11/17/02
10/1/02
Taking calls if staffing a local service
* To: "Chat Reference staffers"
* Subject: IMPORTANT: Taking calls if staffing a local service
* From: Belinda Barr
* Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 16:05:12 -0500 (EST)
* Reply-To: chatref@ohiolink.edu
* Sender: owner-chatref@ohiolink.edu
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the first three IMPORTANT messages from the WebRef Committee. The
messages address several issues discussed in our October meeting. Meg
clarified this topic a little in an 11/14 email message.
Guidelines:
1) If the a call comes to you from the OhioLINK queue:
* automatically transfer it to the someone staffing that queue
* do not send a message to the caller.
2) If you that same call from the OhioLINK queue is routed to you twice,
pick it up if you can
3) If you cannot take the call, send the caller a message that all operators
are currently bush and ask the person to call again. If you have the time,
you can push them their local contact information (from the push file).
4) If at anytime you feel that you cannot take another call, please set
yourself as Unavailable. Setting yourself as Unavailable does not
disconnect your current call.
Remember that the Chats Opened column in the Operator View may not reflect
the current state. The Chats Opened view only shows chats that have opened
*After* you log on.
Belinda for the WebRef Committee
Top
No-shows Guidelines
To: "Chat Reference staffers"
* Subject: IMPORTANT: No-shows Guidelines
* From: Belinda Barr
* Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 16:06:12 -0500 (EST)
* Reply-To: chatref@ohiolink.edu
* Sender: owner-chatref@ohiolink.edu
------------------------------------------------------------------------
By reporting no-shows to the chat ref list, technical problems have been
identified (e.g. I was on but you didnt see me), administrators see if their
librarians are missing shifts, and the importance of adequate staffing for
the service is emphasized. So, please continue to send a message to the
chartref list when a librarian does not appear to be logged in.
Those who would like to disregard the messages may do so easily if everyone
uses this format for the subject line:
Subject: no-show, date, time
e.g. no-show, 10/21, 1-2pm
Belinda for the WebRef Committee
Top
Chat by Appointment
To: "Chat Reference staffers"
* Subject: IMPORTANT: Chat by appointment
* From: Belinda Barr
* Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 16:06:29 -0500 (EST)
* Reply-To: chatref@ohiolink.edu
* Sender: owner-chatref@ohiolink.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Barbara Schloman recently sent a message to the chatref list suggesting that
librarians may want to use the eLibrarian software to "chat by appointment."
She mentioned that one possible use would be to field requests about how to
use specific resources. Demonstrating a complex database using co-browse is
another possibe use.
Please use these guidelines if you would like to try to Chat by Appointment:
1) Establish an appointed time to meet the person on Chat.
2) Ask them the name they will use to identify themselves when they login.
3) Change your Operator username using this convention:
Wade for Joe Smith (where Joe Smith is the caller).
4) Send an operator broadcast that you're logged on for an appointment with
[Joe Smith] so that all operators are aware to transfer [Joe's] call to you.
Belinda for the WebRef Committee
Top
Staffing for OhioLINK and Institutional Seats
To: "Chat Reference staffers"
* Subject: IMPORTANT: Staffing for OhioLINK and Institutional Seats (from Web Ref Committee)
* From: "Lee, Wade M."
* Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 16:43:29 -0400
* Reply-To: chatref@ohiolink.edu
* Sender: owner-chatref@ohiolink.edu
* Thread-Index: AcJpjtZmbrXnxNVgEdaBKgDAT6E2Dw==
* Thread-Topic: IMPORTANT: Staffing for OhioLINK and Institutional Seats (from Web Ref Committee)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recently there has been a lot of discussion on the list regarding how those with
Institutional Seats can serve their patrons and those staffing for all of OhioLINK can
cohabitate peacefully on the OhioLINK Chat Reference service. At its Sept. 30th meeting,
the Web Reference Committee came up with the following guidelines:
1) In order to help make it more clear who is 'on duty' for all of OhioLINK, for their
institutional seat, or for training, we ask that you set your Username by the following
conventions:
-If you are the 'on duty' librarian for the chat service to all of OhioLINK, name
yourself Name@Institution ; e.g. Wade@UT .
-If you are staffing for just your school, name yourself Name for Institution; e.g. Wade
for UT
-If you are only on for training purposes and do not want any calls, name yourself Name
(Training)
To change your username, click on the Librarians tab, then on your own name, then on the
Info tab on the bottom pane. You can then double click on your name to edit the name.
Erase the old name, and put in the new name.
2) To make it easier to tell if a patron in the calls tab is from your own institution,
you may want to set up a filter so that patrons from your institution appear in a
different color in the Visitors view. (Note: They will not appear in a different color
in the Calls tab (bottom), only the Visitors View (top)). To set a filter in your
visitors view, choose Views & Filters from the Configure Menu. With the Visitors view
selected, click on Filters to the right of the name. Choose Add. Give the Filter a name
('From My Institution' for example), then choose 'where the user belongs to specific
groups' from the first section, set a specific Background Color from the second section.
In the third section, click on 'to specific groups' and type in the name of your
institution, click Add, then OK. Finally, click on the word 'background' and choose a
color from the palette. Click on OK, OK, OK, then Close.
3) Those staffing institutional seats should only answer those questions from their own
patrons. Check the Visitors tab to see what group the caller is in. (See #2 for
information on setting up a filter). If you are staffing for just your institution and a
call is routed to you (i.e., appears in your Calls tab), you can double-click on the name
to pick up the call, and BEFORE TYPING ANYTHING TO THE PATRON transfer them to a
librarian staffing the general service. They'll be named Name@Instiution
(see #1) in your Transfer Call menu. This way the patron is
quickly routed to a librarian staffing the OhioLINK seat, but will never see any transfer
message since they don't get a chat dialogue box until the new librarian types in a
greeting to them.
If you are a site coordinator, please let all of your librarians who are staffing the
chat service know this new information so that they can set their username to display
using the above naming conventions. If you staff your own Institutional seat on the
service, please pay particular attention to the procedures for transferring calls not
from your patrons to the general OhioLINK chat staffers.
Thanks, and happy chatting!
Wade Lee
For the Web Reference Committee
Top
Statistics & Surveys
To: "Chat Reference staffers"
* Subject: IMPORTANT: Statistics & Surveys (from the Web Ref Committee)
* From: "Lee, Wade M."
* Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 16:45:50 -0400
* Reply-To: chatref@ohiolink.edu
* Sender: owner-chatref@ohiolink.edu
* Thread-Index: AcJpjyoPbrXnytVgEdaBKgDAT6E2Dw==
* Thread-Topic: IMPORTANT: Statistics & Surveys (from the Web Ref Committee)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Web Reference Committee would like to take this opportunity to discuss the User and
Operator Surveys and their impact on statistics gathering for the service. At the current
time, these surveys are our only way to gather information about the use of the chat
service. The software is supposed to be able to provide some statistical information to
OhioLINK staff, but at this time is not performing as expected. So, even though the
current method of statistics gathering is far from ideal, it is all we have at the moment!
We understand that it is sometimes not possible to present the patron with the User survey.
The patrons often end the chat abruptly once they feel that their information needs have
been met. If you do get a chance to offer the survey to them, however, please take
advantage of the opportunity. You may want to add an automessage such as "Thanks for
using the OhioLINK Chat Service. Would you mind filling out a brief survey to help us
evaluate the service?", and put the survey in your Push Content menu. The URL for the
survey is http://olc6.ohiolink.edu/survey/
Whether you send the user survey or not, please fill out the operator (Librarian) survey
for the transaction. The operator survey allows us to gather information about the type of
transaction that could never be gathered automatically. Please take the time to fill out
the Operator (Librarian) survey after each transaction or as soon as you're not busy with a
patron. It can be found at http://gregson.lib.muohio.edu/olink/webref. After you fill out
the operator survey, you'll be taken to the results screen, with your entry (the newest) at
the bottom.
Thanks, and happy chatting!
Wade Lee
For the Web Reference Committee
Top
What if the other librarian doesn't show?
To: "Chat Reference staffers"
* Subject: IMPORTANT: What if the other librarian doesn't show? (from the Web Ref Committee)
* From: "Lee, Wade M."
* Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 16:47:47 -0400
* Reply-To: chatref@ohiolink.edu
* Sender: owner-chatref@ohiolink.edu
* Thread-Index: AcJpj3APbrXn0tVgEdaBKgDAT6E2Dw==
* Thread-Topic: IMPORTANT: What if the other librarian doesn't show? (from the Web Ref Committee)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
What should you do if you're staffing the OhioLINK Chat reference service and your
'partner' librarian doesn't show up? First of all, in the immortal words of Douglas Adams,
"DON'T PANIC!'. If you are the only librarian on the service and you are chatting with as
many patrons as you can handle, remember to set your AVAILABILITY to off (red) by pressing
the big green button near the top of the screen. When you finish with the current patrons,
click your availability back on (green). Any patrons needing assistance will simply see
that the chat service is not available and be directed to local assistance options.
There have been a few cases when the librarians thought that their 'partner' hadn't shown
up, but in fact they had but weren't showing up in the Librarians view for some reason.
Things to check if you suspect this might be the case:
1) Log out of the service and back in and see if they now appear in the Librarians view.
2) Check your connection by choosing Connections from the Configure menu. The
OhioLINK connection should have a check mark next to it.
3) Check and see if your Librarians view is set up correction. Choose Views &
Filters from the Configure menu. From the drop-down menu, choose the Librarians view.
Click on Filter next to the name of the view. There should be a filter called 'Operators'.
Finally, if your partner doesn't show up, please report it to the chatref@ohiolink.edu
list. If you want to see which school is scheduled to be
on the chat service, you can log in to the online schedule at http://workschedule.net
Company ID: 4069
User ID: chat
Password chat
Then click on 'Everybody's Schedule' to see the complete schedule. You may have to use the
arrows to advance the date to today's date.
Thanks, and happy chatting!
Wade Lee
Top