Happy Birthday, Ask a Librarian!

Ask a Librarian is 5 years old today! We have come a long way in five years. On July 28, 2003, we were open noon to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday (24 hours a week); 12 of the 40 libraries that had signed up to participate were trained and ready to staff the desk; and we answered a whopping 10 questions via chat.

Today, we have 100 participating libraries and are open 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday (84 hours a week). We answered 139 chat questions last Monday alone and are anticipating over 2500 for this month.

This is because of all of your hard work. Your dogged desire to answer hard questions, willingness to use your libraries’ slim resources to staff both a collaborative and an academic desk, including helping out with occasional extra shifts, and your overall dedication to the Ask a Librarian service has made Ask a Librarian a HUGE SUCCESS!

Before I get too mushy, I will just say THANK YOU for all your work on Ask a Librarian. I feel our service is getting better every day. A milestone birthday makes it seem even more appropriate that we spread our wings with new software and really take Ask a Librarian to the next level this year.

Please feel free to go eat birthday cake today and celebrate our birthday! Included is a virtual calorie-free piece for you.

Ask a Librarian Site Coordinator Meetings

Ask a Librarian is experiencing a huge change this year! We are moving to a new software platform, provided by InstantService, on Sept. 30. Ask a Librarian has grown considerably over the past five years, and we see indefinite continued growth. InstantService is able to support our current needs, but, more importantly, offers the range and flexibility we require for whatever exciting things lie ahead of us.

Join us for a brief online meeting to see a preview of the new software and to discuss plans for training you and your teams on and implementing the new software. We also will touch on marketing, scheduling and quality control issues during this brief meeting. Hope you can make it!

Register for one of the following online meetings!

Sessions:
Tues:  08/05/2008 1:30-2:30
Wed:  08/06/2008 9:30-10:30
Wed:  08/06/2008 1:30-2:30
Thurs: 08/07/2008 9:30-10:30
Thurs: 08/07/2008 1:30-2:30
Fri:  08/08/2008 9:30-10:30
Fri:  08/08/2008 1:30-2:30

May Exemplary Reference Awards

The Quality Assurance Workgroup has been hard at work and has awarded the following transcripts for May Exemplary Reference Awards of the Month. Transcripts were awarded in three categories: Best Detailed Chat, Best Brief Chat, and Best Teaching Chat. Christine Boatright from Suwannee River Public 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.

Detailed Exemplary Chat
Christine Boatright, Suwannee River Regional Library.
Christine helped the customer find many relevant links for her project on the Holocaust. She was patient and kind, which the customer and her friends appreciated.

Teaching Exemplary Chat
Sandra Lee Hawes, St. Leo University.
Operator did an excellent job of showing the customer how to find online material for teaching multiculturalism. Good reference interview!

Brief Exemplary Chat
Mandy Morris, St. Petersburg Public Library.
Mandy offered a couple of great website suggestions for a patron interested in becoming a new homebuyer. She also included accessing the patron’s local library’s catalog and offered titles that would be useful and showing as “checked in.” The patron’s exact words… “thank you for your help im glad you’re so knowledgible.” Great job Mandy!

To read these transcripts or nominate your own session, visit the Ask a Librarian Toolbox at: http://info.askalibrarian.org

Training Rooms Temporarily Unavailable

Just a brief reminder: Due to the migration to Instant Service, the training rooms will be temporarily unavailable as we set-up the new software. If you would like to practice, please contact Traci Avet, the Virtual Reference Coordinator. Her contact information is avett@tblc.org or 800-622-8252 ext 223.

Thank you for your patience as we more to Instant Service.

Ask a Librarian will be moving to a new software platform

We are excited to announce that we have officially awarded the new software contract to InstantService. This change means so many great things for the future of Ask a Librarian. The ink is still drying on the contact, but I wanted to let you know as soon as possible.

We’ve increased in usage by almost 200 percent since we started Ask a Librarian in 2003, and we’re continuing to grow in usage and in number of participating libraries. InstantService is a large, flexible software platform that will grow with us indefinitely over the years.

We are still perfecting our migration plan, but we plan to move to the new platform on the week of September 30. In the next couple of weeks, we will release much more information on what this involves for each of you, so please stay tuned.

So far, our plan includes:

– TONS of training throughout the state, primarily for those currently staffing the service with a few sessions for those new to the service. We envision the training to be short sessions (possibly two hours), and we plan to offer them regionally and online. Our goal is to make sure everyone is comfortable with the new software before the move. Initial training will start in August and continue through October. Traci, our new virtual reference coordinator, and I will be calling and setting up training sessions shortly, so you will have plenty of advance notice.

– Online practice time so you can become familiar with the new software. While it looks very different, the transition should be very easy if you already use Ask a Librarian.

- We will no longer have the training room for the old software after next Wednesday. The Ask a Librarian Team needs to use this server to set up the new service. If you need to practice, please contact Traci Avet (avett@tblc.org) and she will help make arrangements for you.

In the meantime, we will continue to promote, staff and use the current software as we always have. While we are all excited about the new software and all its potential, it’s important not to neglect our current software.

We’ll be in touch soon with more information, but please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Ask a Librarian hires virtual reference coordinator

The Tampa Bay Library Consortium welcomes Traci Avet as the new Ask a Librarian virtual reference coordinator. Traci was a reference librarian for the Palm Beach County Library System for five years before accepting the position with Ask a Librarian.

“Traci has a combination of face-to-face and virtual reference experience that is vital for this position,” said Diana Sachs-Silveira, virtual reference manager for Ask a Librarian. “We’re confident that she’ll go far with Ask a Librarian.”

Born and raised in Houma, La. – a town just south of New Orleans – Traci earned her Master of Arts in Library and Information Science from the University of South Florida. Her wide range of interests include glass mosaic tiling, sewing, snorkeling, reading and writing. She and her longhaired Chihuahua relocated from West Palm Beach to the Tampa area for this position, and Traci looks forward to exploring the area and getting to know the Ask a Librarian community.

Welcome Traci!!!

User Survey

Just a quick note to let you know, I have closed the User Survey.   We will post results shortly.