by the numbers

• Maryland customers asked 3893 questions via chat in January. This is the busiest January we've had since 2007!
  • 278 of those came in through Montgomery County's qwidget interface!
  • 234 were routed for referral after chat to the customer's local library

• Maryland librarians handled 2126 questions via chat from customers around Maryland and the nation. This is 131 more than December 2009 and 61 more than January 2009!
  • 1559 of those questions were with customers using the qwidget interface.

• an additional 1461 questions were answered via email this month, 150 more than last month!

customer comments

• Really appreciate this service especially when the library cannot be used and there's nobody who can help you with questions about service. I have found librarians to be always available and always ready to help with the answers. Thanks

• This was a very helpful tool when working after hours on research. thanks

• This service is EXTREMALY helpful & useful and should remain; this will be especially advantageous for those who have challenges getting around and will not have to go to the library in vain nor be on telephone hold(s) & waste valuable time for no reason!

• I was so excited with the resources that I forgot to respond to the librarian!  Camilius, (spelling?) thank you for your help!

• They were very good about answering a question that was not a reaserch question.my question was about annotatedworks cited and "sarah". My online libraran  didnot stop until she found my answerand made sure that I was all set to type my paper with all the info that I needed.I am sure that I will get an A onthis project because of AskUs Now the best onlineibrarian web site there is.I will definetly recomend the to all of my friends. Not only were my questions answered they were answered to the fullest

• This is a great resource! I found a lot of new information that I could not find by myself. The librarians give very resourceful information. I will definitely use this again.

• I love going to ask a librarian. They always find good information for me. I would recommend this website anytime to anyone. they can answer any question!

• I spoke with Marjorie from Pratt.  She was very helpful, nice and provided a detailed and quick response.  I love this feature.  I wish I had discovered it earlier.  Thanks for providing an excellent library network as well as great employees.

• This is a fantastic service offered by the Maryland Library system. We are indeed fortunate to have this interactive site. I have used it several times and am always  extremely satisfied with the complete answers to my questions and the calibre of the librarians who are so knowledgeable and polite.  It is an absolute pleasure to deal with these people and if you are not careful, you are going to get a good reputation for state employees! Thank you so much. Sincerely, Flo Ormond

• Thank you,  so very much for your help. I left my flashdrive at the public library and it is so important that I was so distressed and frantic - because if some one else were to have picked it up and carried it away ... I would have lost so much work which is not replaceable. Additionally, I have not used a "chat" website before and I had no idea how to use one.  However, due to my intense worry .. I decided to take the chance / gamble / risk, etc. Your arrangements make the it easy. Thank you so much for the good service you provide to all of us! - Julie

• Very much. looking for data information on line can be time consuming and it takes a lot of patients especially for someone like my self who sometimes do not know what it is that I am really looking for. So I commend all Librarians on chat with a librarian . I think they do an excellent job. KUDOS

• With the librarian I had-Andrew- I got any ideas from the websites he gave me. I know have many options for my science fair! I like them all and might do them on my free time or use them for next years science fair! Thank you again and I will definitely be using this service numerous times after this and be tell my friends how and where I got my help from. It was great service and I hope to get the same amount for the next time I need help. Thank you! -Olivia

• I was very satisfied with the answers provided by Mr. Ray B.  He provided an answer to my initial question which involved a type of citation of information that I didn't think existed, but was checking with ASK US NOW just to be sure.  Well Mr. B. found the answer! The type of citation I inquired about does, in fact exist.  So KUDOS to him for finding it.  Although he was unable to provide a direct answer to my second question (understandable, too, since it is a very involved type of question), Mr. B. provided a phone number to another division of your library where I can most likely obtain the answer. Also I checked state resident as being the best description for me, but I am also a student with an online university. Thank you for help!

• I think this is a wonderful service.  I don't drive and it's hard for me to get around, especially in bad weather and this service is perfect. I've found all the librarians very helpful and kind.  Thank you for offering this service -- long needed!

• the online chat was very helpful. i was able to use it at 3:30am. i like it better than the library website. it is easier to navigate than the website. thank you for having the service available. thank you abby for helping me!

• Thank You Thank You Thank you, I needed emergency help with research for school, Thank you.

• This is a very professional website. I like the way how you guys give out a whole lot of useful information and let me view files. Keep up the good work. Now I know where to come to get all my questions answered. Thank you very much.

• This is an excellent service you are providing, money very well spent.  This a great example of using 2010 technology! I love it! To quote a friend of mine, "Thank you, Thank you very MUCH!"

• his service rocks...love the 24 hour concept and the librarians are terific.......I just wish there was a technological site where you could type in a definition and the site would supply the word.....there has to be something like that.... a reverse dictionary or a conceptual therasus. thanks

• I was extremely impressed with the amount of information I received and in the promptness.  Thank you for offering this service.

month in review

January 11-12 Julie, along with Sarah Frush, a legal aid attorney at the Self Help Center in Glen Burnie and Cathy Ashby, Director of the Garrett County Library and member of the Maryland Access to Justice Commission represented Maryland at the Public Libraries + Access to Justice conference in Austin Texas. The Gates Foundation funded conference was a two day train-the-trainer experience around the role public libraries can and should play in access to justice.

A few days after the earthquake in Haiti, AskUsNow! released a Resource Guide on Haiti that was very well received. It was shared and reshared on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter and was reposted on the BCPL, Harford, Montgomery, and Allegany Library websites as well as other people's blogs and accounts. Julie was also interviewed by the Baltimore Sun for an article on mobile giving that appeared in the Baltimore Sun on January 14th.

QuestionPoint announced they are partnering with Mosio's TextALibrarian.

On January 25th, Cathay and Julie counted, boxed, and shipped 27,000 highlighters to the partner libraries.

This month has also been busy with all the various projects that AskUsNow! is undertaking including (but not limited to):

• continually working with Drupal to improve the staff support website
• starting the 2010 Guideline Revision with the Guideline Revision Team
• Special Partner Library implementation
• Link Review continues (was half completed before the holiday break)

Top 10 

This is a new category this month. We want to recognize the "top 10" of various topics each month. Let us know what topics you're interested in!

This month, the Top 10 Busiest Libraries (libraries with the most people per month entering through their "virtual category"):

10. Charles County Public Library
9. University of Maryland, College Park
8. Prince George's County Memorial Library System
7. Enoch Pratt Free Public Library & State Library Resource Center
6. Carroll County Public Library
5. Calvert County Public Library
4. Howard County Public Library
3. Anne Arundel County Public Library
2. Montgomery County Public Library

and with the most customer activity (911 chat sessions this month)

1. Baltimore County Public Library

Congratulations to our Top 10's for this month! Let us know what other Top 10s you want to see next month!