March Madness Month, Wednesday 3/9/2011
** Note: If you didn’t receive this in email format earlier today, please email Traci at avett@tblc.org
March Madness Month
A month of surprising facts, informative highlights, and fun activities… all for the chance to brag about our incredible services!
WOMM Tip: Increasing Ask a Librarian visibility on your library’s website.
Every Ask a Librarian link, logo, and other graphic can net your library some serious numbers when they’re optimized to meet the needs of your users. Remember: Ask a Librarian is a service that helps your users directly, so it’s not just another resource – it’s a living, breathing virtual reference tool that serves to meet the needs of your users when they need help the most. And unless your staff or webpages let them know that virtual reference through Ask a Librarian is a direct-assistance option for them, they might not realize the extent to which Ask a Librarian could help them in an unexpected (or expected) situation.
Here’s what we mean. Say your library’s webpage boasts a nice collection of databases, and Ask a Librarian is included alphabetically in an ordered list. All of your resources are surely incredible ones – collections for history, or audiobooks, or consumer resources. And listing Ask a Librarian here is great, because it is telling them AaL is a resource that can help, but will they know that Ask a Librarian provides direct assistance until midnight 5 days a week, and until 5 pm the other two? Maybe they’re not having any luck whatsoever finding that history article or appliance ratings; would they intuit that another resource up or down that list exists to help them with exactly those searches? How about including a separate, perhaps larger or more-customized logo in your sidebar, or help pages, or contact pages, to reinforce the component of immediacy that makes Ask a Librarian services such a standout resource for them?
Aside from adding a link in other frames or pages, you might also think about changing or enlarging your current Ask a Librarian logo, or even placing different logo graphics on different pages to better match that page’s function or design. You’ll find several logos available for immediate use right on our website, or we can work with you if you have a different design or color scheme in mind. We also have a terrific collection of widgets, viewable here and here, that allow your library’s users to chat without leaving your website. Consider adding a logo or widget to your library’s database pages or catalog pages as well. Libraries that have done this experienced marked increase in Ask a Librarian usage (and their library’s statistics), all while ensuring that their high-traffic areas always have help visible and accessible for users & visitors.
It pays to market Ask a Librarian – for your library’s statistics, for diversity of services offered, and for the end user that makes it all so vital. As those who regularly staff the Ask a Librarian desks know, we get an awful lot of patrons that enter AaL with a subject like “please I need help!!”. They enter with a question, and leave with an answer (or peace of mind). And those happy users are your customers!
Want a new Ask a Librarian bag? Enter these MMM Challenges – the deadline is this Friday!!!
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He Said, She Said: Excerpts from AaL Ambassador Challenge Participants
“I printed out the AaL promotional flyers and bookmarks and created displays on both display tables that we have located at strategic spots: near the library’s auditorium where numerous community events take place and near the public elevators where patrons can browse while waiting. All of the Reference Librarians wore the large Ask a Librarian buttons while on the public Reference, Circulation, and Information Desks that day. Jeanne Taylor, a very “socially connected” Youth Services Librarian, sat in on the afternoon chat session and then went on Twitter with wonderful promotional tweets about the Ask a Librarian service. […] We are very grateful to Jeanne for serving as such an informative and enthusiastic ambassador. Jeanne said she learned a lot and she was eager to spread the word to promote this valuable service. […] She has already enthusiastically spread the word among fellow staff in the library. As the Youth Services staff engage in daily patron encounters, they will have accurate information to provide to parents, teachers, and students of all ages that will enable them to utilize this wonderful service for their study assignments and other informational needs.”
– Fawn Van Allen, West Palm Beach Public Library
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When speaking to users, please keep in mind these important talking points:
- If you ever need help when you’re not in our library, visit www.askalibrarian.org (or find the link on our library’s website).
- Ask a Librarian is a website where you can go to get your questions answered by a real librarian.
- Ask a Librarian is open for live chat and texting until midnight ET Sunday through Thursday, and until 5 p.m. ET Friday and Saturday.
- You can use Ask a Librarian for free.
- If Ask a Librarian isn’t open for chat or texting, you can always email your question, and your library’s staff will get back to you within 24 hours.
March Madness Month, Monday 3/7/2011
** Note: If you didn’t receive this in email format earlier today, please email Traci at avett@tblc.org
March Madness Month
A month of surprising facts, informative highlights, and fun activities… all for the chance to brag about our incredible services!
THE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE:
In Word-of Mouth Marketing (WOMM), the focus is on generating a “buzz” for your users. This includes making sure everyone in your library knows how Ask a Librarian helps real people every day. WOMM’s goal is to create a viral effect, both within and between users. This is important because every customer has a barrage of family, friends, and coworkers who witness that user’s needs being met pleasantly and efficiently. That’s where customer service comes into play – the better your customer service, the more likely the person you helped will not only return to use Ask a Librarian again, but also to share his or her positive experiences with countless future visitors.
Want to see some real results of that excellent customer service you provide to statewide users? These are actual user comments taken from our most recent 2011 user survey. There were many more compliments where these come from, but here are just a few to highlight the impact that you have on users in Ask a Librarian, and the reason it’s so important to maintain high customer service standards every time you staff.
• Please keep this service because it was a tremendous help for me. I am a teen with a right hemi paresis and am learning disabled. My mom helps me as best as she can but I would like to do this myself independently.
• I love Ask a Librarian!
• Oh it is just AWESOME!!! I like all your effort to make our lives easier as student.
• Kay was very kind and helpful! She helped me even though I was not sure how to explain the question. She was great!! Thank you!
• The librarian was very helpful and nice. Thank you very much for this service.
• you guys are doing great
• Marcia was very helpful and patient, keep up the great work!
• Quick and Easy!
• a great resource that can be accessed from home
• i always go to ask a librarian. u rock!
• I think this is a very valuable service, especially for researching students who hit the proverbial wall and don’t know where to go. I’m sure this would’ve made things a lot easier for me if I had this available during my childhood. Kirsty was the librarian who helped me tonight. She was very helpful and quick.
• Both times my questions were answered very quickly and with polite service!!
• My first time using and it work great!
• I love this service. Even though I check things on the internet, I like to have a HUMAN as my double check. THANK YOU!!!!
Think you have what it takes to get raving comments like these from Ask a Librarian users? Take the “Customer Service Quiz, Question 1” below for your chance to win an Ask a Librarian book pack. Don’t forget last week’s promotional photo contest for another chance to win!
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Who wants to win one of our cool new Ask a Librarian book packs? Our nifty new drawstring bags are red with a blue Ask a Librarian logo. Promote us with style, and hold your book or sandwich at the same time.
Customer Service Quiz, Question 1: A student trying to get into a database has incorrect login information. You look up login issues for that library, but cannot resolve the issue. You give them contact information for their library (which is currently closed). Which of the following is the best response to send next?
1. Good luck! Thank you for using Ask a Librarian; we hope you come again.
2. In the meantime, I can try to help you using other resources. What information were you looking for?
3. Well, if you would have started sooner, you could have contacted your library before they closed.
Tell us which option you’d choose and why. The best 3 responses will receive a cool new Ask a Librarian book pack! Email your response to Traci at avett@tblc.org by Friday, March 11, 2011.
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When speaking to users, remember these important talking points:
• If you ever need help when you’re not in our library, visit www.askalibrarian.org (or find the link on our library’s website).
• Ask a Librarian is a website where you can go to get your questions answered by a real librarian.
• Ask a Librarian is open for live chat and texting until midnight ET Sunday through Thursday, and until 5 p.m. ET Friday and Saturday.
• You can use Ask a Librarian for free.
• If Ask a Librarian isn’t open for chat or texting, you can always email your question, and your library’s staff will get back to you within 24 hours.
Chat, Text, Email Statistics – February 2011
The following statistics are now available for the month of February 2011:
Chat by Entry Point
Email by Entry Point
Text by Entry Point
AaL Summary Report
Zip Codes by County
March Madness Month – Friday 3/4/2011
** Note: If you didn’t receive this in email format earlier today, please email Traci at avett@tblc.org
March Madness Month
A month of surprising facts, informative highlights, and fun activities… all for the chance to brag about our incredible services!
WOMM Fun Fact:
Have you ever wonder just how many people Ask a Librarian has helped since its inception in 2003? As Florida’s virtual reference service, Ask a Librarian has increasingly seen its usage grow thanks to your support, promotion, and outstanding virtual reference service, so we thought you’d like to know just how much you’ve helped.
Current Fiscal Year (Oct 2010 thru Jan 2011):
Chat: 18,930
Email: 5,494
Text: 1,440
Current Fiscal Year Combined: 25,864
Grand Total, All Years:
Chat: 208,120
Email: 73,562
Text: 1,440
Grand Total, All Years Combined: 283,122
Yes, you read that right. 283,000 total help sessions, with 25,864 chats, emails, and texts from this fiscal year alone. See? We told you you rock.
Yeah!!!!
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He Said, She Said: Excerpts from AaL Ambassador Challenge Participants
“We set up a table with tabletop posters and informative brochures and giveaways. We also put candies out and assorted cookies and coffee. The cookies were made by another librarian who was on vacation, but stopped by in the morning with home-made heart-shaped cookies that were frosted with the notations AAL, ?, and ASK. These were a nice selling feature for the service and a big hit with students. My colleague (Jay) taught a few library orientation classes that day and promoted the AAL service to each group that attended the sessions that day. The other librarian spoke with faculty members about the service and these teachers brought give-aways from the library and brochures to their classes that day to promote the service.” – Barbara H., Hodges University
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Don’t forget to enter Wednesday’s challenge for your chance to win a cool new Ask a Librarian bag!!!
• Select one of our promotional print posters or bookmarks;
• Find an untapped resource, audience, or target location;
• Send us a photo of the item in its strange, new habitat.
You can either use something currently on hand in your library, download them from here, or create your own poster or bookmark design. Email photos to Traci, avett@tblc.org by March 11, 2011. The top 3 photo winners will receive an Ask a Librarian book pack!
When speaking to users, remember these important talking points:
• If you ever need help when you’re not in our library, visit www.askalibrarian.org (or find the link on our library’s website).
• Ask a Librarian is a website where you can go to get your questions answered by a real librarian.
• Ask a Librarian is open for live chat and texting until midnight ET Sunday through Thursday, and until 5 p.m. ET Friday and Saturday.
• You can use Ask a Librarian for free.
• If Ask a Librarian isn’t open for chat or texting, you can always email your question, and your library’s staff will get back to you within 24 hours.
March Madness Month 3/2/2011
** Note: If you didn’t receive this in email format earlier today, please email Traci at avett@tblc.org
March Madness Month
A month of surprising facts, informative highlights, and fun activities
… all for the chance to brag about our incredible services! 
It’s day 2 of the 2nd annual March Madness Month, and we’re gearing up for an exciting month of continuing to promote Ask a Librarian through Word-of-Mouth Marketing. Please be sure to share your thoughts, suggestions, and experiences with us!
WOMM Tip: Using Ask a Librarian print promotional materials for marketing in your local library.
Most of us have some pretty good tricks up our sleeves for engaging the user, whether that involves engaging them in conversation, in your research process, or finding some connection to the library so that they’ll return – but catching their attention or interest can be an initial barrier. Having print items readily displayed and accessible helps tremendously, of course – for example, keeping bookmarks near tables or desks, on reference & check-out counters, and in your library’s study rooms. Such placement is essential to making sure users know about Ask a Librarian.
In most cases, the key is to figure out where all the action currently is in your library, and to look for the best ways to reach your particular group of patrons. Check out hot spots and cool spaces to see if your library visitors might be invisibly “restructuring” the purpose the library intended or assumed for them. Step back and look at things not from a perspective of employee but of user. You might notice, for instance, that parents waiting while their children attend programming tend to gather together in the magazine section. Or maybe your library’s teens tend to hang out near the ephemerals because it’s near the bookshop, or less crowded, or the space seems more suitable for conversation. In both cases, use that knowledge and rethink those areas in terms of marketing.
And you could do this in interesting ways. How cool is that above photo from St. Petersburg College Library? Attach a 8×11 poster on your coffee or vending machine, or place larger ones on the end caps of your library’s higher-traffic aisles. Just remember that your mission may not necessarily be a short-term one. For example, glancing at your poster may not cause Coffee Guy to have a reference question today, but have him see it 3 days a week for 3 weeks, and it will seep into his memory in some form. And the next time he contemplates something, Ask a Librarian (or your library, or your databases, or asking someone at the Reference Desk, or…) will be an option that he just might not have thought of before.
Finally, keep an open mind, and think outside of the box. What about your coworkers? You could tape a QR code onto the butter dish compartment of your library’s break room refrigerator or someone’s favorite don’t-touch-this coffee mug. WOMM markets to everyone, and works in all directions. You can’t get it wrong, so just have fun!
Who wants to win one of our cool new Ask a Librarian book packs? Our nifty new drawstring bags are red with a blue Ask a Librarian logo. Promote us with style, and hold your book or sandwich at the same time.
TODAY’S CHALLENGE:
• Select one of our promotional print posters or bookmarks;
• Find an untapped resource, audience, or target location;
• Send us a photo of the item in its strange, new habitat.
You can either use something currently on hand in your library, download them from here, or create your own poster or bookmark design.
Email photos to Traci, avett@tblc.org by March 11, 2011.
The top 3 photo winners will receive an Ask a Librarian book pack!
When speaking to users, remember these important talking points:
• If you ever need help when you’re not in our library, visit www.askalibrarian.org (or find the link on our library’s website).
• Ask a Librarian is a website where you can go to get your questions answered by a real librarian.
• Ask a Librarian is open for live chat and texting until midnight ET Sunday through Thursday, and until 5 p.m. ET Friday and Saturday.
• You can use Ask a Librarian for free.
• If Ask a Librarian isn’t open for chat or texting, you can always email your question, and your library’s staff will get back to you within 24 hours.
March Madness Month
March Madness Month
A month of surprising facts, informative highlights, and fun activities
… all for the chance to brag about our incredible services!
On February 22nd, our third annual Ask a Librarian Day was a great opportunity for staff statewide to market Ask a Librarian to their coworkers and to library users. We are receiving some terrific photos from libraries who celebrated AaL Day locally, and some awesome stories from our AaL Ambassador challenge participants, which we will continue posting this month. Click here to view AaL Day photos, or here to read blog posts.
This year, we will continue the increased promotion with our second annual March Madness Month. Like last year, we will use the month of March to promote Ask a Librarian and to encourage you to promote Ask a Librarian to your own colleagues and users. The idea is to get you thinking about the benefits of Ask a Librarian so that you get talking – because when you recommend Ask a Librarian to a student or patron, or when you remind a coworker just how late Ask a Librarian is really open (midnight 5 days a week; 5pm the other 2), you’re actively participating in Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM). WOMM is all about spreading the word of something you know a bit about; something that you personally support. That promotion increases usage… and that’s what March Madness Month is all about. We’re organizing last years photos for you, but you can click here to read some of last year’s posts.
Keep in mind these important talking points:
• If you ever need help when you’re not in our library, visit www.askalibrarian.org (or find the link on our library’s website).
• Ask a Librarian is a website where you can go to get your questions answered by a real librarian.
• Ask a Librarian is open for live chat and texting until midnight ET Sunday through Thursday, and until 5 p.m. ET Friday and Saturday.
• You can use Ask a Librarian for free.
• If Ask a Librarian isn’t open for chat or texting, you can always email your question, and your library’s staff will get back to you within 24 hours.
Please join us in the support and promotion of Ask a Librarian this month by participating and sharing your thoughts and experiences with us!
xtranormal AaL video for your patrons/students
Happy Friday, everyone –
The xtranormal video our AaL intern Kira Smith made for Ask a Librarian Day 2011 would be perfect to show your users! If your library maintains a blog or other social networking page for users, consider posting her 1-minute video that tells them what Ask a Librarian is and how it works.
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11182535/
Thanks, Kira!
Ask a Librarian Day 2011 Recap
On Ask a Librarian Day this past Tuesday, Ask a Librarian answered 283 chats, 72 emails, and 36 text messages, an increase from the Tuesday before which had 253 chats, 60 emails, and 20 text messages. Librarians from across the state worked to spread the message of Ask a Librarian to their coworkers and their users: AaL intern Kira’s Xtranormal video, Mike of Jacksonville Public Library’s plasma screen display, and Lynn of Keiser University in Jacksonville’s library blog post. Also posting were the Smathers library at the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida. Jeanne and Fawn at the West Palm Beach Public Library shared several awesome direct-to-patron tweets, and Florida Keys Community College staff surely turned heads with their “Don’t Ask Watson… Ask a Librarian” display!
Check out photos from both this year and last year at Ask a Librarian’s Flickr page here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/askalibrarian I am currently gathering stories and pictures from Ask a Librarian Day, so please be sure to email them to me as soon as possible so that we can add them to the collection. Details of what you did in your own library system will, when combined with your statewide peers, help to create an idea pool from which we can all learn & grow and to which we can all contribute. We’ll gather and distribute news and details from our AaL Ambassador challenge participants, and keep adding photos and screenshots. Please keep up the good work by continuing to share these important talking points: • If you ever need help when you’re not in our library, visit www.askalibrarian.org (or find the link on our library’s website). • Ask a Librarian is a website where you can go to get your questions answered by a real librarian. • Ask a Librarian is open for live chat and texting until midnight ET Sunday through Thursday, and until 5 p.m. ET Friday and Saturday. • You can use Ask a Librarian for free. • If Ask a Librarian isn’t open for chat or texting, you can always email your question, and your library’s staff will get back to you within 24 hours.