March 2019 Monthly Statistics
Librarians statewide to celebrate Ask a Librarian Day – Press Release
Are you having trouble finding out, who invented the stethoscope? Do you want to know, who owns the apartment building on 49th street? Are you sitting at your computer frustrated trying to figure out where to start on your big research project? Live expert help is just a click away with Ask a Librarian. Ask a Librarian (www.askalibrarian.org) is FREE online service for all Floridians.
With Ask a Librarian, you are connected to a librarian who will answer your question right when you need assistance most. It’s easy to use, just go to www.askalibrarian.org and ask your question, a Florida librarian will assist you. Ask a Librarian is a collaborative program by libraries throughout Florida and will provide you with accurate answers utilizing your state and local resources.
“Ask a Librarian is a tremendous resource for students and anyone with a research need. It makes expert librarians available to any Florida resident. Ask a question and within minutes an actual person is helping you. It’s a great feeling to connect with a skilled supportive person and know you are not lost amid a million search results” according to Ask a Librarian Manager, Diana Silveira.
Librarians all over Florida will celebrate Ask a Librarian Day on Feb. 23 to bring awareness to the free online reference service that connects Floridians with librarians for help with homework or general questions.
Librarians at over 106 libraries around Florida will don “Askalibrarian.org” t-shirts and pins and will talk about the valuable service with library customers. They hope to inform people about Ask a Librarian’s benefits so that everyone can take full advantage of this user-friendly service.
Ask a Librarian is available live from 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 24/7 for email assistance. Visit www.askalibrarian.org for more information or to ask a librarian a question.
Pictures from last year’s event and more information about the service are available at: https://info.askalibrarian.org/aal_day.asp
Ask a Librarian is managed by the Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC), and is funded as part of the Florida Electronic Library (www.flelibrary.org) by a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant.
Participate in VR Research via Phone Interview!
May 2015 Statistics
On May 1st Ask a Librarian migrated from Oracle Live Chat to Springshare’s LibAnswers.
Source | Sessions |
---|---|
Chat | 3067 |
SMS | 847 |
2046 | |
Total | 5960 |
LibChat Statistics
AMP: Ask a Librarian Accelerated Mobile Page
When you search google for “Ask a Librarian” on a phone, the first result is Ask a Librarian’s AMP page. Google shows that this is a valid AMP page by placing the AMP logo and name before the Search Result Snippet.
AMP Specification and page caching by Google result in very fast page loads
Ask a Librarian created an AMP page for statewide chat in August 2016. Chats from this chat widget began the next month.
Conversion Rate of 70.9%
While only 31 patrons viewed this page, it resulted in 22 chats offered. This is an extremely high conversion rate of 70.9%
What kind of questions are answered?
- Lake County librarian helping Orange County patron place a hold on a book at OCLS
- Patron wanting an ebook
- 5th grader needing help with a book
- Patron having Kindle trouble
- Patron directed to FLE for databases
- St. Petersburg Library System librarian helping a Leon Country patron find a book at the Main Library
Who else publishes AMP pages?
Many sites now publish AMP pages. Here are some screenshots from the Google mobile news carousel, which are all AMP pages.
Page Size 98KB, Load time 0.7s, 4 requests
The AMP specification and Google caching result in a fast-loading page.