September AAL SuperStar Award
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!
Monday’s Motivational Minute
Monday’s Motivational Minute: Caroline Reed NCF from Ask a Librarian on Vimeo.
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
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…
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
Usage Summary
| Top entry by chat
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. |
Monday’s Motivational Minute – QA Workgroup Co-Chairs
Change to Nominating process for Exemplary Chat Awards!
After much consideration, the QA Workgroup has decided to move in a little different direction with the nominations for the monthly Brief, Detailed, and Teaching Exemplary Awards. This change will encompass both self nominations and nominations from the QA Workgroup.
Basically, starting in August, we will be asking everyone to nominate based on a Best Practice Theme. The theme for August will be Best Customer Service Chat.
Through the past couple of years, it has become harder and harder to pick winners from the nominees. The librarians who staff the service are resourceful and are highly experienced. It shows in the quality of the Chats! And, we have nominated based on the presence of two of the criteria that we have available in Toolbox.
The purpose of the QA Workgroup and Exemplary Chats has been threefold: (1) give recognition to excellent digital reference, (2) provide a bank of chats for teaching, and (3) provide incentives to improve digital reference skills.
With the growth of the AskALibrarian Service over almost 10 years, the staff of the service has grown also in competence and experience. The idea of a theme of a specific Best Practice seems like a natural evolution of that growth!
Here are some of the criteria that will be used in the future:
· Most Enthusiastic Librarian
· Most Exemplary handling of a difficult patron
· Most Exemplary e-gov question
· Most Exemplary t Mobile Reference session
· Great Customer Service
· Most Exemplary Use of Library Materials
· Most Exemplary Use of Non Library Materials
· Most Efficient and Accurate Answer for a Patron at a library Other Than one’s own
· Best Rapport While Keeping it Real with a Patron.
So, we ask you, please keep self-nominating! The response that we’ve gotten in self-nominations has been wonderful. We appreciate your interest and participation!
So now please choose a Chat that matches the Best Practice Theme of the month, “Great Customer Service.” The Quality Assurance Workgroup will be selecting Exemplary Chat winners only from those that display the monthly theme.
Starting in August, we will be looking for “Great Customer Service” for that month in all three categories for Exemplary Chats.
Pat Barbier and Joyce Ward (Co-Chairs of the QA Workgroup)
Don’t forget you can nominate here: https://info.askalibrarian.org/toolbox/exemplaryreference/nominatetranscript/