April Statistics

Sorry this is so late! – I wrote this and forgot to post it.

We had another good month. We answered 3,979 questions for Florida residents last month including 2,596 live chat sessions and 908 email sessions. The academic desk answered 475 questions in April (which is great considering students had spring break).

We saw a large decrease in email questions last month – causing a dip in our total number from the previous year. Except for Orange County, almost every library saw a decrease in email in April. The past months, had seen email statistics remaining the same or having a slight decrease. It is an interesting trend, we are following closely – are users moving away from email as a communication tool, was it an anomaly or some other reason all together?

Additional Reports available:
usage-by-county-compiled-by-zipcode
April – Patron By Entry Point
Ask a Librarian General Statistics Report April 08

Great work everyone!

March Exemplary Reference Awards

The Quality Assurance Workgroup has been hard at work and has awarded the following transcripts for March Exemplary Reference Awards of the Month. Transcripts were awarded in three categories: Best Detailed Chat, Best Brief Chat, and Best Teaching Chat. Jan Garwood from Palm Beach County Library will receive a gift card to Amazon.com for his Exemplary Detailed Chat and all three winners will receive a certificate at a presentation at next year’s Florida Library Association Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.

Brief Exemplary Chat
Kristen Faulkner Polk Community College. Kristen questioned the patron closely on the dissertation information needed to help locate the title of a dissertation at the patron’s home college. Very fast work for a grateful patron.

Detailed Exemplary Chat
Jan Garwood, Palm Beach County Library. Jan did a great job of providing information and suggestions so that the patron could actively participate and help answer her own question. Great sleuthing! 28 min.

Teaching Exemplary Chat
Rita Veron, Jacksonville Public Library. This was an excellent example of walking a patron through a database that the library owned, in this case “NetLibrary.” Even though Rita had some technical difficulties at the end of the chat, ultimately she led the patron to what they needed and he was thankful. Way to go Rita!

To view the winning transcripts or nominate a session, login to the Ask a Librarian Toolbox at: http://info.askalibrarian.org

University of Central Florida Joining Ask a Librarian

We are excited to announce the University of Central Florida is joining Ask a Librarian.  They will begin staffing Ask a Librarian in the next few weeks. 

 

 

Job posting: TBLC seeks Ask a Librarian virtual reference coordinator

The Tampa Bay Library Consortium is seeking an Ask a Librarian Virtual Reference Coordinator. This is not your typical library job! We’re looking for someone who is creative, innovative, independent and definitely techno-savvy.

Who are we looking for: We are seeking a dynamic individual who is techno-savvy and willing to continually learn new skills and keep on the forefront of library technology, specifically technologies that can aid in the delivery and promotion of Ask a Librarian (http://www.askalibrarian.org ). We’d like someone with training experience and virtual reference experience. Our ideal candidate is a self-starter with knowledge of reference services and use of online resources, project management and customer support techniques, knowledge of general library operations, general computer technology, chat, word processing, database and spreadsheet software, record keeping and general office administration procedures. This position requires extensive travel, so flexibility and love of travel are a must.

This person must be able to communicate effectively verbally and in writing; develop and present training and presentations; and plan, organize, schedule and manage projects. We need an individual with considerable initiative, attention to detail and independent judgment to create and modify strategies in order to achieve project goals.

This job is challenging and dynamic, and for the right person, it offers a chance to work in a unique, fun environment.

The Virtual Reference Coordinator schedules and trains individuals staffing Florida’s Ask a Librarian virtual reference program, coordinates the program with staff of the College Center for Library Automation (CCLA) and reports to the Virtual Reference Manager.

Responsibilities include training, scheduling, and assisting librarians staffing Ask a Librarian’s virtual reference desk; working with an advisory committee and working groups; periodic staffing of the desk; participation in writing grant proposals, reports, and project documentation.

Required Qualifications: Ask a Librarian requires you have a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from an ALA accredited graduate program and a minimum two years of library experience.

Salary and Benefits: Salary range is $37,000 – $42,000, depending on qualifications and experience. Benefits package includes annual vacation and sick leave, paid holidays, retirement plan and health insurance (major medical, dental, life and disability).

Deadline: Until position is filled.

To apply, submit resume including three references to:
Charlie Parker, Executive Director
Tampa Bay Library Consortium
1202 Tech Blvd., Suite 202
Tampa, FL 33619
Fax: 813-628-4425
Email: cparker@tblc.org

Ask a Librarian News!

A lot has been happening with Ask a Librarian in the past week. I thought this summary would be the easiest way to share all three pieces of news with all of you.

ITN (Invitation to Negotiate):

As previously announced, Ask a Librarian has issued an ITN for a new software platform to run Ask a Librarian. On Tuesday, we opened the five ITN responses we received from the following vendors: Altarama, Instant Service, Live Person, OCLC (QuestionPoint), and Tutor.com. We are reading through the responses and hope to have more information to you shortly.

Current software bought by another company:

Last week, Altarama (www.altarama.com) purchased VRLPlus from SirsiDynix. We were all surprised by this news! They are immediately taking over the operations of the product. We are excited about the news – especially the fact that they are bringing back some of the people who started Docutek with whom we have a long history.

What does this company change mean to you? Probably not too much. The most significant change – we hope – is that software issues should be fixed faster and the system should run better than before Altarama took over.

Jennifer Gregor is leaving Ask a Librarian:

As Jennifer let you know last week, she has accepted a position at St. Petersburg College. While I am sad she is leaving us, I am thrilled that she has this opportunity. She will remain with Ask a Librarian until the end of the month. To help us with the transition, she is trying to complete the desk schedules through October. Site Coordinators, please help with this goal by letting Jennifer know your library’s schedule – it will make the summer and fall much easier if the desk schedules are complete and accurate before Jennifer leaves. We will be posting an ad for the virtual reference coordinator position shortly, so we hope it will not be vacant long.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments!

Notes from the FLA User Forum

 What a great time! It was a great user forum this year.    We started off with Pat Barbier, the co-chair of the Quality Assurance Workgroup presenting certificates to the Exemplary Reference Award Winners from the past year.   I wish we had time to talk about many of their sessions- the winning really demonstrate why Ask a Librarian is such a vital tool.      You can read these sessions in the Ask a Librarian Toolbox (http://info.askalibrarian.org)

We then talked about statistics, what our users think about us, current marketing (including plans for The Director’s Chair II), training, scheduling and the addition of the Academic Desk.   

Further, we went through the ITN process.     In April, Ask a Librarian posted an Invitation to Negotiate for new software.    

The other big announcement -is Jennifer Gregor is leaving the Ask a Librarian project at the end of the month.   We are excited to announce she is joining the staff at St. Petersburg College! I am going to miss her.

A powerpoint of the presentation is available for your viewing – fla-2008-user-forum

Please do not hesitate to ask questions about anything presented – especially the ITN – your opinion is really important to us!

 

Marie Radford’s FLA Presentation

Marie Radford presented Thursday afternoon at FLA and it was a great presentation. As it happened a last years ALA, I took frantic notes on her research in Virtual Reference.  A fact that really stuck out to me – the average face to face reference transaction takes the same time as the average chat session (12- 13 minutes). The other fact that struck me- users don’t want video reference, they like the anonymous aspect of chat and the transcript that produced.  As we look at software, this was an interesting fact and consider. 

Through her research she has developed 3 ways to boost accuracy in a virtual reference transaction. Improve your accuracy from around 72 to 93% accuracy with three easy steps during any transaction.

1. For Ready Reference queries, answer the specific question asked. It seems simple right! Be we can all be guilty – the desk is busy and someone asks, “How tall is the Great Wall of China?” We quickly find a general site on the Great Wall and push the URL and move on to the next customer. Accuracy is boosted a lot if we take a moment and confirm the exact information is on the page- and tell the user where it is on the page! It’s not helpful if they can’t find it.  Remembering to ask, “Did this answer your question?” and waiting for the answer will help here as well.

2. Clarify all questions! Don’t forget the reference interview. A perfect example – a question I once had. The user asked for books the “history of Africa” so I jump right into a search and send a few titles- well, the user actually was studying the history of evolution – and was not expressing this in the opening question to me. We got the info – but I would of saved a lot of work by taking a moment to talk about what exactly she was looking for.

3. Always check web links pushed to users. Marie reported some links sent were broken – this means even our bookmarks. Any site can be down on any given day. Asking, “Can you see this page” as you cobrowse will also help.

Anyway to see her research, it is best to go directly to the source.  Check out both her handouts (radford-fla-handouts) and PowerPoint presentation (fla-radford-ppt).  Follow her blog at:  http://librarygarden.blogspot.com/ and follow her research study at: http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/synchronicity/