging for client libraries with emphasis on non-English materials, assistance in the selection and cataloging of materials for language sets, quality control work for WorldCat, and CIP upgrades. The opportunity to work with and create NACO authority records, along with exposure to a book vendor warehouse operation is included. This fellow will spend 3-4 months each in Metadata Contract Services, Quality Control, and the Cataloging in Publication Upgrade. (The fellow will spend 8-9 months in Dublin, OH and 3-4 months in Blackwood, NJ.)

Specific requirements:

Strong interest in specializing in cataloging/technical services

Fluent reading skills in a language other than English

Some familiarity with MARC, AACR2, Dewey decimal classification or Library of Congress Classification, Library of Congress subject headings (course work would be acceptable).

Good communication skills

Flexibility

Self-directed

QuestionPoint—Cooperative reference service
The QuestionPoint fellow will have a unique opportunity to help develop an intern/practicum program for MLIS students geared towards virtual reference. The fellow will make contact with MLIS schools in the U.S. and Canada and work with designated faculty or staff to outline areas of possible interest, research, and work within the QuestionPoint platform, cooperative, and databases. The fellow will have a significant role in launching the program and overseeing MLIS interns during the fellowship year.

Specific requirements:

Strong interest, with significant MLIS coursework or experience, in library reference services

Strong interest, with significant MLIS coursework or experience, in virtual reference

Some experience at a reference desk or other public services desk is highly desirable

Good communication skills

Flexibility

Self-directed

Salary and Benefits
· Salary will be very competitive and commensurate with experience and applicable market compensation
· The Fellows will be eligible for health & welfare benefits such as is provided to other similarly situated term-limited employees

· Relocation Assistance will be offered in the form of a lump sum distributed in two installments (50% at signing of offer and 50% after 90 days). The amount of the lump sum will be determined by the distance required for relocation during the term of the fellowship

Eligibility
Listed below are the position requirements:
· ALA-accredited MLS/MLIS or other graduate degree in technology with a special emphasis in libraries or other cultural heritage institutions (granted by January 2010)

· Have less than three years’ post graduate work experience
· Demonstrated awareness and sensitivity in issues of inclusion/diversity: strong awareness of other cultures and viewpoints, appreciation for the benefits of diversity in the workplace and library community, behavior which demonstrates the ability to work with people at all levels and from different backgrounds

· Strong organizational skills which include the ability to organize work plans and processes toward a targeted outcome
· Exceptional communication skills – written, oral, small group presentation
· Selected individual must represent historically underrepresented groups (i.e., defined in a manner consistent with the 2007 EEO-1 reporting classifications)

Applications are initiated by applying to a specific fellowship. The Metadata Services Job ID number is 1763 and the QuestionPoint cooperative reference Job ID 1764, OCLC Minority Librarian Fellowship Program, at the OCLC Careers Center Internet site, www.oclc.jobs, where you will need to create an OCLC candidate profile. The application deadline is Tuesday, September 8, 2009.

IFLA 2009: invitation to virtual reference meeting

2009-08-06T06:54:38-07:00

Dear QuestionPoint librarians,

If you are attending IFLA in Milan, or if someone from your institution will be attending, please consider joining us for a discussion with your colleagues around the world as we explore the state of virtual reference services today. This will be an opportunity to network and to share your experiences with colleagues, best practices, and ways to better serve our users. All are welcome, so please do pass along the invitation to whoever is attending IFLA and would be interested.

The meeting will be held on Monday 24 August, 11.30 – 12.30, at the Hotel Melia Milano, La Palma Room. If you are able to attend, please register here: https://www3.oclc.org/app/ifla_registration/

Please let me know if you have questions about the meeting, and I hope to see you in Milan!

Regards,
Susan

Susan McGlamery
QuestionPoint senior product manager
_{edited to update the meeting room}

Please Do Not Use Reports and Service History

2009-07-31T12:42:18-07:00

We are reindexing QuestionPoint reports and archived service history data tonight to improve performance. The indexing will take place between 9:00 p.m. U.S. EDT 31 July and Midnight U.S. EDT 1 Aug (01:00 – 04:00 GMT 1 Aug).

In order to complete the indexing as quickly as possible, we request that QuestionPoint users refrain from clicking on the “Reports” or “Service History” links between hours noted above.

QuestionPoint Ask and Chat modules are otherwise unaffected and can be operated as usual.

Thank you for your cooperation.

ALA 2009 Best Practices Panel: Presentations

2009-07-29T08:04:14-07:00

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!

ANNOUNCEMENT: QuestionPoint downtime Saturday 25 July

2009-07-24T09:07:16-07:00

Dear QuestionPoint subscribers:

Please be advised that QuestionPoint will be unavailable this Saturday, 25 July, for a brief time, while we make adjustments to improve system performance. The system will be down for approximately one half hour, from 6:00 - 6:30 a.m. UTC (7:00 - 7:30 a.m. UK; 2:00 - 2:30 a.m. U.S. EDT; 4:00 - 4:30 p.m. Australia ET).

It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least two minutes prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.) When service is restored, please check your "New" questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions.

If you experience any outage after the projected service period, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

As always, we regret the inconvenience this may cause you and your users. We appreciate your patience.

The QuestionPoint team

QuestionPoint Virtual User Group Meeting

2009-07-21T06:41:26-07:00

All users are invited to our next quarterly Virtual User Group meeting, to be held in three identical sessions on July 28 and 30. Please take a look at the registration list below for exact times of the sessions. Please note that the meeting will be conducted in English.

The planned agenda is similar to that of the User Group meeting held recently at ALA Annual, in Chicago:

QuestionPoint Update
          System performance
          Qwidget evolution
          QuestionPoint goes mobile!
Community Update
          General
          24/7 Cooperative
          Virtual groups for referral
Discussion Topics
          Policy pages
          What do you want to see in a QP text reference service?
Please register for one of the following sessions.

Tuesday, July 28
1:00 - 2:30 p.m. UK (GMT +1); 12:00-1:30 p.m. GMT
Best for Europe and South Africa

Thursday, July 30
1:00 - 2:30 p.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight Time; 12:00 -1:30 p.m. Central DT; 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Mountain DT; 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. Pacific DT

Best for U.S./Canada, South America, and Mexico

Thursday, July 30
4:00 - 5:30 p.m. U.S. Pacific Daylight Time; 11:00 p.m. (7/30) - 12:30 a.m. (7/31) GMT; 9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. (7/31), Australia Eastern Time.

Best for western U.S./Canada, Australia, and Asia

To register, go to: https://oclc.webex.com/oclc/onstage/g.php?p=2&t=m

We look forward to talking with you soon!
The QuestionPoint Team

ANNOUNCEMENT: QuestionPoint downtime

2009-07-17T07:01:15-07:00

Dear QuestionPoint subscribers:

Please be advised that QuestionPoint will be unavailable this Sunday, 19 July, for a brief time, while we make adjustments to improve system performance. The system will be down for approximately one half hour, from 6:00 - 6:30 a.m. UTC (7:00 - 7:30 a.m. UK; 2:00 - 2:30 a.m. U.S. EDT; 4:00 - 4:30 p.m. Australia ET).

It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least one minute prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.) When service is restored, please check your "New" questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions.

If you experience any outage after the projected service period, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

As always, we regret the inconvenience this may cause you and your users. We appreciate your patience.

The QuestionPoint team

ALA - QuestionPoint Presentations - Reminder- Sunday 7/12-QuestionPoint User Group meeting:

2009-07-11T17:45:40-07:00

Sunday July 12, 1:30 to 3:00 PM Chicago Hilton, Lake Michigan Room.

Hear updates from the QuestionPoint product team: Susan McGlamery, Jeff Penka, and Lauri McIntosh, and offer them feedback. Share tips and tricks with colleagues from other QuestionPoint libraries.

ALA - QuestionPoint Presentations - Reminder- Saturday 7/11- Best Practices in Cooperative Virtual Reference

2009-07-10T17:29:26-07:00

Time: Saturday, July 11, 1:30 to 3:00 PM Chicago Hilton, Lake Erie Room
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. For more information about the presentations and the presenters, please check out our earlier posting.

Refer sessions to other Coop members by joining the 24/7 Cooperative Virtual Group!

2009-07-09T15:02:24-07:00

If you are in the 24/7 Reference Cooperative, this may have happened to you:
You are an academic librarian, monitoring chat, and a Coop librarian transfers a public library patron to you while you are monitoring. Once the session is done, you would like to transfer the patron’s request to his original library, but you can’t because the patron library is not part of your referral group.
Or
A patron enters your service, but really that person lives in a completely different state. Follow up is needed, but how would you get the session to the correct Cooperative library, when the patron “belongs” to you?
Now there is way for 24/7 Cooperative librarians to refer requests to any other library in the 24/7 Reference Cooperatives: by joining the 24/7 Ref Virtual Group.
As illustrated in the following Presentation:
Join247vc
View more presentations from Questionpoint Oclc.
It involves the following steps:

Check your GRN Profile approval status
Join the 24/7 Referral Cooperative
In the admin module, choose Virtual Groups
Choose Join a Group
Find the 24/7 Cooperative Libraries group and click “Join this Group”
Await approval

Once you are approved, you will be able to refer sessions to other Coop members as follows:
Open the full view of the transcript you want to refer
Click the “refer to” drop down list;
Choose “Partner (Cooperative)” and click the arrow button
Choose “Show Only Partners with Expertise in:” then
Under Group, choose: “24/7 Reference Cooperative libraries”; click the arrow
At the “Select Partner” drop-down menu, select the library that you want to refer to;
Click the “Refer” button.

It may be that the library you want to refer to is not on the list. This may be because that library is not part of the Cooperative or because the library has not yet gone through the process of joining the 24/7 virtual group, as outlined above.
If you are looking for an individual library and can’t find it, see if there is a statewide group or group-wide referral name that is available for referral.
If you have questions regarding this process, please contact Carol Bonnefil, bonnefic@oclc.org.
Susan McGlamery
QuestionPoint Senior Product Manager
OCLC
mcglames@oclc.org

ANNOUNCEMENT: QuestionPoint down time this Thursday, July 9th

2009-07-08T09:05:34-07:00

Dear QuestionPoint Users:

Please be advised that the QuestionPoint service will be unavailable from 0800 UTC (4:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 1:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 9:00AM UK, 6:00PM AU) Thursday July 9 , to approximately 0930 UTC (5:30 a.m. EDT, 10:30 AM UK, 7:30PM AU) as a result of unscheduled but necessary maintenance. It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least two minutes prior to the service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.)

You may begin to try to log in as early as 60 minutes after the stoppage, but rest assured that we will email this listserv to alert you that the program is available, as soon as service is restored.

When service is restored, please check your "New" questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions.

If you experience any outage after the projected service period, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

We regret any inconvenience.

Regards,
The QuestionPoint Team

ANNOUNCEMENT: QuestionPoint Downtime Tonight

2009-07-01T10:54:44-07:00

Dear QuestionPoint subscribers:

In an attempt to address Lost Connection issues and occasional sluggish response time, we will bring QuestionPoint down early tomorrow (2 July) morning to install some modifications. Please be advised that the service will be unavailable from 6:00 UTC (2:00 EDT) to approximately 7:00 UTC (3:00 EDT) tomorrow, 2 July.

It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least one minute prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.)

When service is restored, please check your "New" questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions. An email announcement will be sent to the QuestionPoint listserv after service has been restored. If you experience any outage after the projected service period, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

As always, we regret any inconvenience to our users.

Sincerely,
The QuestionPoint Team

ALA 2009: User Group Agenda

2009-07-01T00:00:25-07:00

Hello, fellow QPers,

We will hold a QuestionPoint User's Group meeting during ALA Annual. Below are the particulars, including a tentative agenda:

Date:        12 July 2009 (Sunday)

Time:        1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Location:   Chicago Hilton, Lake Michigan Room

The agenda includes an update from the QuestionPoint Product Team, a brief presentation by Virginia Cole on the "text-a-librarian" pilot at Cornell University, and an opportunity for small group discussions focusing on "Top Five Things" (e.g., "Top Five Things You Need to See on Policy Pages"). There should also be ample time for questions.

Please join us, and do let me know if there are any topics you want to ensure we cover at the meeting.

Nancy Huling, University of Washington Libraries

QP User Council

ANNOUNCEMENT: Brief Downtime Tonight

2009-06-24T10:36:23-07:00

Dear QuestionPoint User:

We are aware that some users are experiencing sluggish response times and occasional disconnects while using the chat monitor. We plan to install a fix for the performance issue tonight, June 24 EDT. Please be advised that the QuestionPoint service will be unavailable for approximately 30 minutes, from 01:00 UTC, June 25 (9:00 p.m. EDT, June 24) to 01:30 UTC (9:30 p.m. EDT). It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least one minute prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.)

When service is restored, please check your "New" questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions.

If you experience any outage after the projected service period, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.
We apologize for the inconvenience this is likely to cause.

Regards
The QuestionPoint Team

QuestionPoint downtime this Sunday June 21

2009-06-18T09:31:09-07:00

Dear QuestionPoint users:

Please be advised that the QuestionPoint service will be unavailable Sunday morning, June 21, from 6:00 UTC (2:00 AM EDT) to approximately 8:00 UTC (4:00 AM EDT).

It is imperative that you end any in-progress chat sessions at least one minute prior to the scheduled service interruption to avoid sudden communication interruptions to your patrons and potential "hung" sessions. (You will be unable to click on any in-progress sessions to get information to communicate with the patron.)

It is possible that service will be restored sooner than scheduled; you may begin trying to login as early as 7:00 UTC (3:00 EDT) if you wish. When service is restored, please check your New questions lists for any interrupted chat sessions or unanswered email questions. An email announcement will be sent to the QuestionPoint listserv after service has been restored.

If you experience any outage after the projected service period, please contact your Customer Service Provider for further assistance.

We are sorry for the inconvenience to our users.
Regards,
Your QuestionPoint team

Quality Tip: No Habla Espaol? Transfer to the Spanish Queue

2009-06-16T03:06:09-07:00

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

2009-06-10T03:13:04-07:00

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!

2009-06-09T11:12:06-07:00

"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!

,

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