Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
10:30am - 3pm
Caroline County Public Library, Central Library in Denton
100 Market Street, Denton, MD 21629
410-479-1343
Please send your agenda items to Julie before June 1st. Here's what on the list so far:
Parking is free in the library parking lot.
Lunch options include:
Jeri will have menus for the group and will be available to provide directions as requested.
Julie thanked everyone for coming to the Eastern Shore for the meeting.
Mandy Hackley, Salsbury Univ., actually in Cardiff by the Sea, CA, Mandy is Salisbury's liaison and is now handeling all 8 hours of Salisbury's monitoring (all global hours, all nighttime or weekends which is double points for us). Mandy will be joining our meetings virtually from now on- setting the stage for others to do so as well if they are unable to attend the physical meeting.
The State Library went live on chat on June 1st and is working four hours each week; 2-4pm Tuesdays and Thursdays. They haven't made any official announcement, but we can share this with our staff and customers that law librians are available. If a law question comes in during that time while you are monitoring, take a breath and give MSLL staff a chance to pick up the chat. We can also tell our staff that are working the Info Desk at that time of day that they can recommend/show the customer AUN! and expect a Law Librarian to be monitoring. Check out the announcement for details.
This may be a temporary thing if their statistics don't show that it is worth the staff time, so we really should promote it among our staff and customers, because we want this to be a permanent thing! The hope in the future is that we can expand it to other law libraries and self-help center lawyers, get them their own queue from QP ($1k/year) and brand it as the Maryland law chat service. Please talk this up and start using it! We want it to be wildly successful!
On Inner Harbor, there is a special libraries page that has all the information you need on it so you can link to these libraries from relevant pathfinders on your websites. Please utilize the links directly to their email webforms to help their QP stats go up.
The impetus for this page is to try to boost the use of the special libraries in the State. AACPL reports that they've already started linking to some of these libraries in their LibGuides.
In just a few months, in our seventh year of service, AUN! will reach its 300,000th question. Julie is putting together celebration kits that will contain swag, posters for downloading and printing on your own, sample press releases, logos, etc. so that we can promote the service in our community. Julie brought posters to the meeting and encouraged all of us to post them throughout our community, not just in our libraries. Those who were not present at the meeting will have the posters mailed to them.
On July 15th at the North Point library of Baltimore County Public Library, we will be having a small press event to celebrate. BCPL Director Jim Fish and State Librarian Irene Padilla will be present. The event will be smaller than the 5th anniversary party we had, but you're all invited.
Julie would like a volunteer customer to pose as the 300,000th question customer at the celebration. If you have a customer that you know who has used the service and who can appear at the celebration, please contact Julie.
Julie will be presenting this at MAPLA on June 17 so our Directors will have heard about it.
The Inner Harbor site is now over 6 months old and this summer we're doing usability testing on it to make sure it's the best it can be for what you all need. A number of MD librarians, with experience testing usability, have formed a group to work on this. Members include Julie, Sarah Smith (BCPL), Tina Pickens (BCPL), Jess Nhem (Caroline County), Amy Ford (St. Mary's), Jess Chaiken (NARIC), Amy Swackhamer (FCPL), and Jessica Ambrose (Harford CC). They are still working on their timeline, but hope to have August be the “testing month” after taking June/July to get set up. They will be looking to liaisons to survey initially and to choose 1 or 2 providers to participate in the Wimba usability interview. The goal is to make Inner Harbor as useful as possible. Julie and Amy tested Wimba to see if it would work for the UX testing.
We are able to use Cathay's salary savings to buy magnets and other marketing items. We did magnets, instead of highlighters, because they are so much cheaper and we're hoping to reach a market we haven't totally inviltrated yet- parents, business owners, working adults, (read: non kids). We'll be getting 100,000 magnets and several thousand more highlighters.
Julie is also talking to an advertizing friend and researching how to maximize our social media presence. Julie will be making sure that AUN! MySpace and Facebook pages are up to date and that we’re doing our best at utilizing those spaces. Currently, Julie is using Twitter most regularly to update customers and promote new ideas. Julie would like to build a team of social-media-savvy volunteers who'd be willing to provide content for our pages. Julie suggested that we all become “fans” to each others library's Facebook pages.
Lori G. suggested we add an “event” on facebook for our 300,000th question.
Julie is also interested in knowing who is using flatscreen monitors, hanging in library locations, as a marketing/media tool, i.e. for “digital displays”. She is thinking about producing an info screen about AUN! that she could have ready to supply to partner libraries.
Julie referred to Inner Harbor's Marketing page, which now includes a Marketing Ideas Checklist to which we can refer for ideas on how to promote AUN! in your area. We've always relied heavily on our local partners to help spread the word on AskUsNow! but we need to step up our game. This checklist, that we will build upon with your help, will assist us in this.
Well, Catherine related a sad tale about doing a stealth-law-question in the middle of a weekday and the question sad for a really long time before a librarian from another state picked it up. And the answer provided was fairly lame and none too correct.
PA did a really big promotion of the service in their schools, so that those doing global are now getting regularly hit with “class bombs”.
Howard County is moving from Horizon to Polaris. Carroll Co has recently moved to Polaris and Gregor commented that the public interface is a lot more user friendly—to the point where staff usually use the public interface for a lot of questions except account questions. HowardCo/Debbie will also be investigating options for creating a “Virtual Library”--including using QP for email reference, installing the Qwidget, etc.
Listening Tours are upcoming for St. Mary's County on June 22 and PGCMLS/PGCC on July 8, etc. BCPL, Washington, Allegheny and Carroll counties have already been visited. Notes from each meeting are posted on the Inner Harbor if you are planning a visit and are interested to know the kind of things that are discussed. You can also see the calendar and schedule a visit.
QP did have a couple of blips recently, but rode the storm. Software developments upcoming include a “librarian/customer typing” and customizable description codes. They will be customizable, Julie thinks, on the institutional level. The Qwidget development is progressing and will be usable soon. They are doing a pilot with libraries already using it (whose answer percentage is over 75% usage). QP knows we are sort of boycotting it until we are sure that it is working up to speed. Montgomery County is the only MD library using it and since they're using it in tandem with their own queue, it is working well for them. The Qwidget is also an out of the box iphone app if saved correctly. It will also work in Facebook (julie has the details, while she hasn't done it yet herself).
Since Julie is on her own, she'd like to know what needs to be done versus what would be nice to be done.
Scheduling—Currently, if someone needs a sub they post it on the listserv, Julie makes a note in the Google calendar, if someone volunteers—noting it in the listserv—Julie makes a note of who volunteered on the calendar. The suggestion was made that the Google calendar be modifiable by all; that the person that needs the sub both puts a notice on the listserv as well as notes the need for the sub in the Google calendar; the person that can take the shift posts to the list; the person with the need says “thanks” on the list; the person that can take it modifies the Google calendar noting their coverage of the shift. We decided this would work, so Julie will send out an email to the listserv with the complete instructions and protocols and will post the password, and the instructions, on the Liaison's Inner Harbor page.
Notices and Emails from QP—Julie will forward everything—the default being “full disclosure”--but she will minimize (or delete entirely) the notes she sends along with the emails. Catherine (MSLL) said they can figure it out from there.
Training Modules—Cathay had done a bunch of pre-training and training and refresher-training modules on a software that AUN! has not been able to license. So, Julie is in the process of moving all the content to a different software.
She will be providing new-staff training in the late Summer.Suggestions were made that there be “homework” or some other form of accountability and competency-check, with a particular mentor assigned to each new provider, using a set list of practice questions.
There was some debate about how, or from where, to assign mentors--either internal or external. Julie also wanted input on whether ½ day in-person training might be preferable to a full-day training. Julie would like to standardize the training across Maryland, in terms of the prep-work before and homework/mentoring after. Julie will work up a plan and send it our for review before proceeding.
Some discussion occurred about how AUN! providers are chosen. Some libraries chose information staff who are both comfortable with technology and proven reference librarians; other libraries require all information staff to take the training and rotate through the service for a set amount of time; others do a sort of a combination on a branch by branch basis.
The Guideline Revision team for 2010 did a fantastic job, thank you to all the members- John Krivak (PGCMLS), Beverly Lehrer (Montgomery College), Terry Darr (Loyola Blakefield), Theresa Mastrodonato (UMES), Shak Dhanesar (CCBC), and Jennifer Hurley (St. Mary's). The notes have been moved from the working area to the live Guidelines area under the Providers section.
Julie needs every one of us to read through the revised guidelines and make sure there are any major bloopers, semantic messes, typos, etc.
Julie expressed many thanks to the committee that worked on the revisions.
Betty has volunteered Crofton for the December.
Julie wanted to know if we'd like to add more virtual meetings into the mix, or at least choose one of our quarterly meetings be virtual. The suggestion was made that the option of attending “virtually” be open for any meeting—whether it is virtual or fact-to-face. This will become increasingly important as budgets for travel get cut and people may not be able to be reimbursed. However, it will important that we make sure that everyone has the technology available to do it. There was discussion about what technology has been used, whether or not it worked, whether or not people liked it. Someone also suggested that we consider something other than second Tuesdays (maybe first or third?).
Thanks to Debbie Barlow (Howard County) for taking notes.
Julie Strange, MD AUN!
Catherine McGuire, MSLL
Jeri Cain, Caroline Co.
Betty Morgenstern, AACPL
Daria Parry, DLDS
Amy Ford, St. Mary's Co.
Margie Rhoden, Calvert
Norma Schmidt, PGCC
Ann Wheeler, MD Dept of Natural Resources
Karen Neville, Worcester Co.
Lori Guenthner, LBPH
Tyson Fogel, LBPH
Suzy Bell, Cecil Co
Janice Lathrop, AACC
Susan Pluhar, SLRC/Pratt
Beverly Lehrer, Montgomery College
Gregor Becker, Carrol Co.
Debbie Barlow, Howard CL
Kendra Frost, Harford CPL
Theresa Mastrodonato, UMES
virtually:
Mandy Hackley, Salisbury
Karen Quinn Wisneski, CCBC
Cindy Todd
Jess Ambrose
Mary Sommers
John Krivak
Liz Beere
Bob Baldwin
Elizabeth Hulett
Amy Swackhamer
Janice Beall
Sue Bonsteel
Alison Sherwell
Suzanne Carbone/Mimi Bolotin
3- Julie forwarded information about a free Leading News Thought Leader TeleForum on "Mojo 101"
4- Karen QW from CCBC emails that Off Campus Access to CCBC Databases is unavailable until their server problem is fixed.
[March 8, 2010 - Liaison meeting in Rockville]
10- liaison meeting notes are available online at http://askusnow.info/staff/liaisonmeetings/march10mins
11- a forum was created for the liaisons to discuss the wording of two guidelines that need revision: http://askusnow.info/staff/forum/137
17- Maryland AskUsNow! turns 7. Julie releases a "story campaign" to collect customer stories (http://www.askusnow.info/story) and announces a brief data sheet of the last seven years: http://askusnow.info/staff/sites/default/files/seventhbdaydata.pdf
17 - Today, on Library Legislative Day and AskUsNow!'s 7th birthday - celebrate with us by contacting your elected officials. http://capwiz.com/ala/md/utr/2/?a=14820986&i=98215432&c=
18- Julie asks the list if anyone has access to the CTIA report as she works on the background research for the texting proposal.
19- the AskUsNow! text message initiative is release: http://askusnow.info/staff/text_reference_proposal
22- Liaisons are invited to schedule their Listening Tour for 2010. http://askusnow.info/staff/listening_tour_2010
22- The Crisis Training archive is announced and available online: http://askusnow.info/staff/training/crisis
22- Jennifer Hurley (St. Mary's County), member of the Guideline Revision Team, asks all AskUsNow! liaisons to weigh in on some revisions in the forums; http://askusnow.info/staff/forum/137
26- Cathay sends a message about Easter scheduling.
7- the AskUsNow! Text a Librarian discount is set and the text proposal document is updated.
15- A reminder about the AskUsNow! meeting at MLA is sent. RSVP is requested.
19- Registration is opened for the Reference Renaissance conference in Denver- http://www.bcr.org/referencerenaissance/index.html
23- MCPL is without internet access.
25- ALA virtual conference is announced.
27- Cathay announces her new job.
28- Pratt is without internet today (restored April 29th)
3- Cathay asks for your summer schedules
5- Exciting QuestionPoint software update announcement! "the librarian is typing" and customizable descriptive codes: http://askusnow.info/staff/node/293
5- forwarded message about QuestionPoint 24/7 Reference Cooperative update training
6- Julie shares some geodata awesomeness that she's playing with: http://www.batchgeo.com/map/75b724ac209c1161ae3d5850ee5850f5 for the customer and staff sides of the website
9- QuestionPoint went down with some issues. restored later that day.
12- Special Library Initative announced- http://askusnow.info/staff/Special_Library_Partner_Optimization
13- AskUsNow! releases a resource list for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill- http://delicious.com/AskUsNow/BPoilspill
14- The Maryland Community Services Locator has a "hotlines" section that's worth checking out. We've added it to our "Chat Resources" area - http://askusnow.info/staff/resources
14- call for agenda items and rsvp for June 8th liaison meeting
17- final call for summer schedules
17- In an effort to broaden access to justice within our communities across the state, the Maryland State Law Library, in conjunction with Maryland's delegation to the Public Libraries and Access to Justice conference*, is designing a training series for public librarians around e-government and law. We have put together a brief 9 question survey to help us understand where the needs are so that we can better inform training. Please take a moment to fill it out and give us your thoughts: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DCMDMJB
18- Questionpoint issue announcement. http://www.askusnow.info/staff/node/302
18- Today was Cathay's last day with AskUsNow!. AskUsNow! related items of all sorts should come directly to me from now on. The contact information on the Inner Harbor (http://www.askusnow.info/staff/contact) has been updated to reflect that.
20- Memorial Day global schedule requested
24- QP system maintenance announced
27- QP events at ALA- https://www3.oclc.org/app/ala_registration
1- Maryland Community Services Locator webinar: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/224775577
4- Julie shares notes from her monthly VR coordinators meeting and the announcement of the closure of AskAway in British Columbia: http://askusnow.info/staff/node/310