Upcoming training

There will be a training session for the Palm Beach area at Palm Beach Community College, Lake Worth Campus on February 9th.  Please visit this link to register or for more information http://www.tblc.org/ws_info.php?ws=426

More training in other areas will be announced soon.

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Florida Electronic Library and Ask a Librarian in the news

The Jacksonville Times Union recently ran a great editorial on the resources available through FEL including Ask a Librarian!
My favorite part,

“Librarygoers who do not know about the Florida Electronic Library are missing out. Explore it. Use it. Enjoy it. Your tax dollars are paying for it.”

The whole editorial is available here:
fel-editorial.pdf

User Survey is Live

Our quarterly user survey is now live on the collaborative desk. The survey asks users after live chat sessions the following questions:

1. Did you connect with a librarian today?
2. Was your question answered today?
3. Have you used Ask a Librarian before?
4. Based upon your experience today, would you use AaL again?
5. Did the librarian show you any Web-based library resources today (library catalog, databases, etc.)?
6. Do you think you would be able to use those same resources on your own, later on?
7. As a result of using the Ask a Librarian service, do you think you will be more comfortable doing online research in the future?
8. How did you hear about Ask a Librarian?
9. We welcome your comments or suggestions. Please let us know how we are doing, and how we can improve!

The survey will be live for the next two weeks.  We’ll post the results after its closed.

Best Transcripts for Oct/Nov have been selected

The Quailty Assurance Workgroup has announced the winners for the Best Chats for October & November 2006. The full transcripts are available in the Ask a Librarian, just click on the link to view the best transcripts of the month!

Best Detailed Chat: Tom Cipullo. Palm Beach County 10/5/2006 4:04:39 PM 26 min 37 sec (Funding sources for libraries). “Discussed where to get statistics, books in print, and ebooks. A good introduction to various kinds of sources for an LIS student”

Best Brief Chat: Jorge Perez. SPC Library 11/29/2006 2:12:09 PM (Assisting an Actor)16 min 42. “Jorge showed enthusiasm as he worked with a patron who was interested in acting in looking for agencies to contact in Florida. Jorge found useful web sites and stayed in close touch with the patron while he did searches. Jorge found one contact within the patron’s town.”

For Teaching: Mike Shell. Jacksonville Public 10/18/2006 2:10:22 PM 33 min 47 sec ( Mike helped SPC student find information on the databases on leadership.) “I feel really good about this one…even though it is tooting my own horn. The customer came back on to ask for the transcript for her class.”

The QA workgroup is currently looking for nominees for December and January sessions, so please consider nominating yourself or coworkers through the form in the Ask a Librarian Toolbox.

December 2006 Statistics

With the holidays, we saw our traditional drop in reference statistics. The service still answered 2,490 chat questions and 751 email questions, representing a 77.7% increase over December in 2006. We want to thank all of the libraries that picked up extra shifts to help with staff shortages allowing the service to remain open for the entire holiday season. The service was open 27 days in December and had only four days of shortened hours.
View the full report as PDF or JPG.

Disappearing Operators (UPDATE)

Thanks for your patience.  I think we have the missing operator problem resolved.  When you are logged into the collaborative desk you should now be able to see the actual people who are staffing that desk with you.  Just choose “Collaborative Desk” from the drop-down menu on the active users tab and you will see the list of librarians.  We will be rebooting the server early Friday morning to clear out any lingering issues.  Service should not be interrupted.  If you have any questions or any more trouble with this, please let us know.

Disappearing Operators

We have had some reports of disappearing operators and people appearing to be alone on the Collaborative Desk.  We have been trying to troubleshoot this problem and figure out what is happening.  Please be patient while we work this out.  If you look at the Collaborative Desk on the active users drop down menu you will see the number of operators listed, but the names that appear will probably not be correct.  It is a little confusing right now and we apologize.  We will keep you updated on this issue.

Jennifer back from medical leave

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am back from medical leave and in the office.  Thank you all for your support and concern.  Please direct any questions or concerns about scheduling, training, or staffing issues to me again.  I would also like to thank Diana and Doug and everyone at TBLC and CCLA for filling in for me.