Monday’s Motivational Minute – Pammy
Monday’s Motivational Minute from Ask a Librarian on Vimeo.
This motivational minute comes to us from the Quality Assurance Workgroup. Pammy from Osceola County Public library received a question from a patron asking if guinea pigs can raise there young together. Pammy found 3 different resources that helped the patron find the answer and led them to a discussion about animals, the state law on breeding and medications for animals. Pammy was able to find the patron exactly what she was looking for and more! Just another rewarding chat with Ask a Librarian. Thanks Pammy for making our Motivational Minute and taking the extra step for the happy patron!
Read the full transcript here: https://info.askalibrarian.org/motivational-minute-transcript-pammy/
November 2012 Statistics – Chat, Email, and Text
Usage Summary
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Training
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Live Chat
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WidgetsAsk a Librarian widgets embedded on a web page allow your patrons to chat, text, or email without leaving your website. The Ask a Librarian SmartButton indicates whether chat is being staffed. Choose from the pool of existing designs, or tell us your preferred characteristics and color scheme for a truly customizable user feature. An iframe tag places the AaL hosted widget anywhere on your page, although it’s also possible to use our documentation to place the code on your own hosted page without using an iframe. | Instant InviteInstant Invite is a proactive chat that can be set it up so when a patron arrives on a library page the chat will pop onto the screen. Or if they run a search in the catalog and receive no results, a pop up will ask them if they want to chat with a librarian. Everything about this can be customized. Find out more about Instant Invite. Contact us if you would like to set one up for your library. |
December 2012 SuperStar Winner
Rhonda Kitchens, December 2012 SuperStar
Each month, the Ask a Librarian team picks an outstanding member that has shown exceptional participation in the program. This month’s AAL SuperStar winner is Rhonda Kitchens from State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota!
Rhonda is a Librarian with the State College of Florida (SCF) – Venice Campus. She is also a March 2010 Exemplary Reference Winner for a detailed chat.
Rhonda is an amazing promoter of AAL. She helped roll out SCF’s Instant Invite which became the first automated Click to Chat technology available to students in the state of Florida. She was awarded with the 2011 Learning Resources Commission Exemplary Practice Award for Library Services with the roll out of Instant Invite. Rhonda helped us test and launch the new In-Page Widget, localized text messaging and innovations within the program. She created this image for her students using the text messaging feature at SCF Library. 
Rhonda is a such an ENTHUSIASTIC member of the Ask a Librarian team. She is a recent member of the Quality Assurance Workgroup, assisting with the Exemplary Reference Winners each month.
Please help me welcome this month’s SuperStar winner, Rhonda Kitchens!
December 2012 Holiday Closings
Monday’s Motivational Minute – Gary Parsons
Monday’s Motivational Minute from Ask a Librarian on Vimeo.
Today’s motivational minute comes to us from a chat Gary Parsons, from Florida Atlantic University, had with a student. The student was looking for information on homosexuality and the diversity of our society. Gary was able to point out specific databases on the topic including Opposing viewpoints and Generwatch. At the end the student replied with “thank you so much, you helped alot!” Another rewarding chat with a grateful student. Thanks Gary for letting us share this motivational minute!
October 2012 Statistics – Chat, Email, and Text
Usage Summary
| Top entry by chat
Training
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Live Chat
| Local Stats by Entry Point | ||||||||||||||||||||||
WidgetsAsk a Librarian widgets embedded on a web page allow your patrons to chat, text, or email without leaving your website. The Ask a Librarian SmartButton indicates whether chat is being staffed. Choose from the pool of existing designs, or tell us your preferred characteristics and color scheme for a truly customizable user feature. An iframe tag places the AaL hosted widget anywhere on your page, although it’s also possible to use our documentation to place the code on your own hosted page without using an iframe. | Instant InviteInstant Invite is a proactive chat that can be set it up so when a patron arrives on a library page the chat will pop onto the screen. Or if they run a search in the catalog and receive no results, a pop up will ask them if they want to chat with a librarian. Everything about this can be customized. Find out more about Instant Invite. Contact us if you would like to set one up for your library. |
November 2012 SuperStar Winner
Lora Glass, November 2012 SuperStar
Each month, the Ask a Librarian team picks an outstanding member that has shown exceptional participation in the program. This month’s AAL SuperStar winner is Lora Glass from Niceville Public Library!
Lora has been with the Niceville Public Library since 1983. She started out as the Library Assistant and when the new library facility opened in 2000, became Head of Reference and Interlibrary Loan. She is a numerous exemplary reference award winner, being awarded in August 2007 for a teaching chat , July 2009 for a teaching, and January 2011 for a detailed chat. AskaLibrarian is one of her favorite duties because she is constantly challenged. Her favorite question which she has been asked numerous times is “Are people from Niceville always nice?” Her reply is always, YES.
Lora is a wonderful asset to the Ask a Librarian team. She is a member of the Quality Assurance Workgroup, helping award our wonderful staff that makes Ask a Librarian the terrific service it is. Lora is always reaching out to help staff the desk, willing to help her statewide colleagues.
Lora is an awesome supporter of Ask a Librarian!
Please help me welcome this month’s SuperStar winner, Lora Glass!
Participate in VR Research via Phone Interview!
Participate in VR Research via Phone Interview
Dear Virtual Reference Librarian:
Greetings! We are looking for people interested in taking part in an important study of virtual reference services (VRS). We are willing to pay you for your time.
We hope you will be interested in sharing your opinions and insights about live chat VRS in our grant-funded research project titled, “Cyber Synergy: Seeking Sustainability through Collaboration between Virtual Reference and Social Q&A Sites.” We need librarians willing to participate in a phone interview. Please access the following link to sign up for the survey:
The phone interview will take approximately 45 minutes and participants will receive $30 in compensation. All responses will be kept strictly confidential.
Prior to the interview, we will need a signed consent form. When you respond to this email by responding to the above URL and stating that you are willing to participate, we will send you a one page consent form for you to download, sign, and fax back to us. More instructions about this will follow to confirm your participation.
Cyber Synergy will evaluate sustainability of VRS and explore collaborative models for subject expertise among librarians and other experts systems, such as Social Q&A sites. This study is funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Rutgers University, and OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
We, the principal investigators of Cyber Synergy, thank you for your interest in the study.
Marie L. Radford, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Rutgers University
Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist
OCLC, Inc.
Chirag Shah, Ph.D.
Rutgers University, Assistant Professor
More information can be obtained at the project website:
http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/synergy/default.htm
Questions?
Contact Alyssa Darden at dardena@oclc.org
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