March 2010 Liaison Meeting Notes

Introduction

The meeting started a little past 10:30am and began with role call and an ice breaker (what's your favorite beer).

Listening Tour

At the end of 2008, Julie did a "Listening Tour" with nine libraries around Maryland. The time at each library was used however the liaisons and staff wanted to use it. It was an opportunity for providers to ask questions, share ideas, etc. We see the liaisons quarterly but rarely get to see providers so we would like to do another Listening Tour, both Cathay and Julie. It will be informal for providers to ask questions, talk, etc. We want to visit every partner library between now and the end of 2010. Each visit will take at least an hour or two, depending on the needs of the library but can be scheduled and set up however the library prefers.

A Google Calendar will be created with C&J's open days (including half and full days). Liaisons will be invited to the calendar for scheduling.

Training update

Crisis Training - An additional round of Crisis Trainings wrapped up at the end of February making a total of five since the end of 2009. The wimba archive and powerpoint will be archived online so that people can still take advantage of it as no further live trainings are planned to be scheduled at this time.

Jeri said that they are being asked for “the next level” of crisis training (such as the Black Belt librarian’s training). Julie asked: Does anyone know if he has an archive of his talk? Seems like no. Merlin offers self paced online training through Skillsoft and there is a “Dealing with Difficult People/Patrons?” training.

New Staff Training (NST)- The new staff training continues to be revamped. The current plan is to have more self-paced pre-class workshops/assignments (perhaps using Viewlet Builder (Qarbon)).

A suggestion was made to create a more formalized follow-up procedure/training for those who recently went through NST. We had a discussion about NST and training those who do not get right on the live chat schedule. One idea is to have two people rotate an hour and then one is a back up for another.

Marketing the logo on websites

We had an impromptu discussion about the AskUsNow! logo on the partner library websites. The “letter of intent” is the contract that every partner library signs before coming on with AUN as an official partner library and states, "It is understood that our institution will [...] add a standardized branded link to AskUsNow! on the library's homepage."

Having a logo predominately displayed on the website increases use. Cecil County is having trouble getting the logo on the homepage.

Account Questions / Policy Pages

Debbie talked about referrals and how simple circulation questions can often be answered using Policy Pages. Julie and Cathay are always in contact with non-maryland and QuestionPoint librarians about policy pages. They will develop and send out a “how to handle account questions” email/blog post for both AUN librarians and for the QP coop. Mimi suggested having Policy Pages more predominately displayed – perhaps while in chat. “No email” should be red or a popup so chatters will see this, and not wait until after the chat is ended.

Maryland State Law Library & Chat participation

The MDSLL will be joining AskUsNow! as a live chat partner after seven faithful years as an email follow-up subject matter expert. The starting plan is that once MDSLL librarians are trained, they will be available through live chat to pick up MD law questions or to have law questions transferred to them in live chat. The schedule of when MDSLL librarians would be monitoring will be publicized to all AskUsNow! librarians so they know when they'd have live access to a law librarian.

The potential future plan is to have MDSLL or AUN purchase a separate queue ($1,000 yearly) for a Branded Law Library chat which can be staffed by the state's law librarians and other law professionals.

This idea has been in the ether for a while but in January, Julie was one of the three Maryland delegates to an Access to Justice conference in Austin Texas. Sarah Frush from the Glen Burnie Self Help center and Cathy Ashby, Director of Garrett County Public Libraries were also representing Maryland.

There are multiple training opportunities within this access to justice arena. Catherine provides training on how to handle law questions; she travels for face to face training. She also welcomes librarians who need help on the floor while helping patrons with law questions. AUN wants to do an “Information vs. advice” training for AUN librarians (online through Wimba?).

John noted that having the law librarians on is also a boon to front desk librarians around the state - the librarians themselves would be able to log in to AskUsNow! and chat with the law librarian on behalf of their f2f customer.

It was suggested that AACPL’s providers could co-pilot with the newly trained providers from the State Law Library.

Internships

A student and employee at UMUC has approached Julie about interning with AskUsNow! on the admin side. We're looking into how to do/formalize this. The future hope is to have various interns and programs for library students as well as students of marketing and business.

Inner Harbor Staff Support site

The Staff Support site (or, AskUsNow! Inner Harbor - www.askusnow.info/staff) is coming along nicely. Here's what's still on the way:

  • hover menu buttons (for easier navigation)
  • tag (or category) clouds
  • easier navigation of the Help & Support topics
  • events/training calendar
  • prettier front page design (eventually)
  • usability testing. We hope to get the Drupalization Team back together to start UX (user experience/usability) testing in April.

Julie gave a run-down on how to use the site including how to log in to discuss in the forums and add new content (such as a blog posting). All AskUsNow! providers are invited to set up accounts in the Inner Harbor site. All Liaisons already have accounts, please contact us if you do not remember your log in information.

Help and Support is growing with links to QP documentation (Thanks Beverly for the suggestion!)

Improvements were suggested for consideration:

  • Rename "Fast Facts" as “statistics” or reports).
    • done! it's now called "Reports & Stats." thanks!
  • How do people log onto QP from here? Can we add the button to every page?
    • Currently there is a QP button on the left of the front landing page.
  • How to get “home?"
    • You can click on the "Maryland Inner Harbor" title at the top of every page to get back to the home screen but we will consider a "home" tab.
  • Perhaps have a “suggestion box” available in the community area so that liaisons will offer ideas for improvement.
  • Is there a standard for usernames?
    • We’ve been using full first and last names so far so that people are easily identifiable.

Lunch break – 12:17 to 1:15pm

AskUsNow! Guidelines Revision 2010

2010 is an AskUsNow! Guideline Revision year. Our team this year includes John Krivak (PGCMLS), Beverly Lehrer (Montgomery College), Shak Dhanasar (CCBC), Theresa Mastrodonato (UMES), Terry Darr (Loyola Blakefield School), and Jennifer Hurley (St. Mary's County Public Library). We've been revising the guidelines in a separate area on the Inner Harbor Staff Support website so that the team could learn and play around with Drupal.

The proposed order for the guidelines was floated to the group and agreed upon:

  1. Introduction (includes “Who we are, what we do” and “What these guidelines are for”)
  2. How the Service Works
    • The structure of AskUsNow! (who, where)
    • Who is responsible for what (this would be a new section listing admin, liaisons, and provider expectations)
    • How we communicate with each other (the section about the Inner Harbor and the listserv)
    • Scheduling
    • Marketing (which would, among other things, include that “connecting with customers” section from the current communications page)
  3. Guidelines for Chat Sessions (where most of the bulk will live)
    • Requirements and competencies (the section about tech requirements and being off the physical desk, and tech competencies)
    • Handling a chat (picking up, how long to wait, the software proficiencies etc)
    • Reference Policies
    • Communicating with customers (behaviors check list, best practices, the interaction proficiencies )
    • Crisis Guidelines

The Guideline Revision Team (GRT) had specific items to discuss with the whole group:

What do we name the "legalese" page?
It's currently titled "The Fine Print" and that title was agreeable to everyone present. So it sticks.

What should the "homework help" policy read?
Need to create a “homework help” policy, to include when to include resources like Tutor.com, have a guideline about when referral is needed. When do we answer one or two questions backed up with a resource, and when do we know when to refer the patron? There is an important difference between Policy and Guidelines, and it would be helpful to have a description. “Treat the question just as if it was an adult who walked in and asked.” – Betty. “Treat homework questions as regular questions…” Even if Tutoring services are available, there are certain kinds of questions that should not be referred to them. What is likely to go “I need to understand how to do math” and “I need to understand the concept” and “I need someone to read this and give me feedback.” If there is a patron who is asking numerous questions within the same chat, perhaps it is better to deal with this rather than just sending them over to Tutor.com. “Librarians will strive to provide a hybrid way of answering the patron’s question.” – paraphrased from Oregon. Perhaps linking sample transcripts for modeling good answers is helpful. On the interest of time this discussion was moved to the forum (you will need to log in to the Inner Harbor to access that link).

How should the "personal opinions" section read?
It was decided that this should stick to discussing what you can and cannot do regarding legal and medical questions. The GRT will wordsmith this and run it past the whole group again.

How should the "Explicit materials" section be revised?
In the interest of time, this discussion was moved to the forum (you will need to log in to the Inner Harbor to access that link).

QuestionPoint's Qwidget Roll-up Pilot

The Qwidget is another QuestionPoint customer interface that can be embedded on any website/page. Customers using this interface come in to the librarian's interface the exact same way as usual but have the note "Qwidget" in front of their question (this is ipmortant to note because the customer won't have page pushing abilities so they'll only see the URLs you send).

The Qwidget interface has been available for a while now but AskUsNow! on the whole has been hesitant to use this interface because customers who enter through the Qwidget are never seen by all of the Maryland librarians that would be monitoring the live chat at that time and those customers are NEVER rolled up to the 24/7 cooperative or QP backup staff.

Because Qwidget roll-up has been a hot topic since it's initial release, QuestionPoint has recently started a pilot that lets the customers of certain Qwidget libraries roll up to be visible by the rest of the librarians monitoring the live global queues. Please see the announcement about this Pilot project.

This pilot is good news for us as we hope to be able to offer a 24/7 Qwidget interface but currently does not affect us at all other than those MD librarians monitoring the global queue will now have to be aware of customers coming in through these interfaces.

Additional Information about the Qwidget in Maryland

Anyone currently with AskUsNow! could set up a qwidget for their use as long as they are aware of the following issues:

  • customers using a public library qwidget would not be seen by the Maryland academic librarians monitoring at the time (and vise versa)
  • customers using any Maryland qwidget (read: any qwidget from a library not involved in the pilot) would never be seen by any 24/7 backup staff which makes the interface NOT a 24/7 one (and therefore could not be AUN branded).

Montgomery County Libraries are currently the only Maryland library using the qwidget on their website. They are able to do this because they've also purchased their own queue from QuestionPoint at the rate of $1000 a year which enables them to monitor for MCPL customers above and beyond their AUN hours. 

The Qwidget lives on the library’s page. URLs sent through the qwidget opens up a new window. Patron’s will get a transcript as per usual. You know when patrons come in through the qwidget because it will say “Qwidget” instead of “Chat Transcript” in the question’s header. Julie mentioned that in the AskUsNow! Monthly Reports, Qwidget use is being reported for MCPL.

QuestionPoint + Text a Librarian

Text A Librarian (TAL) is a service by Mosio that enables you to text with your customers (see the Text A Librarian Info - 16 page pdf for details). Recently, QuestionPoint announced that it's collaborating with TAL to integrate your TAL service (should you have one) with QuestionPoint so you can use one interface for all your e-reference. Check out Julie's QP + TAL Integration slides.

Currently Carroll County is the only MD library system with text reference. Gregor reported Carroll County’s use. They get only 23-24 questions a month. AskUsNow! is done in their centralized telephone reference department but the texting is handled by the librarians at the branches. They get questions from times that they are closed, such as on Sunday. There are customizable auto-generated messages so for instance, patron gets a generic message that says “We’ll answer when we are open…” (or something similar) when CCPL is closed.

Julie spoke with Gabe @TAL the night before the liaison meeting to discuss pricing and options. He sent her a proposal for various scenarios. See http://www.textalibrarian.com/pricing.php for general pricing information. There is a "new customer" discount in effect with TAL and currently QP is offering a slight reduction in their contract fees if you have a TAL subscription and integrate it with QP.

Discussion: How does this work with QuestionPoint? Can we log into QP and then only have one login? It would be great to have the systems of Maryland to all “buy in” on this, and Julie could work with TAL for the best deal.

Julie will work up an exec summary with the following information so that liaisons can discuss with their libraries more knowledgeably:

  • what it looks like (TAL and TAL+QP)
  • how much it costs (various scenarios)
  • how it works (TAL and TAL+QP)
  • reports

Please check out one of TAL's scheduled demos at http://tiny.cc/H7BHR (Thanks Jeri for the link).

 

Thank you to Cathay for taking the meeting notes.

Meeting adjourned: 3:00pm 

In attendance

Amy Ford, St. Mary's County
Amy Swackhamer, Frederick County
Alison Sherwell, Charles County
Betty Morgenstern, AACPL
Beverly Lehrer, Montgomery College
Catherine McQuire, MDSLL
Deborah Barlow, Howard County
Gregor Becker, Carroll County
Karen Quinn-Wisnieski, CCBC
Janice Beall, Allegany County
Jeri Cain, Caroline County
Jessica Ambrose, Harford County Community College
Jim DeArmey, BCPL (filling in for Sue T.)
John Krivak, Prince Georges County
Kendra Frost, Harford County
Margie Rhoden, Calvert County
Mimi Bolotin, MCPL
Susan Pluhar, SLRC/Pratt
Suzy Bell, Cecil County
Theresa Mastronado, UMES
Tyson Fogel, MDLBPH
Julie Strange, AUN
Cathay Crosby, AUN

Notified Absence

Elizabeth Hulett, Washington County
Janice Lathrop, AACC
Karen Neville, Worcester County
Susan Bonsteel, Stevenson University