Listserv Round up since December 09

December

11 - AskUsNow! proudly announces the new Staff Support website - the AskUsNow! Inner Harbor! Please update your bookmarks from askusnow.info/partners to askusnow.info/staff. Feedback is being accepted via form

14 - A plea for additional global hours in 2010 is put out on the list. A certain number of global hours determines our QuestionPoint pricing. Over the next few weeks a record number of hours are added. Thank you everyone!

14 - The findings of Beverly Lehrer's September staffing survey released.

January

4 - Two New Staff Trainings are announced for February at the North Point branch of BCPL. Messages later in February about the rescheduling of these trainings due to snow closures.

7 - Julie sends an email out regarding handling local account questions.

I sometimes hear that local account or PIN questions are among the least favorite of our AskUsNow! providers. I agree! It's a rare scenario when a customer logs in and is picked up by one of their own librarians who would have access to their library account information.

Is there anything we can do?

Depending on the question, you may be able to help the customer right there in chat. If it's a catalog or account access problem, there may be useful information in the POLICY PAGES that would let you know of a default PIN or the way to navigate the self service in the catalog.

However, there are times when the library's system either isn't self service OR the question really just needs a local person with account access. Although you might not have access to a persons specific account information, you CAN make sure that the customer has provided an email address and you can let them know that we will forward their request on to their local library for answering. Other options include providing a phone number for the local library, in the case of a time-sensitive request. On our about page (www.askusnow.info/about) and our welcome login screen (the screen customers see when using the regular chat interface until the librarian pushes that first URL, http://www.askusnow.info/welcomelogin.html) addresses this issue and states that the customer "may be chatting with a librarian who is not from your local library, or even from Maryland and therefore would not have access to your personal library card records."

This statement, while alerting customers that we might not have access to their specific records, does not preclude us from providing after-chat or email assistance. We have an extensive referral system with almost every county in the state and we're able to make sure that customers get the assistance they need.

While providing a phone number to a customer is another option, we want to make sure that we're "moving the question, not the customer." They've already made the effort to contact us about their issue, it's our job to make sure the answer, or path to the answer, gets to them, versus making the customer go to other places for the answer.

Until the point at which all Maryland library catalogs have a robust self-help service systems or all Maryland librarians have access to all Maryland customer accounts, we will continue to have to refer, rather than answer on the spot, the local account questions.

8 - A call for volunteers for the Guideline Revision Team is put out on the listserv. 

13 - Save the date for the Reference Rennaisance Conference in Denver - August 8-10th

13 - MidWinter Tech Trends webinar is announced. Later, a message promoted the archive.

14 -  A Resource list for the Haiti Earthquake was released for librarians and customers: http://delicious.com/AskUsNow/haiti2010 Additional messages of gratitude followed. This list turned out to be the most linked / retweeted / shared resource list so far in AUN history.

19 - Free leadership webinars from the Texas State Library are announced:

19 - The 2010 Maryland Library Leadership Institute is announced

19 - A call for papers for ASSIST is announced. http://www.asis.org/Conferences/AM10/am10cfp.html

20 - A message was sent about the customer interface - they can now hear an audible "ding" when the librarian responds. Apparently not new news, but new to Julie. http://askusnow.info/staff/audible_librarian_message_alert_for_customers

21 - A list of library-related conferences is sent out: http://library2.usask.ca/~dworacze/CONF.HTM

21 - QuestionPoint announces collaboration with Text A Librarian: http://askusnow.info/staff/questionpoint_partners_with_mosio

22 - QuestionPoint virtual user group meetings are announced for February

26 - The Handheld Librarian conference is announced: http://www.handheldlibrarian.org

26 - A free online WebJunction-sponsored technology conference is announced: http://www.webjunction.org/conferences/-/articles/content/86891033

27 - An MLA Legislative Panel Training on Advocacy is announced: http://wp.me/pG0FJ-J

February

5 - A Blizzard resource list was put together and marketed to librarians and customers for the impending snowpocolypse: http://delicious.com/AskUsNow/Blizzard2010

9 + 10 - A flurry of messages to the list about library closures due to the snow.

12 - A message is sent asking for assistance with Maryland Librarian's ALA Emerging Leader project