Other stuff

The following call for survey participants with collaborative virtual reference service experience was sent to the Digitial Reference listserv. Interested parties can access the survey from the link below. Contact Emily Weak at emilyweak@yahoo.com with any questions.

Hello,

Are you a librarian who has personal experience working in a collaborative virtual reference service?

The AskAway Advisory Committee meeting minutes from February 12 are now posted on the AskAway Portal here. The meeting discussed the BCcampus Funding Request, 2012/13 Budget & Service Support Fee, Software Selection Committee membership, and other topics, including an update on text message reference pilots.

Library schools can obtain a free QuestionPoint account, which will allow faculty members and students to use the QuestionPoint virtual reference software.
For more information, see the QuestionPoint Blog.

AskAway receives many comments from users who fill out the exit survey, the vast majority overwhelmingly positive about the service. From time to time, though, we do receive some constructive feedback on how to further improve AskAway. Often even this type of feedback follows high praise for AskAway, for example, “The online service has worked perfectly for me, I've used it a few times and have always encountered friendly helpful people on the other end. What a great idea! The only thing I would suggest is to perhaps spread the word more.”

Hi folks,

Just a head's up that I will be away from the office July 1-23, 2010, but checking email periodically. Please contact Gordon Coleman with any urgent matters. I will respond to any other matters on my return.

Cheers,

Sunni
- BC ELN

Is there a great guide or learning object that you have discovered when helping AskAway patrons?
Think others should know about it?
Enter it into the ALPS LINK Learning Object Sharing contest and you will be eligible to win prizes!
This is a great opportunity to share knowledge of the many wonderful learning objects out there. As AskAwayers helping patrons from many different institutions, we are particularly likely to come across new learning objects, and this is a great way to spread the word.

Perhaps we should have avatars like IKEA to bring the service that 'personal touch': http://info.ikea-usa.com/IKEAContactUs/Contact.aspx
Thanks to Marilyn at ECIAD for this!
-Sunni
BC ELN

Tell Us Your AskAway Stories! Win a Prize!
Do you have a funny/weird/feel-good story about an experience you’ve had on AskAway? Want to share it with other AskAwayers? Submit your story to the AskAway Stories Contest for your chance to win a fabulous prize (USB headset, anyone?) and untold AskAway fame. Runner-up and first-place winners will be selected from the public library entries and from the post-secondary library entries. Winning entries will be announced and read out during the AskAway reception at the BC Library Conference.

On behalf of the Academic Librarians in Public Service (ALPS) Awards Committee, I am pleased to inform you that the 2007 ALPS Award goes to the AskAway Online Reference Service – Participating Academic Librarians, Planning Committee and Supporters.