April Statistics Now Available!

We had another great month.  In April, we answered 19% more questions than last April.   Local, academic and the collaborative queues showed great use.

Here is a word cloud visualizing the words used in questions to the collaborative desk last month.  The larger the words, the more frequent the word was used.

here are the detailed reports:

Summary Report (Apr 2009)
Chat by Entry Point (Apr09)
Email by Entry Point (Apr09)
usage-by-county-by-user-reported-zip-code

Software fully functional

Thank you for your patience over the past weeks while we worked out some technical problems with Ask a Librarian.

I am happy to report that the system has now been returned to its full functionality. Thanks to CCLA Staff (especially Doug and Bruce) and Docutek the problem has been fixed. Statistics, patron login parameters in emails and chat sessions are all restored.

We are continuing to work to resolve the cause of this issue. It was caused, in part, by our online statistics database. Whenever a certain statistic was called for it would require enough resources to bring the server to a standstill. One of the things we have done to eliminate this problem is to only keep recent statistics online. Older stats have been archived and we can retrieve anything prior to April 1st, 2007 for you that you might need.

Since we have discovered that looking up statistics can slow down our system so dramatically, we need to ask you to limit your use of the statistics module to early mornings, before we open at 10 AM, whenever possible. This will help keep things running smoothly for everyone using live chat. We appreciate your cooperation with this and hope that it doesn’t cause too much inconvenience.

Please let us know if you still experience any problems with the system or notice anything unusual.

Co-browse Configuration

I just wanted to share some information about why co-browsing configures successfully sometimes and doesn’t other times.

Our current version of Docutek VRLplus allows a user to connect with us first in chat mode only. We can then choose to initiate co-browsing or not, depending on the session. When the user logs in we have information about what operating system and browser they are using, however there are more requirements for successful co-browsing including security settings and how java is set-up on their computer. The software doesn’t test these items until we try to configure co-browsing, which will either be successful or not. It is important to note that there is nothing “wrong” with the co-browser in these cases. The co-browse configuration should be seen as a test of the user’s system to see if they are capable of co-browsing. If they are not, then the co-browser will go to classic mode and you can continue the session in classic. We are working with Docutek to make this process a little more transparent so that the user and librarian will have more information about the co-browse configuration process and we will know which users will be capable of co-browsing in pro mode or in classic.

You can also make use of this script to communicate with your patron if their computer fails the co-browse configuration process:

“I’m sorry but it looks like your browser is not able to be configured for co-browsing. We can continue our session without the co-browse function.”

The script is saved in the scripted replies under, “Co-browsing won’t config”

Please let me know if you have any questions or technical problems.

Java Update

Thanks to everyone at CCLA and Docutek the Java 1.6 issue has been resolved. They were able to apply a patch to our software that fixed the problem. You may now update your Java if you would like to. Ask a Librarian’s software is compatible with the newest version of Java, and whichever previous version you were using. If you have any questions or other technical issues please let us know.

New Java Version

We have discovered a technical issue with the newest version of Java. Java version 1.6 does not appear to be compatible with the Ask a Librarian software. Version 1.6 is new and we recommend not updating your Java until we get this resolved. Please also note that the Windows Vista operating system requires Java version 1.6.

The Ask a Librarian software will test which version of Java you have when you open live chat. Just log into live chat and note the setting in the configuration test window. You will still get a green checkmark next to Java VM even if it is 1.6, but you can see which version you have from the configuration test window. If you have already updated your computer’s Java and need to roll back to the previous version please contact us for assistance.

We are working on a solution or work around to this issue and will let you know as soon as more information is available. Thank you for your patience while Docutek is working to resolve this.

Network Issues – Update!

As many of you experienced on Wednesday, the Ask a Librarian pages were loading very slow, if at all intermittently through the day. The slow load caused page timeouts, Pro Mode not to load, refreshing in chat sessions to not always occur and a general slowness that caused a lot of frustration.

CCLA staff, especially our Systems Admin Bruce, has been working hard and monitoring the situation. The main issue seems to be a glitch with the FIRN network which has been resolved. If you continue experiencing these slowdowns or any other technical issues please contact us immediately at – askalibrarian@tblc.org

Thanks for your patience as we worked this technical issue out.

Network Issues

As several of you have reported and many others many have noticed in the past few days, Ask a Librarian has been experiencing intermittent slowdowns on our network. CCLA staff is working hard to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We will get out an update as soon as we have more information.

Please let me know if you experience any technical issues or questions.
Thank you for your patience as we get this resolved.

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.

Databases and Ask a Librarian

Ask a Librarian prides itself on the ability to take users through the electronic databases their library subscribes too. Occasionally, we discover a database which is not working well with Ask a Librarian. We have recently discovered the EBSCO databases is one such case. CCLA programming gurus are working on this new issue, and we thank you for your patience as they get to the bottom of the problem.

In the meantime, we recommend using the Gale & OCLC databases offered through Florida Electronic Library. The Gale databases can be accessed via a bookmark on the live service and are IP authenticated. Further, using each libraries knowledge base you have access to their specialized databases for use with their customers.
Please remember to report all issues with databases and/or Ask a Librarian in general to the Ask a Librarian Helpdesk at askalibrarian@tblc.org.

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