Staffing the collaborative desks

• If you are unable to cover an upcoming scheduled shift, contact your Site Coordinator and attempt to fill the schedule within your library. If it cannot be filled internally, email the AskRef Listserv to find a replacement. However, if you find out last-minute that you will not be covering a shift, or if you find yourself alone or with insufficient help on the desk, email the AskRef listserv immediately.
• At the assigned time, you should be logged in and online on your scheduled queue. Be respectful of other statewide librarians by actively participating during your scheduled hour(s).
• You may log in to your local library’s queue in addition to the Statewide Ask a Librarian or Academic queues you’re scheduled to cover. However, live chat and text questions through the Statewide Ask a Librarian or Academic queues are the priority during this time.
• If a permanent schedule change needs to be made, notify your site coordinator. Site coordinators should contact Vickie Frost with any schedule change needs.
• If your library will close for more than 2 weeks outside of Ask a Librarian’s holiday closing hours, site coordinators should contact the Help Desk for email forwarding.

Accepting users

• All those staffing the statewide desk should be familiar with the use of the Springshare software. Consult the training materials in the Ask a Librarian Toolbox for tips and reminders.
• While staffing the Statewide Ask a Librarian or Academic queues, you are responsible for answering chats and SMS messages coming into those queues. Email is answered by the interns, but we gladly accept any help offered.
• Once you are logged into the Statewide Ask a Librarian or Academic queues, make an effort to find out about the other librarians on duty by viewing the agent info in the eyeball next each librarian’s name.
• Preview incoming chats/texts by identifying the library and question type; however, pick up users within the first 2 minutes. Do not wait until you confirm the full answer to the question before picking up the user.
• While staffing Ask a Librarian, you may help more than one user at a time. Handling multiple users should especially be considered in the following situations:
  • If there is only one librarian staffing.
  • If the current user’s query is simple and easy to answer and other users are waiting in the queue.
  • If a user has been waiting in the queue for longer than three minutes.
• Use a greeting canned message for a professional introduction and provide the name of your library to distinguish between local and collaborative use of the service.

If you are still working with a user at the end of your shift:

• At your discretion, continue to help the user if you determine that the transaction can be ended quickly.
• If you cannot complete the transaction and Ask a Librarian is still open, transfer the user to another librarian.
• If the question requires more in-depth research and you would like to complete the transaction with the user, obtain user’s email address and continue the transaction via email.

If you have not completed a transaction when Ask a Librarian is closing:

• Explain the hours of service to the user. Ask if they would like to log in again tomorrow or offer to forward the chat to the user’s local library for follow-up.
• If the question requires more in-depth research and you would like to complete the transaction with the user, obtain user’s email address and continue the transaction via email.

If the user us not a Florida resident:

• All Florida residents should be given priority in their use of this service. While we do not discourage use from outside the state, questions from residents should be answered first especially during busy hours.
• If a non-Florida resident enters the service, assist the user with simple web-based or related searches, but refer user to his/her local library (and offer contact info) for more in-depth or local needs.
• For non-resident distance learners, assist the user with the school’s resources found in the knowledge base or with open-web sources.

If the user asks a site-specific question:

• Use as much information you can gather from the knowledge base entry for that library.
• If an answer cannot be formulated from the knowledge base information presented, always offer to transfer the chat to the appropriate librarian or forward the chat to the appropriate library as an email ticket. Telling the patron to call the library during open hours should be a last resort – they have chosen text-based communication as their preference by joining the chat and the transaction should be conducted as such unless no other option is available to them.
• To access the user’s personal library account, you should guide him or her through the process of logging in by using text-based instructions. If a patron cannot log in, you should not attempt to log in yourself using the patron’s personal login information.
• If the user does not know his/her library card number or PIN, or cannot log in for some other reason, offer to forward the chat to the user’s library, provide contact information to the user for his/her library, or follow instructions provided by his/her library in the knowledge base.

Patron Follow-up:

• Help as far as you can, but recommend the user’s local library when necessary.
• Offer to transfer and/or refer users to local libraries using chat transfer or email. Phone numbers should be given as a last resort – they have chosen text-based communication as their preference by joining the chat and the transaction should be conducted as such unless no other option is available to them.
• Remember, although users are logged in to chat reference, it does not mean they need everything right now. If you explain they will get more information if you can work on it later or forward them to an expert, many will be happy with this.
• Not all questions can be answered completely – refer the patron to relevant and reliable resources that may aid in answering their question even if it does not give a direct answer.
• The average chat time is about 8 minutes. If you have been working with the patron for more than 20 minutes, offer to follow up by email as the question may be better answered in a long-form medium.

Non-responsive user:

While staff should attempt to maintain in communication with the user and not end a chat prematurely, there are some cases where users stop communicating without notice. When this happens:

• Send an “Are you still there?” message to the user to attempt to re-establish communication with them.
• Monitor the animated typing keyboard icon that shows when the user is actively typing.
• With no further activity from the patron, send a closing canned message or response with an invitation to connect with us again, and close the chat.

Closing the chat:

• Use a closing canned message or response asking the patron if their question has been completely answered.
• Be sure you have gathered all email or other important information if you plan to transfer the chat to an email ticket.
• All chats end with the patron’s ability to view or print the transcript.