by the numbers

• Maryland customers asked 2615 questions via chat in February.
  • 188 of those came in through Montgomery County's qwidget interface!
  • 244 were routed for referral after chat to the customer's local library

• Maryland librarians handled 1773 questions via chat from customers around Maryland and the nation.
  • 1076 of those questions were with customers using the qwidget interface.
    Update: the Qwidget accepted data has since proven to be erronious. March stats will be correct.

• an additional 1551 questions were answered via email this month, 90 more than last month and 240 more than Dec 2009!

customer comments

• This is a great service to be able to ask questions on-line.  It saves me time and gasoline, and I suspect saves staff time to answer questions for patrons who are not connected to the Internet. Thanks very much. Yolanda Krisch

• Len was very, spatient, pleasent and thorough.  Len truly became engrossed in sollving my problem and finding alternative solutions

• Very helpful- I had a question and within minutes I had a friendly and knowledgable librarian answering it in person without leaving the computer! Yet another servi e the BCPL libraries offer online that I am extremely satisfied with.

• What a great facility - live chat.  I just love a library system that is current and with the times!!!!!!!  Outstanding response time.  thank you.

• i found out about this while watching channel 25 in baltimore. i am disable and the internet is my legs for taking places were i use to beable to go like the library.

• Both Jen and Somer were fabulous. I had no idea this service was available. It was wonderful to use with my twin fourth grade daughters to find the answer for their extra credit!! thank you, thank you!!

• Very impressed with the speed and accuracy of my request.  Thank you for your help.

• I waited more time that many other times I've used this service to speak with a librarian.  However, I feel indebted to the librarian who answered my question.  I was snowed in, all street near my area have been plowed except mine, and I think this was an oversight.  My father generally works on Sundays and the rest of the week except Saturdays,  so thanks a million!

• thanks for having this resource, its very valuable.

• thank you for being there to answer my questions at any hour.

• This is my first time using the facility. It was very easy and Staff was great. I got the answer for the question i am looking for. I will use this service rather than calling the custmer service. Extremely Satisfied.

• The Maryland Washington County Librarian, Shannon, was so very helpful in assisting me with my question. She was very patient and explained everything to me in the kindest and most understanding manner. I was really grateful to have her assistance.

• this was my first experience with this type of service, and i was amazed at how quick and easy it was. the person who answered my questions was extremely knowledgable, and gave me all the information i needed. highly recommended.

• Faantastic service and quick results. Thanks to everyone for braving the snowy roads and being there. Thanks again! Jane Gray

• This is a great site. It's just like the chat room on facebook. I can't think of anything I would rather do on a snoey afternoon. Thanks for all the help. especially to Edi. Betty Wertz Warfordsburg PA

• Beautiful Staff, beautiful. -Gertrude  :)

• Great service, fast and friendly.  I just really appreciate the librarians and all that they do to help the  public.  Thanks.

• The librarian I spoke to was very nice and helpful. Thank you for being available, even on a snow day!

• I like that this service is available 24/7. I was very anxious and the question came to me at an ungodly hour and my question was answered promptly. Thanks.

• I really appreciate that there is a service 24 hrs per day, especially when I'm asking a question at 1 in the morning! Thank you for offering this service - I hope the librarians answering in the wee hours of the morning are well-compensated. :)
   
• Michael Stevens from Information Services addressed my question in a prompt and most satifactory way.  I found out about your service through your website, and because I live in Texas I was most pleased to have the use of your information from such a distance.  This makes research for my book so efficient.   Thank you.  Jeanne Bennett

• Your service provided much needed assistance during a time the library was not open.  It helped get me on the right track at a time that fit my homework scheule.

• I have recently returned to college after 20 some years.  I have a term paper to complete, something I don't even remember how to do.  So your on line chat service was quite helpful.

• THIS IS THE BEST SERVICE EVER!!!!! I JUST ASKED THEM THE QUESTION AND THE LIBRARIANS GAVE ME A PERFECT AND ACCURATE ANSWER!!!!! AWESOME!!!!

• Some very helpful and wide-ranging suggestions to help solve research mystery.

• I am very impressed with this service.  I have been searching for an old childrens' book for years, to no avail.  The only information that I had was scant - the time frame the book was read (in the mid-1960s) and what I thought was the first verse of the book (which, as it turns out, was not totally correct).  As a last resort, I tried the on-line service.  I really appreciate that the librarian that I worked with took the time to research the question and use other resources, including other librarians, to find what I was looking for.  I especially appreciate the efforts that Mimi Bolotin underwent to find exactly what I was looking for.  Thank you!!!
   
• This service is excellent. I've only used it twice, but both times exceeded my expectations with regard to competence, cordiality and providing precisely the information that satisfied my questions. Thanks so much for this gem of a tool.
   
• this is my second time and i have found this to be very helpful since i am disable and most of the time i can not afford to pay for some one to take me to the library now. it is another part to the internent that allows people like me to stay in touch with the out side world.
   
• Great service for the national community!
   
• I am amazed and impressed and grateful for ANNE ARUNDLE LIBRARY SYSTEM in obtaining ALL the books I need.I produce "The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress " for public radio.And I need these resources.Thank you
   
• I can always come to this website for help with finding RELIABLE information. Thanks! ~ SLS
   

month in review

February was a crazy month! Most of the state was under numerous feet of snow at any given point and made an already short month seem even shorter. While we all think warm and spring-like thoughts, here's what we did this month:

February 1 Julie attended a meeting of the Public Education Committee, Access to Justice Commission along with Cathy Ashby (Director, Garrett County PL) and Sarah Frush to discuss the findings of the Access to Justice Conference in January in Texas.

Before the snowpocolypse got into full swing, we put out a Blizzard resource list that included weather, health, and fun resources. Many libraries around the state and customers retweeted, shared, or reposted the links.

Julie promoted and attended two free webinars this month. One was a two-day WebJunction online conference and the Tech Trends Webinar based on the LITA Tech Trends session at MidWinter. Check out the links for materials and recordings.

February 17th & 24th Cathay and Julie trained 23 more librarians from across Maryland to provide AskUsNow!. The 24th session was the rescheduled Feb 10th session which had been cancelled due to the second snowpocolypse.

February 22 & 24th Jennifer Blunt and Jeri Cain ran two more successful Crisis Call trainings. This 90 minute online training grew out of the crisis call guidelines and will be archived online soon.

Last friday, Julie participated in an hour-long sharing time with the other VR coordinators from around the world. This month's we saw a demo of Oregon and Ohio's vr system (Spark) and started discussing sustainability models. It will be an ongoing discussion.

Two QuestionPoint webinars also occurred in February. The Virtual Users Group Meeting and the Mobile Reference Webinar.

A quote from Andrew Bonsworth of Facebook lead our work this month as we further our Staff Support site, get our "AskUsNow! University"  fleshed out, and get stuff done: "If you aren't coming up with new ideas, you're just along for the ride."

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 Libraries with the most accepted questions (Librarian activity):

10. Frederick County Librarians
9. Howard County Librarians
8. Caroline County Librarians
7. Anne Arundel Librarians
6. University of Maryland, College Park Librarians
5. Prince George's County Librarians
4. Harford County Librarians
3. Montgomery County Librarians
2. Enoch Pratt/SLRC Librarians

and with the most librarian activity is:

1. Baltimore County Librarians

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