Hot Topics Webinar: Customer Service Excellence, or How to Win an Exemplary Reference Award

  

Hot Topics: Customer Service Excellence, or How to Win an Exemplary Reference Award 

Wednesday, September 26, 2012
2-3 pm ET

We all know the importance of customer service in reference, but the unique environment of chat reference sometimes presents a few unique challenges, too. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to ensure a helpful and efficient chat reference experience for you and your virtual patrons.
In this webinar, Susan Livingston of South Florida State College, who has won four Exemplary Reference Awards, will provide the tips and tricks she has developed for superior customer service. Pat Barbier of St. Petersburg College, co-chair of the Quality Assurance Workgroup, will provide valuable tips and insights from the QA perspective on how you can ensure excellent customer service for your patrons.
Let Susan and Pat give you all the tools you need to provide customer service excellence in the virtual reference environment. Register today!

September AAL SuperStar Award

Susan Weiss, September AAL SuperStar

Susan Weiss, September AAL SuperStar

Each month, the Ask a Librarian team will pick an outstanding member that has shown exceptional participation in the program. This month’s AAL Super Star winner is Susan Weiss from Florida International University.

Susan is the Urban and Environmental Affairs Librarian for the Reference Department and the Site Coordinator for Florida International University libraries, Biscayne Bay Campus. Susan is also an Exemplary Reference Award winner for a brief chat in September 2010 and a teaching chat October 2007.

Susan is amazing, she frequently volunteers for shifts on both the Academic and Collaborative Desks. She regularly offers to help with shifts sent out by both AaL staff and those individuals emailing the listserv for last-minute help. It’s wonderful to have her support both colleagues on the Academic side as well as the collaborative desk. Susan is always encouraging new and existing staff at FIU to pick up weekly shifts.

Susan is a GREAT supporter of Ask a Librarian and her dedication to the program is MARVELOUS!

Please help me welcome this month’s SuperStar winner, Susan Weiss!

Webinar: High Anxiety: Increasing your Comfort Level on the Statewide Desk

High Anxiety: Increasing your Comfort Level on the Statewide Desk
Wed., Aug. 22, 10-11 am ET

  • Does the idea of answering statewide chat questions make you feel hesitant and uncomfortable?
  • Do you feel a little like a fish out of water when you’re scheduled to cover the Collaborative or Academic Desk for your library?

If you feel anxiety while waiting to help statewide chat patrons, you are not alone. Even the most capable and confident of librarians can feel a reduced sense of comfort when answering collaborative chat questions on the statewide desk.

You bring a lot to the table. This webinar will offer the perspective you need to lasso the comfort you that you have in-house and draw that into the virtual reference environment.

August AAL SuperStar Award

PatBarbierAALSuperStar

Pat Barbier, St. Petersburg College, August 2012 SuperStar Award Recipient

Each month, the Ask a Librarian team will pick an outstanding member that has shown exceptional participation in the program. This month’s AAL Super Star winner is Pat Barbier.

Pat is the site coordinator for St. Petersburg College as well as the Co-Chair of the Quality Assurance workgroup for Ask a Librarian. Pat has been active in AAL for over 7 years now, each year bringing a fresh new perspective to the group. This year Pat worked with Joyce Ward, co-chair of the QA worgroup, to come up with a new and exciting way to get our librarians motivated about Nominating chat transcripts.

Pat is an amazing supporter of Ask a Librarian and her dedication to the program is TREMENDOUS!

Please help me welcome this month’s SuperStar winner, Pat Barbier!

 

 

Register Today! FEL on the Statewide Desk: A Staff Webinar Series

Introducing a series to help you help patrons on the statewide Ask a Librarian desks…

State library long logo

FEL on the Statewide Desk:  A Staff Webinar Series

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FEL on the Statewide Desk: PowerSearch
Monday, August 27, 1-2p ET

Put that aspirin away! With Gale PowerSearch, you can instantly access periodical and reference content in multiple Gale resources from a single starting point, while also cross-searching eBooks in the Gale Virtual Reference Library. Discover the powerful features available to you and patrons across Florida in this informative webinar.

FEL on the Statewide Desk: Academic OneFile
Monday, September 10, 1-2p ET

Are you looking for peer-reviewed, full-text articles from the world’s leading journals and reference resources? With extensive coverage of all academic disciplines, Academic OneFile is authoritative and comprehensive – explore this incredible resource and find out how Academic OneFile can help you help patrons.

FEL on the Statewide Desk: Business Resources
Monday, September 17, 1-2p ET

Do you know how to access costly investment reports or sample business plans? Did you know that Demographics Now can help patrons decide where and what types of businesses are needed in your community, or that Gale Virtual Reference Library has a great selection of business/career e-books? This course will explain all those tools and more!

FEL on the Statewide Desk: Homework Help
Monday, September 24, 1-2p ET

Looking for a little help with those “homework help” questions? Look no further! Learn all about the best FEL resources to assist elementary, middle, and high school students with homework assignments. Attendees will be taught the most effective and efficient search strategies to obtain the best set of search results for student questions and research.
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Register today, and let the Florida Electronic Library help you better serve our Florida state residents!

Chat, Text, and Email Statistics – July 2012

June 2012 Stats

Usage Summary

askalibrarian.mobi Mobile Chat Sessions173
Standard Chat Sessions2,318
Instant Invite Chat Sessions58
Widget Chat Sessions1,205
Total Chat Sessions3,754
E-mail Sessions1,380
Text Sessions464
July 2012 total sessions5,598
Fiscal 2011-201270,382
Total use 2010-201175,712
Participating Libraries126

Top entry by chat

  1. Orange County Public Library Sytem
  2. Tampa Hillsborough Public Library System
  3. Nova Southeastern University
  4. Florida State University
  5. University of South Florida Libraries
  6. Broward County Library
  7. Jacksonville Public Library
  8. University of Florida
  9. University of Central Florida
  10. Miami Dade Public Library System

Training

  • Total Trained: 97 people
  • Number of Sessions: 5 online and 2 Face-to-Face
  • Classes Offered: Online Introductory Series, Email, Florida Digital Newspaper Library, Custom Training, Drupal Site Coordinator Training

Live Chat

Local Desks1,144
Academic320
Collaborative2,290
Total Chat3,754

Local Stats by Entry Point

Widgets

Ask 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.

This widget was created for SCFMS and is on their Primo page.

Instant Invite

Instant 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.