Growing Pains

<p>As many of you know, LibraryH3lp crashed last night. It was up again within minutes of our discovering it was down, but it's been so stable that this was quite a surprise. Eric has been investigating the cause, and it appears that the system is simply experiencing growing pains. This is normal, and it has happened before with different parts of the system. As LibraryH3lp gets busier, we find various limitations in different components and need to rework code in order to achieve greater levels of efficiency and scalability. <br /><br />The thing is, we expected to hit our next such phase this fall, with coding to prepare for it taking place over the summer. As it is, Eric needs to stop working on new features for now and instead work intensively over the next couple of weeks getting the system in shape for this next level of use. We will do our best to keep service disruptions to a minimum (and hopefully non-existent!).</p>

As many of you know, LibraryH3lp crashed last night. It was up again within minutes of our discovering it was down, but it's been so st...

New Reports Features

<p>In the admin interface, you'll find the <span style="font-weight: bold;">View Reports</span> tab has been improved. You can pick one, some, or all queues and get a chart and a CSV file of activity for any date range. There are also some handy controls for all reports:<br /><ol><li><span style="font-style: italic;">Ignore system messages</span>. System messages typically come from your gateways. They might say things like, "two unread messages" if the Gmail account for your Google Talk gateway has unread mail, or they might alert you that your AIM account was been signed in from another location.<br /></li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">Ignore not answered</span>. These are primarily cases where your patrons return to say "thanks" or "bye" after the librarian has closed their own window. Of course, they may also represent chats that truly were not answered because the patron left before a librarian answered (hopefully there aren't a lot of these on your queues).</li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">Minimum chat duration</span>. Use this to set the minimum threshold for how long a chat must last in order for it to register in your report. It defaults to 10 seconds. This lets you weed out, for example, chats where your patron returned with a "thanks" message and your librarian quickly fired off a "you're welcome" in return.</li></ol>In the case of the first two options, you probably don't want to count those as chats in your reports. <br /><br />In the case of the third, it may not be possible set the perfect threshold, but being able to set a minimum duration is quite helpful. In less-busy services, you can weed through your transcripts in the Monitor Activity tab and delete records of chats you don't want to count. Then you can run your reports on everything that is left, but this may become less practical with busier services.<br /><br />Here is an example of a chart; we're using the Google Charts API, so you can create a permalink. This chart shows traffic by month and by protocol for most of UNC-Chapel Hill's queues for May 2008 through today:<br /><br /><a href="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=600x400&chd=e:GRKbK8W-rdwkxuZqmBaf,DEGJGBE7KLLpNYGhGBFH,AIAQAMAMAUAkAcAMAYAI,AAAAAIAMAQAIAYAYAEAQ,AEAIAAAgAAAIAEAYAMAQ,AAAAAAAIAAAEAAAAAAAA&chco=000000,FF0000,00FF00,0000FF,00FFFF,FF00FF&chdl=web%7Caim%7Cyahoo%7Cgtalk%7Cmsn%7Cjabber&chxl=0:%7C0%7C20%7C40%7C60%7C80%7C100%7C120%7C140%7C160%7C180%7C200%7C220%7C240%7C260%7C280%7C300%7C320%7C340%7C360%7C380%7C400%7C420%7C440%7C460%7C480%7C500%7C520%7C540%7C560%7C580%7C600%7C620%7C640%7C660%7C680%7C700%7C720%7C740%7C760%7C780%7C800%7C820%7C840%7C860%7C880%7C900%7C920%7C940%7C960%7C980%7C1000%7C1:%7C5%2f08%7C6%2f08%7C7%2f08%7C8%2f08%7C9%2f08%7C10%2f08%7C11%2f08%7C12%2f08%7C1%2f09%7C2%2f09&chxt=y,x&cht=bvs" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=600x400&chd=e:GRKbK8W-rdwkxuZqmBaf,DEGJGBE7KLLpNYGhGBFH,AIAQAMAMAUAkAcAMAYAI,AAAAAIAMAQAIAYAYAEAQ,AEAIAAAgAAAIAEAYAMAQ,AAAAAAAIAAAEAAAAAAAA&chco=000000,FF0000,00FF00,0000FF,00FFFF,FF00FF&chdl=web%7Caim%7Cyahoo%7Cgtalk%7Cmsn%7Cjabber&chxl=0:%7C0%7C20%7C40%7C60%7C80%7C100%7C120%7C140%7C160%7C180%7C200%7C220%7C240%7C260%7C280%7C300%7C320%7C340%7C360%7C380%7C400%7C420%7C440%7C460%7C480%7C500%7C520%7C540%7C560%7C580%7C600%7C620%7C640%7C660%7C680%7C700%7C720%7C740%7C760%7C780%7C800%7C820%7C840%7C860%7C880%7C900%7C920%7C940%7C960%7C980%7C1000%7C1:%7C5%2f08%7C6%2f08%7C7%2f08%7C8%2f08%7C9%2f08%7C10%2f08%7C11%2f08%7C12%2f08%7C1%2f09%7C2%2f09&chxt=y,x&cht=bvs" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 400px;" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I can also download a CSV to bring the numbers into Excel; in the Reports interface, there is also a visualization tool kind of like a tag cloud, but without the tags:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxlhQKBMHm9UD1-isEPS0up7AID9GS-WPS-d7rJDn4RzZFfbMq0bdG5s3CzvPSGTPpL3h1aeHYJFZ8e15DqaWrDEmwwhI_zmI2F9ts3qhj7oQRsaPw-fX_3lPEOXKzCxfMgKPqKTljJnQ/s1600-h/csv.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303142412222450498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxlhQKBMHm9UD1-isEPS0up7AID9GS-WPS-d7rJDn4RzZFfbMq0bdG5s3CzvPSGTPpL3h1aeHYJFZ8e15DqaWrDEmwwhI_zmI2F9ts3qhj7oQRsaPw-fX_3lPEOXKzCxfMgKPqKTljJnQ/s320/csv.png" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 178px;" /></a><br /><br />Remember: Besides this View Reports tab, you can also use the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Monitor Activity tab</span> to review transcripts, download transcripts in bulk, download a CSV file of all activity, delete system messages, delete transcripts, delete entire call histories. Use the <span style="font-style: italic;">Calendar Page</span> link to perform these actions over select queues and date ranges.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Note</span>: the information in Reports will normally be up to 24 hours old because of database caching. The information in Monitor Activity is accurate up-to-the-second.<br /><br />Have fun!</p>

In the admin interface, you'll find the View Reports tab has been improved. You can pick one, some, or all queues and get a chart and ...

Hardening the Gateways

<p>This weekend, we installed a big enhancement to the gateway system. All of the protocols besides Google Talk have been on libpurple. Before today, we ran one instance of libpurple for all of the non-gtalk protocols (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ), and that was fine until fairly recently.<br /><br />With hundreds of gateways active on LibraryH3lp nowadays, libpurple performance was taking a hit. So, Eric had broken the libpurple protocols apart so that now, each protocol has its very own instance of libpurple. This should mean a number of good things:<br /><ol><li>Performance should improve now that no single libpurple instance is running so many gateways.</li><li>When a protocol change at the source (like MSN) means that a gateway needs programming work, we can just go ahead and work on it right away without worrying about disrupting the other gateways.</li><li>When a gateway is having some problem, we can restart it independently from the others. Restarts aren't a big deal, but they do cause accounts to briefly flicker offline and online again.</li></ol>Our libpurple gateway system has been open-sourced for a good while now, and this latest release has been updated at <a href="http://github.com/esessoms/purplegw/">Eric's github</a>. <br /><br />Happy Valentine's Day!</p>

This weekend, we installed a big enhancement to the gateway system. All of the protocols besides Google Talk have been on libpurple. Befor...

... but what does it *do*?!

<p>A couple of colleagues commented to me that during a recent conference, there were some questions about LibraryH3lp's features. It's a good point. Eric and I tend to get so wrapped up in planning and creating the system that we haven't been really good about keeping a consolidated features list together. <br /><br />A few months ago, Amanda Clay Powers created an attractive one-page PDF handout that was fantastic. I let it get out of date (bad!). I updated it today. We also have a <a href="http://code.google.com/p/libraryh3lp/wiki/LibraryH3lp_Features">features list</a> on the Google Code wiki now, and it links to the shorter PDF version. <br /><br />News about this weekend's gateway work coming soon...</p>

A couple of colleagues commented to me that during a recent conference, there were some questions about LibraryH3lp's features. It'...

Quick PSA: AIM FishBots

<p>If you offer an AIM service, you should definitely read Nixie Pixel's article, "<a href="http://nixiepixel.com/blog/index.php/aim-fish-bot-help">The AIM FishBot Phenomenon</a>." This explains a couple of extremely surreal AIM conversations I've had over the last few weeks!</p>

If you offer an AIM service, you should definitely read Nixie Pixel's article, " The AIM FishBot Phenomenon ." This explains ...

We're One Year Old Today!

<p>Today marks LibraryH3lp's first birthday, as measured from the <a href="http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com/2008/01/call-for-testers.html">start of this blog</a>, which announced our intentions with the system and asked for testers. It's been a fantastic, if busy year, and a number of exciting things have come to pass. Besides adding lots of features mentioned elsewhere in the blog, there are a few other things worth mentioning.<br /><ul><li>Self-sufficiency. When we started, we knew we didn't want to have advertisements or data mining in order to generate revenue to pay for hosting; there was no grant source, venture capital, or investor other than Eric's small business. That left us with the idea of a <a href="http://code.google.com/p/libraryh3lp/wiki/Free_or_Fee_Full_Disclosure">nominal subscription fee</a>, since we could not afford to fund LibraryH3lp out of pocket indefinitely. A number of our busiest libraries have already stepped up and contributed with their subscription (thank you!). At this point, the system's current hosting fees are covered. Now, programming time is still mostly donated, with a very exciting exception in the form of...</li></ul><ul><li>Support from the state of North Carolina towards development of features needed by larger collaborative services. That's right, NC is funding some actual feature development (i.e., programming time), which is <span style="font-weight: bold;">very </span>much appreciated. So far, the main thing to show for this is the <a href="https://libraryh3lp.com/webchat">librarians' webchat client</a>. More reports, tag-for-followup, profile pages, and access-control lists are among funded features still to come. North Carolina, our home state, has always been good to us. After all, it was the freedom to experiment with, and the <a href="http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/107">technical challenges involved in</a>, chat and IM services at Duke University, North Carolina State University, and UNC-Chapel Hill that led to the development of LibraryH3lp in the first place.<br /></li></ul><ul><li>It's just working. Knock on wood, the system has been pleasantly stable and generally operates at very low load. We've had less than five minutes of downtime in the last three months. LibraryH3lp was engineered from the ground up for scalability and stability, and this has paid off.</li></ul><ul><li>Our first corporate partnership. <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.altarama.com%2Frefchatter.htm&ei=bhx1SeG6LKKBtwf2uYzlCA&usg=AFQjCNEocShRlZhrcL1tAPLi-3zwCF7qMA&sig2=pqpbdqqo06yECEVudDLsmQ">Altarama's RefChatter</a> product remains available for those who require professional support, setup, and training. Options are good.</li></ul>But perhaps the most exciting thing for us has been witnessing the rate of adoption and the subsequent high use the system is receiving. At the peak of the Fall academic semester last October and November, there were about 600 chats and IMs on queues and probably about the same number in direct chats each day. We love to see that the system is getting put to good use.<br /><br />One small request: if you're using LibraryH3lp, please consider listing your library in the <a href="http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Online_Reference#Libraries_Using_libraryh3lp_for_Embedded_Chat">Library Success Wiki</a>. We occasionally are asked for a list of users, and because of our views on privacy, we don't share this information, but we love being able to point folks who ask to a user-generated list.<br /><br />Thank you for your support, and we look forward to this year!</p>

Today marks LibraryH3lp's first birthday, as measured from the start of this blog , which announced our intentions with the system and a...

Reports Preview

<p>Eric has been working on some behind-the-scenes stuff lately, including reports for the admin interface. He just showed me a really neat chart. It represents all LibraryH3lp traffic from about April 19 through December 7. This charts day of week and time for 34,831 messages on queues. It's not been cleaned up and counts all messages, including tests, system, etc, but of course it does not include traffic on queues where the admin has deleted their call history.<br /><br /><a href="http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=lc&chxt=y,x&chs=600x400&chxr=0,0.0,711.0%7C1,0.0,23.0&chdl=Sun%7CMon%7CTue%7CWed%7CThu%7CFri%7CSat&chco=000000,FF0000,00FF00,0000FF,00FFFF,FF00FF,FFFF00&chd=e:HvErBoBzBcBFBWC-HqWmjjrvun0S5s7f5mwbomiSdtajYwOO,IjEPCQA0CEBcA6DhG2Xlhqxg3W0S..7f2.oDmKf9buapTcMs,H1FICQCQBiBzBRDyHYVVjjrpw301yr3c1XqZhHe9b.c5T.Ms,HHD9DKBLA0BtCEDhHNTofxpwpOtAyC3iwPkoiYd4VyRYQvMK,EPDPChAdBRA6BFDbH1Tzb0mEj6qkuzoOhCUbOUIdD9DhCcA6,A.AMAMAGAGARAuAMAdD9GwKWNDQkUyS0V9NrIvFxFlC4BcA.,BLAuBoA.AMAXAMARBcC4CtEPIdPfXfYCYCXrU4WgVyUtQYKz">Check it out</a>.<br /><br />We were just admiring the interesting "academic weekend" phenomena. :)<br /><br />Enjoy. We'll publish a new blog post when the new reports are integrated into the live admin site.</p>

Eric has been working on some behind-the-scenes stuff lately, including reports for the admin interface. He just showed me a really neat ch...