January Exemplary Reference Awards

The Quality Assurance Workgroup has been hard at work and has awarded the following transcripts for January 2009 Exemplary Reference Awards of the Month. Transcripts were awarded in three categories: Best Detailed Chat, Best Brief Chat, and Best Teaching Chat.

Mindy Rose from Pam Beach County Library System 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 this year’s Florida Library Association Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida (Thursday, May 7th at 8:30am).

Brief Exemplary Chat:
Melinda Gottesman, University of Central Florida.
Melinda helped a Keiser University student find a credible web site for town demographic information. Also recommended an education database. Good rapport. Patron was pleased.

Detailed Exemplary Chat
Mindy Rose, Palm Beach County Library.
Mindy used her specialized knowledge of consumer health reference in this serendipitous exchange. The patron needed physician discipline information in two different states, and Mindy was able to guide the patron to pertinent websites, and explain the information available, and the limitations. Mindy also provided contact information for the government agencies which could provide additional information.

Teaching Exemplary Chat
Margaret Wells, Goldstein Library FSU.
Margaret used screenshare very effectively to show a patron how to access and use a database. She demonstrated the teaching power of using screenshare.