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User Survey Now Live

Jan 19, 2011 |

Hello,

The AAL User Satisfaction survey is now live for customers. Please push this to users at the end of a session. The software will also attempt to push the survey- but it only appears to those without pop-up blockers.

To push the survey – use the script in the response library followed by the URL in the response library.

The survey asks:

1- Was this your first time using Ask a Librarian?
2- Did you connect with a Librarian today?
3- Was your question answered today?
4- Did the librarian show you any Web-based library resources today (library catalog, databases, etc.)?
5- Do you think you would be able to use those same resources on your own, later on?
6- Do you think you will be more comfortable doing online research in the future?
7- Would you use the Ask a Librarian service again?
8- How did you hear about Ask a Librarian?
9- We welcome your comments or suggestions. Please let us know how we are doing, and how we can improve!

Please let us know if you have any questions.

December Statistics

Jan 4, 2011 |

December was our busiest December on record.  Even in a short month where people are often more focused on the holidays that reference assistance.

Ask a Librarian had:

  • 2,825 Live Chat Sessions
  • 1,271 Email Questions
  • 314 Text Questions

A summary of the month report for the state:
December Summary Report

Detailed Reports per library:
Total Chat By Entry Point Dec10 (Updated 1.5.2011)
Total Email By Entry Point Dec10
Total Text By Entry Point Dec 10

Reports by Region
Users by County (User Reported Zipcode) Dec 10
AAL Texting by Number Dec10

Text Messaging Update

Dec 8, 2010 | , , , ,

Text Messaging was introduced by Ask a Librarian on October 25th with little fanfare for the users. While all of us, were training, creating scripts and otherwise preparing – we expected initial growth to be slow and did little promotion for this new service point, with the idea that the new year would hold new wisdom we’d gleaned from our first few months being live.

However- users are finding us!!!! We are so excited with our first month of service’s usage numbers. In November, we answered 566 text messages! Not bad for a new service. As one of the first statewide services offering collaborative Texting, you are really part of a historic step for libraries!

Best Practices Update

Last Friday, the SMS taskforce got together to discuss the first month. We realize there are a few bumps – but we are looking at how they can be fixed. One of the biggest issues seems to be “threading” – a user replying to a librarian and the answer being picked up by another librarian. When answering a user with a question or answer that would likely generate a response from the user, here are a few tips to help you:

  • Mark the reply “Follow-Up”, which is the check box just to the right of the Send button.  Follow-up questions and answers are located in a shared tab so others can see your history.  Follow-up includes not only what users texted but how librarians responded.
  • Be On the Lookout!  Many texters who return do so fairly soon, so watch the queue for your user returning by their phone number and/or library designation.
  • Be vocal when leaving the desk. If you have expectations or knowledge that may help others help a returning user, definitely share that. Letting others know the situation in the agent chat room may prevent confusion on a returning text and prevent other staff from reinventing the wheel.  Speaking up helps everyone, including the user.

More information on best practice patterns is emerging every day; in the meantime, these should definitely help us to acclimate to and excel in this exciting new world of text reference. The taskforce will be doing some in-depth analysis of texts and hopes to have additional best practices recommendations as we analyze the past month.

Do you have another tip or trick you have found useful? Please let us know!!

Promotion: Where are all these users coming from?

Ask a Librarian has added your local texting phone number to your customer portal page, widgets and mobile pages.


Libraries are also promoting texting to their users. Here are some examples, we have seen:

Another Effective Promotional Tool is a QR Code. Here are two examples codes. These codes are easily generated and can be used on everything from bookmarks to handouts to business cards.

There are several free QR code generators – I personally use http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

What are you planning at your library in 2011 to promote Ask a Librarian and Ask a Librarian Texting?

November Statistics

Dec 3, 2010 | ,

Once again, Ask a Librarian experienced a record month!

  • 5,255 Live Chat Sessions (an 6% increase from last November)
  • 1,352 Email Sessions (a 25% increase from last November)
  • 566 text messages (our first complete month of texting!)

Summary report for the state:
AAL Stat Report (Nov 10) (updated)

Detailed reports per library are below:
Chat by Entry Point Nov10 (updated)
Email by Library Nov10
Texting by Library Nov10

Reports by Region
Texting by Incoming Phone Nov10
Usage By County (User Reported ZipCode) November10

For additional statistical information, feel free to contact me!

Time and Day Analysis

Oct 7, 2010 |

One of the big questions we are often asked about at Ask a Librarian is – when are people using the service…  Is it similar to in-person usage?  Is there a run at 11pm?

The following graphs look at total usage in September by time of day by day of week.  The first chart is all chats (local desks, academic queue and the collaborative queue).  The second graph is the main collaborative queue and the third chart is the academic queue (note- this queue is only open 10am-pm M-F ET).