Happy Birthday!

Ask a Librarian is 4 years old today! 

Wow! It seems like only yesterday we were kicking off this new service for libraries.   We were open for 30 hours a week with just a handful of libraries staffing the service.   Now, we are 97 libraries strong and open 84 hours a week.    The service has grown in both use & participation over the years thanks to the hard work of each librarian who staffs the desk! 

New User Demo

Please use this demo to show people how the service works from a user’s point of view.

You might also want to include your library’s Ask a Librarian URL. I left it out so you could promote your library page.

aaldemouser1.swf

Please let me know if you need something different, or a different format, and I can work on producing it.

We’re in Second Life

The College Center for Automation (CCLA) was deeded some land in Second Life and they have been creating a Second Life presence. They have created an Ask a Librarian Bulletin Board. To find it, either teleport to the coordinates: 49 64 43 or search for the College Center for Automation.

I am ‘Dee Pointe’ in Second Life and a newbie there, so I am curious what your experiences have been. Is your library experimenting in Second Life, if so I would really like to hear about!

Regional Meeting Notes

Today was the final, Ask a Librarian Regional Group Meeting. There were 9 face-to-face meetings and 1 conference call. There will be a few follow-up phone calls but I thought I would go ahead and post the notes from all the meetings. I have put them together into this document:

AaL Regional Meeting Notes

As you can imagine, the meetings grew in content as they went along – as information from each meeting was integrated into the next, and as new news became available.

Some main ‘news’ items that have changed or developed since the first meeting in June:

- The academic desk hours will officially be 10am-4pm EST. The desk will debut the Tuesday following Labor Day (Sept 4th).

- Jennifer has added a monthly ‘Practice Day’ for Ask a Librarian. The second Tuesday of each month, we are encouraging everyone to login and practice in the training room.

- We have gone ahead and updated the user entry form for Ask a Librarian. Learn more, at this previous post.

- We will not be advertising with Facebook. Despite our initial information, the ads were becoming much more costly and complex then first thought. We have created a group on Facebook for Ask a Librarian. You’ll need an account to view and join. But, I don’t think it will have an impact like MySpace.

Please comment on the blog or to me personally via email, phone or IM on the meetings.

Thanks again to everyone who attended. Everyone really helped contribute to Ask a Librarian’s future direction.

Regional Meeting Conference Call

After several weeks and seven regional meetings, I was able to meet with representatives from many participating libraries in Ask a Librarian. However, several people contacted me about being unable to attend the Ask a Librarian Regional Meeting in their area due to scheduling conflicts and/or travel issues.

In order to accommodate those who could not attend, I have set up a conference call for July 26th at 10am EST. The meeting conference call should last approximately 2 hours. The service does provide a 800 number.

Agenda
1. Update on Ask a Librarian
2. Academic Desk Pilot Program – Implementation Details
3. Marketing
4. Scheduling
5. Issues on the Collaborative Desk
6. Software
7. Other
Quality Assurance/Exemplary Reference Awards
Utilizing Local Desks
8. Open Forum

Please let me know if you can attend! I will send you the instructions for the call.

May Exemplary Reference Awards!

The Quality Assurance Workgroup recently selected its Exemplary Reference Awards for May.  All three transcripts, exemplify the role of Ask a Librarian as a source for help with Information Literacy, and helping individuals at their moment of need.  The transcripts selected can be read at:  http://info.askalibrarian.org/besttranscript.asp

Exemplary Detailed Chat winner
Ilinskaya, Inna 5/24/2007 9:16:46 PM 33 min 44 sec
Inna gave the patron books, articles and websites for her topic on the “Red Scare.” She showed the patron info about electronic books too, even though the patron did not yet have a username or password. She spent a lot of time with a new library card member, and made sure they had quite enough information to get started on their research even though they were issued a temporary card. She made the patron feel welcomed, and the patron was appreciative.

Exemplary Brief Chat winner
Vicki Flora from Pinellas Park on 5/22/2007 12:14:59 PM  13 min 10 sec
Vicki did an efficient job helping a patron find some technical information on child support. She helped the patron interpret the information and offered to find the court telephone number so the patron could complete the inquiry. Great work in just 13 minutes.

Exemplary Teaching Chat winner
Sally Bissell Lee County 5/9/2007 5:01 P.M. 23 min 14 sec
Sally did a wonderful job helping this patron, instructing her in the use of the database, and in encouraging her to use our service again. The patron seemed excited about the database and finding the information she needed. She also seemed to understand how to use it. Sally made her comfortable asking questions.

Don’t Forget to nominate a session for June or July
in the Ask a Librarian Toolbox! http://info.askalibrarian.org.

The Exemplary Detailed Chat Winner does receive a $20 gift card to Borders.

Marie Radford’s ALA Presentation

The presentation I attended at ALA and posted my notes on,  is now online at:

Radford, Marie L. 2007. “See it, Hear it, Touch it: How do Communication and Learning Styles Affect Virtual Reference?” RUSA, RSS/MARS Virtual Reference Committee, American Library Association Annual Conference, 25 June 2007, Washington, DC (USA). The presentation and the following handouts are available from the committee’s Web site:

• “Information Seeking Behavior and the Generations.” (table) (.pdf: 27K/1 pg.)
• Session abstract (includes resource list). (.pdf: 114K/3 pp.)

Ask a Librarian on an iphone

New entry points for users! Be on the look out for users on mobile devices.   As Internet on devices becomes more common and the browsers better and better – our users have a new way to access Ask a Librarian – truly from anywhere, at anytime!

Do users know what we are talking about?

Just some food for thought:

John Kupersmith recently posted his great study on what users understand of library lingo. The full report is at, http://www.jkup.net/terms.html

The study, finds the terms most often cited as being misunderstood or not understood by users:
Acronyms & brand names
Database
Library Catalog
E-journals
Index
Interlibrary Loan
Periodical or Serial
Reference
Resource
Subject categories
such as Humanities
or Social Science

July Practice Day

I just wanted to remind you that tomorrow, July 10th, is our monthly practice day. We will have regular practice sessions for everyone in the state on the second Tuesday of each month.

Please join in and practice your skills in a low-stress environment with your colleagues. I will be online from 9-11 and Michelle Oleson will be online from 1-3 as a librarian and/or patron to help facilitate the practice.

Just go to this site http://www.askalibrarian.org/info/training.asp and log in as a librarian or take a turn asking questions as a patron.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

Next Page »