2010 April Monthly Report

by the numbers

Maryland customers asked 3637 questions via chat in April.
- 270 of those came in through Montgomery County's qwidget interface!

Maryland librarians handled 2217 questions via chat from customers around Maryland and the nation.
- 238 of those questions were with customers using the qwidget interface.

customer comments

Comments and love pouring in this month continue to be amazing:

I'd rather see a few extra potholes than experience any cuts in library service. I use the library weekly.

this website and librarians have really helped me alot. Like my science project which i got first place in my category at North County High School in Anne Arundel County

continue this system!

I love the friendliness of the librarians and the information that they have given me when I used this program. Thanks so much!

VERY satisfied-very knowledgeable librarian and a quick fix.

this saved me gas, anxiety and hours of running around. terrific resource, very pleasant help . . .

The person who I chatted with was thorough and provided corresponding documentation in the right panel of the monitor. Great tool and will definitely use it again. This tool helped me decide to follow through with a visit to the local library to check-out books that I need for a paper that is due on Monday. If this tool was not available I probably would not have pursued further fearing that I would not have access to the materials. More than likely...I would have traveled to Washington, DC to visit my seminary campus library. Thanks again.

It was very interesting because I learned something about my computer--cache and cookies may need to be cleaned up (?) periodically for some functions to be done. They weren't able to tell me what was wrong in the library, and Jeri from Carroll County gave me an idea that worked. And it was after library hours, so it was much appreciated!!!

I liked that the library staff answered all of my questions, and I'm definantly asking again if I have a book I can't find, or a question I can't answer!

Thanks very much. The service was more then I even hoped for. Lois Danz

Being an Australian resident, searching for family member's for my Family Tree, it was a pleasant surprise to find how easy it was to get the attention and answers to my search, after the difficulties finding records from other sources. Thank you, Don MacKellin, Mildura, Victoria, Australia

Very Very nice website I was very satisfied!!!!!!!!!!!!

GREAT service...it helps lots of people ranging from grade school to elderly people..a wonderful asset to the Maryland community at large! Thanks again!!!

The person was able to help even though it involved a question to do with Howard County Library system and not Pratt system. This was fantastic!

Thank you for all the help. The person I was talking with went above and beyond my standard questions to find the answers. Thanks!

Your service although this is the first time of me using it, was excellent and I will be utilizing it in the future and telling other people about it also. Elaine Alexander

It help to be able to Chat with a librarian as other questions can be aswered right away as well. Thank you for your assistance. Mary H. Evans, Ecuador

Jonothan B was wonderful ... very helpful and insightful. He was able to quickly find an abundance of useful information and materials :)

I tried doing an online search before chatting, but couldn't come up with anything. The skill of this librarian was extraordinary, and she found so much so fast. Hail, librarians!

Your staff were very helpful to an out-of-state (Ohio) visitor with a question about Maryland Library procedures.

It was really nice to know that I was talking to a real person on the other line.

Thank you for this service it was a big help. I'm not the type to use the computer and it was so very easy. The librarian name Jen was wonderful. I failed to end the session proper I'm sorry for that. Again, THANK YOU for a great service. Fully Satisfied

I feel ashamed not to have known that this resource is available at our library. I am very pleased and thankful.

I was surprised at how easy and quick this way of communicating with the librarian was and how it solved my problem. Great job! Thank you.

The librarian was very kind and seemed to enjoy her job.

This service is very light on my head and the idea of chatting with a librarian is great! I hope that i will use it again and I hope others will use this!

This is an extremely efficient and effective tool! Thanks very much!

month in review

This month we:

Julie attended the Computers in Libraries conference in Crystal City April 11-13th
April 19th was the first stop on our 2010 Listening Tour- Washington County! If you haven't already signed up for a visit, please do so. You can also read the notes from our visits this year.
MLA was early this year and Julie and Cathay were in attendance. Cathay was involved with the planning of the Privacy 101 preconference and Julie attended Susan Paznekas' Think It! Plan It! Do It! precon. We had an AskUsNow! gathering at 4pm on Thursday of MLA. (Be on the lookout next year- our social gathering will be at the bar Wednesday night!)
After seven years of subject specialist email followup with AskUsNow!, the Maryland State Law Library was trained in chat on April 26th. MSLL staff will be available for live referrals for AUN customers (or customers at your live physical ref desks!). More details coming soon about this.

Also this month, Julie has been involved with the Maryland Library Leadership Selection Committee, Nini's VisionQuest initative, the LATI 2010 planning, and the Access 2 Justice training initatives.

Top 10

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 ways to promote AskUsNow!

10. Talk about it. teachers, students, colleagues, business partners, kids, parents, librarians, community members.

9. Distribute swag. highlighters, bookmarks, self-made posters and fliers! Include it with new staff orientation, or new library cardholders!

8. Include AskUsNow! in your resume as one of your qualifications

7. Make a video and post it to your myspace/facebook/website/youtube pages!

6. Share amazing survey comments or fun questions in your newsletter or on your blog!

5. Use our logos and make your own promotional items!

4. Plaster your car or bike with AskUsNow! stickers

3. Include AskUsNow! in your databases and instructional classes

2. Share your AskUsNow! involvement and success stories in your library's reports and publications

and the #1 way to Promote AskUsNow! is:

1. Plan a 300,000th question party! We will be hitting our 300,000th chat question in June/July and are planning an event for July! More information will be coming soon about this but we're going to need your help to celebrate in your local communities!