Policy & Procedural Issues

Over the summer, the AskAway Advisory Committee completed its revision of the AskAway Service Continuity Plan. The plan was unanimously endorsed by the BC ELN Steering Committee, based on a recommendation from the AskAway Advisory Committee. The recommendation encompassed consultations with AskAway participating libraries.

A number of AskAwayers have requested that I send out a reminder about Campfire.  One AAer said:

"Can you please send out another AskAway reminder to ask people to log into campfire, and to make a note to the campfire board if they need to step away from their computers? I'm on a shift right now, and 2 out of 4 librarians are not in campfire. Knowing that librarians are temporarily away from their computers makes queue management more streamlined."

The final version of the minutes from the May 16th AskAway Advisory Committee meeting are now available:

http://www.eln.bc.ca/askaway/documents/AAMinutes20110516.pdf

The Coordinator's Report is available here:

http://www.eln.bc.ca/askaway/documents/AACoordRep20110516.pdf

Now that the AskAway summer term is underway, here’s some new developments and reminders for your AskAway shifts:

We're getting into the busy part of the term and we're seeing shifts with 20-30 questions per hour. Here's a few strategies to help ease the burden on AskAway service providers and stressed patrons during this time of year...

1. Log into Campfire! In Campfire you're able to quickly communicate with all your AskAway colleagues online.

2. Swamped Scripts. Pick up patrons as quickly as you can, preferably before 60 seconds have passed, and use the swamped scripts to manage patron expectations and queue flow.

Hi all,

This is just a quick post responding to some feedback we have had, related to keeping Campfire as useful to everyone as possible. There is no issue with using Campfire for casual chatting with other AskAwayers, as long as everyone staffing AskAway at the time doesn’t mind. At times on weekdays it can be distracting for AskAway staff who are multitasking, as there is no way to tell if the sound of a new message is casual chat or a service issue.

Check-out part one of this post Lost call? Here's a few reasons why... first!

So now you have a red dot or unresponsive patron what do you do? Before you end the session, here's a few tips for providing a consistent patron experience for AskAway users:

1. Inform the patron that you are going to end the session, give a reason why, and give them a few moments to respond before you exit.

Recently on AskAway patrons have often appeared to disconnect or disappear without warning. Sometimes this is due to internet outages, navigating away via Qwidget links, QuestionPoint server troubles or the patron finding the resources they need and forgetting to return.  The patron status indicator often turns to a red dot in these cases.

With the new mobile AskAway option and the prevalence of laptops in libraries, AskAway service providers are responding more and more to patron security complaints & queries. At times it can be difficult to know what to do when an upset or stressed patron asks for help... Should we provide them with contact information or call and pass along the concern/complaint ourselves?

On rare occasions, AskAway staff have had to deal with patrons in crisis -- callers who may mention suicide, self harm, or abuse.

It can be hard to know how what to say to someone who appears to be in crisis, particularly in the online environment, where you are unable to see or hear the patron.

Sunni and I have created a set of guidelines and tips for dealing with these situations. You can read the guidelines on the Staff Portal Patrons in Crisis page.