Library chat surveys, University of Minnesota Duluth style

<p><br />Interested in using surveys to improve your library's virtual reference services? In this<br />post, we've partnered with the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) Library to talk<br />library surveys. (Thanks guys!) They've been using surveys alongside chat this year and have interesting and actionable results to share with you.<br /><br />At the end of this post, we'll cover the mechanics of adding a survey to your widget. But first up, Doreen Hansen, Computer Systems Specialist, along with UMD Librarians Kim Pittman and Gabriel Gardner will take you behind the scenes to share how they apply survey results within their library to improve library services.<br /><br /><div><div><h3><span style="font-size: large;">A Tale of Two Surveys: How and Why</span></h3></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div>UMD Reference Librarians first offered chat service to patrons in 2004. After joining<br />forces with LibraryH3lp in 2008, we saw a significant increase in usage. However, after<br />that initial spike, our usage numbers began to stagnate (see charts). In order to uncover<br />the cause of our underwhelming usage statistics, we surveyed our patrons in the spring<br />and summer of 2012. We hoped that our survey results would give us insight into<br />users’ experience of chat and help us identify areas for improvement.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg-r7IGvBByPRxFO7rR_MtQ0W8ML3qL_Dp7Yt2QPFBJzhvpLAdovZ3PxI2DzGuuusIadu4D8snqHqXiA1efWEEk4P-pAq8QKxU8B4r_stjRXYf41pFQmtp2cWjgYjrB9mQ95wmck42gu4w/s1600/chats-per-year.png" imageanchor="1" style="float: right; margin: 0;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg-r7IGvBByPRxFO7rR_MtQ0W8ML3qL_Dp7Yt2QPFBJzhvpLAdovZ3PxI2DzGuuusIadu4D8snqHqXiA1efWEEk4P-pAq8QKxU8B4r_stjRXYf41pFQmtp2cWjgYjrB9mQ95wmck42gu4w/s320/chats-per-year.png" width="320" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgrYgL87lbMqCIWSRggB8oUUnyOS2LI9sxuq2ad3yDWrAZGyC6EeBS1lJ0L61igzBntYHmP9b1ripqC6j074JD1u1ZraALLYPov4sIJzpb3ZduewH3xZZ6AdXO0cn4zkOTSns48F3Wbawe/s1600/chats-as-percentage-of-FTE.png" imageanchor="1" style="float: left; margin: 0;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgrYgL87lbMqCIWSRggB8oUUnyOS2LI9sxuq2ad3yDWrAZGyC6EeBS1lJ0L61igzBntYHmP9b1ripqC6j074JD1u1ZraALLYPov4sIJzpb3ZduewH3xZZ6AdXO0cn4zkOTSns48F3Wbawe/s320/chats-as-percentage-of-FTE.png" width="320" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span><span class="s1">In order to learn more about current chat users and non-users, we created two surveys, both launched in the spring of 2012.</span><span class="s2"><br /><br /></span><span class="s1">One was linked right inside the top header of the patron's chat box via the <title> field within the widget designer. In addition to this eye-catching survey link, librarians also sent patrons a friendly invitation to take a short survey at the conclusion of each chat. </span><br /><span class="s1"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXnfZDIl7MpoYdTxHGEqf-DS6JtDLf1O1BHzEq4_omAAYleqzydcaYAG3WBC_dwjL0moEoW-SMBpT-3uKDQ3u0M9UDXhoobJZEAiGYbVGlVve1IW1UNm0nbtZNJDFje1MdosvL3FohRfQ1/s1600/invitation-to-take-survey.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXnfZDIl7MpoYdTxHGEqf-DS6JtDLf1O1BHzEq4_omAAYleqzydcaYAG3WBC_dwjL0moEoW-SMBpT-3uKDQ3u0M9UDXhoobJZEAiGYbVGlVve1IW1UNm0nbtZNJDFje1MdosvL3FohRfQ1/s640/invitation-to-take-survey.png" width="640" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span><span class="s1">This survey asked the user to rate their satisfaction with several aspects of their chat experience, offer suggestions for service improvements, and rate their willingness to use the service again. </span><span class="s2"><br /></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq5GsPK0CGEpvPb77_65th7U8nkaaS8ycihkkQSjolyZdjkzBto-_9fW1EedeCXm6ZO-OJL1VuBxJDMrZ4r4AKQIivwkmtlmJVJoiOtzSok25zo3rwLl6l4KAwk4e4R8hyphenhyphenM2WwXuy_d7zY/s1600/sample-survey-form.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq5GsPK0CGEpvPb77_65th7U8nkaaS8ycihkkQSjolyZdjkzBto-_9fW1EedeCXm6ZO-OJL1VuBxJDMrZ4r4AKQIivwkmtlmJVJoiOtzSok25zo3rwLl6l4KAwk4e4R8hyphenhyphenM2WwXuy_d7zY/s640/sample-survey-form.png" width="409" /></a></div><span class="s1"><br /></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"> </span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Our second, more comprehensive survey was targeted to anyone, whether they were previous chat users, were unaware of the chat service, or had known about it but hadn't tried it. This survey posed questions to patrons about their awareness of the service, previous use and satisfaction (if applicable), reasons for non-use (if applicable) and demographic characteristics. We promoted this survey in three places: on our library home page, on our "AskUs!" page, and on the digital sign at the library’s entrance.</span><br /><span class="s1"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBhR48ipN4E-w956JFOZ-PPwy7xgBsKedB4hVrXkWbUeKWyFEnqTczySP8LZoG3wgvDMK159RpK2ag0uhgo2o6bOXiqqTPcnsX-yO1LEp-M2260SMJkB0EEZJsWcjPHVwKWWPAYSrhyphenhyphen5jh/s1600/screenshot-homepage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBhR48ipN4E-w956JFOZ-PPwy7xgBsKedB4hVrXkWbUeKWyFEnqTczySP8LZoG3wgvDMK159RpK2ag0uhgo2o6bOXiqqTPcnsX-yO1LEp-M2260SMJkB0EEZJsWcjPHVwKWWPAYSrhyphenhyphen5jh/s320/screenshot-homepage.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UMD Library home page with link to survey in lower left corner.</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="p1"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 0; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZPW0du2PnKL5mx8UqVPSpqbQRCwYuM-1g3FhPzKfrEXzBId-CDEPn-kJh7nVqA7tHfd87C6zkNEvVq2qxtfa0_hOSehA-Snh-_jqXdE4a9rdBNeR4sj9whQDeWavL_Nwd468YYTdfS85t/s1600/screenshot-homepage-survey-link.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin: 0px auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZPW0du2PnKL5mx8UqVPSpqbQRCwYuM-1g3FhPzKfrEXzBId-CDEPn-kJh7nVqA7tHfd87C6zkNEvVq2qxtfa0_hOSehA-Snh-_jqXdE4a9rdBNeR4sj9whQDeWavL_Nwd468YYTdfS85t/s320/screenshot-homepage-survey-link.png" width="275" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Closeup of survey link</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="clear: both;"></div><br />We chose to use Google Drive to create these surveys because of its simplicity, shareability, and the snazzy charts that we could easily produce from our results. Using Google Drive also allowed us to create a “branching” survey which led users to different questions based on their responses. To our knowledge, Google Drive is currently the only free survey software with this capability.<br /><br /></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"> </span></div><div class="p1"><h4><span class="s1"><b>How We Used Our Results</b></span></h4><div><span class="s1"><b><br /></b></span></div></div><div class="p1"><span class="s2"></span><span class="s1"><i>Dropped Chats: Embedded vs. Pop-out Widgets</i></span><br /><span class="s1"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">After launching the survey, one problem became clear immediately: our embedded widgets were causing us to lose some users mid-conversation. Patrons would click a link sent by librarians or perhaps leave or refresh the page, losing their connection. While we had suspected that this might be the case, our survey results confirmed this. Switching all our widgets from embedded to pop-out was an easy fix, resulting in a notable decline in the number of lost connections and survey complaints.</span><span class="s2"><br /><br /></span><span class="s1"><i>Response Time</i></span><br /><span class="s2"><i><br /></i></span><span class="s1">After compiling survey results, we noted other common issues experienced by users. Several users commented that librarians were slow to respond to their questions - an issue confirmed by our LibraryH3lp statistics. In order to improve this aspect of our service, we plan to discuss user expectations at future librarian training meetings, and explore options for providing back-up chat coverage should the librarian staffing the desk become too busy to answer promptly.</span><span class="s2"><br /><br /></span><span class="s1"><i>Lack of User Awareness</i></span><br /><span class="s2"><i><br /></i></span><span class="s1">Given our declining chat usage, we were</span> unsurprised to find that the majority of those surveyed had not previously used our chat service. Of those non-users, approximately half were not aware that the service existed. To address this lack of awareness, we are in the process of putting more widgets where our users are: our databases, online research guides, 404 pages, and our course management system, Moodle. In the future, we hope to add widgets to our mobile site (using LibraryH3lp’s mobile widget) and our link resolver pages. </div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUEmqmjeyhm669gMKGukL1HWQuywY58c0KP3QZ8QVm_juqQEdUqvWJVS3U9cStrDWQPt7I3j8ZWsKwyhyphenhyphenVtcHxSr4jStqVE_IX15LEGKJIGAuKzU-eTUyRojLePMgVzLxjjcfQEJK0MoOH/s1600/pie-chart-have-u-ever-used.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUEmqmjeyhm669gMKGukL1HWQuywY58c0KP3QZ8QVm_juqQEdUqvWJVS3U9cStrDWQPt7I3j8ZWsKwyhyphenhyphenVtcHxSr4jStqVE_IX15LEGKJIGAuKzU-eTUyRojLePMgVzLxjjcfQEJK0MoOH/s640/pie-chart-have-u-ever-used.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Bhyphenhyphen-7JEEzg9JkIWwuuK3SPN5Qy_XINABu9B4f9aQQd8txt22qi9aX2t1CN-ih7sIOoh0VfETmB2hgzrBBrlTycR5M_KTqhjfrS2fymFvN6bJpCpN307w7ig6SLfYyhYrNzBelC6AldAd/s1600/pie-chart-prior-2-survey.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Bhyphenhyphen-7JEEzg9JkIWwuuK3SPN5Qy_XINABu9B4f9aQQd8txt22qi9aX2t1CN-ih7sIOoh0VfETmB2hgzrBBrlTycR5M_KTqhjfrS2fymFvN6bJpCpN307w7ig6SLfYyhYrNzBelC6AldAd/s640/pie-chart-prior-2-survey.png" width="640" /></a></div><span class="s1"><br /></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"> </span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">In addition to adding more widgets, we are strategizing new promotional efforts across campus to increase awareness of our chat service. This may include posting fliers in the dorms, advertising in our campus student newspaper, and redoubling our efforts to promote our chat service in library instruction sessions.</span><span class="s2"><br /></span></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 0; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAsbudUk5pKTQbQ_x4V4481WpHXcak1xfrUdkTzibUl3m9lF4aKIbCUgwtdX-vrTKBVAnd1e4cixY_zI-g1p8qrmqsgR94DFi8C_C-karLrJ4RNVOaCQsNQSpjspMtIKzmMIsNJL5_UISV/s1600/meme-1-baby.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAsbudUk5pKTQbQ_x4V4481WpHXcak1xfrUdkTzibUl3m9lF4aKIbCUgwtdX-vrTKBVAnd1e4cixY_zI-g1p8qrmqsgR94DFi8C_C-karLrJ4RNVOaCQsNQSpjspMtIKzmMIsNJL5_UISV/s1600/meme-1-baby.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">example of a meme used in our promotional flyer</td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 0; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD6Kx-LLiYdzYQxV71gXT-z_QFeDcZauuB1bDM-2sMFdLoDJFFAiNxQth5TD2O8XwoQoWmtSyMldI_aG2DA1_i-H7Q6fYuBPbc8qMEqray7WZwf09ZIDqF8eGFvfuCDnoAXIfeDoI5o7hF/s1600/meme-2-texting-in-car.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD6Kx-LLiYdzYQxV71gXT-z_QFeDcZauuB1bDM-2sMFdLoDJFFAiNxQth5TD2O8XwoQoWmtSyMldI_aG2DA1_i-H7Q6fYuBPbc8qMEqray7WZwf09ZIDqF8eGFvfuCDnoAXIfeDoI5o7hF/s320/meme-2-texting-in-car.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">another example of a promotional meme</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="clear: both;"><div><br /></div></div><div><h3><span style="font-size: large;">Adding a survey link to your widget</span></h3></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div>Now that Doreen, Kim, and Gabriel have got you all excited about using surveys to improve your library's services, let's talk about how you can add a link to your survey in your widget's title.<br /><br />The simplest way to do this is to include a hyperlink as part of your <a href="http://docs.libraryh3lp.com/basic-widget-customization">widget's title</a>. For example:</div><div><br /></div><code>Ask a Librarian <span style="float:right; text-align: center; font-size: 12px;">How did we do?<br/><a href="http://link-to-survey">Let us know!</a></span></code><br /><code><br /></code>or<br /><code></code><br /><code>Ask Us! <span style="padding:4px;background:#ff0;color:#032b3c"> Take our <a target="_blank" style="color:#032b3c" href="http://z.umn.edu/chatsurvey">brief chat survey</a></span></code><br /><div><br />And if your title needs more room, you can add a wicked CSS hack. For example:</div><div><br /></div><div><code>#layout {<br />  top: 40px;<br />}</code></div><div><br /></div><div>The result should look something like this:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk2LN89qYKWMhVf78Td_5PLfwBQSiin5WxorPQf3BjYIgeG-WFe7JrnXGqy6Yu2KYNFEXf3MoiK8dCCuCxlKuqKAior5aODUbL8E7_qtQs6q7VOKkqlcIaqI7XYXtMn2_2bz94hPigRx3X/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-07-31+at+8.56.06+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk2LN89qYKWMhVf78Td_5PLfwBQSiin5WxorPQf3BjYIgeG-WFe7JrnXGqy6Yu2KYNFEXf3MoiK8dCCuCxlKuqKAior5aODUbL8E7_qtQs6q7VOKkqlcIaqI7XYXtMn2_2bz94hPigRx3X/s320/Screen+shot+2012-07-31+at+8.56.06+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>And here is the <a href="http://www.d.umn.edu/lib/index.htm">University of Minnesota Duluth Libraries' widget</a> with survey link:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzQ8Z7kJle5neRrfmehqoHAJpGFJNrEay9X8TxCcfUy5M31kdyFryDfJcoQAhnaaJlwAuXZm6gtWnlMwiK_sDyZ6cpEgE5CTOJBHAH37Y-vQP_6iC6WRnQstErZZfaKeuM2LjWwzVJ04As/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-07-31+at+11.42.33+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzQ8Z7kJle5neRrfmehqoHAJpGFJNrEay9X8TxCcfUy5M31kdyFryDfJcoQAhnaaJlwAuXZm6gtWnlMwiK_sDyZ6cpEgE5CTOJBHAH37Y-vQP_6iC6WRnQstErZZfaKeuM2LjWwzVJ04As/s320/Screen+shot+2012-07-31+at+11.42.33+AM.png" width="320" /></a></div></div><div><br /><h3><span style="font-size: large;">How does your library use surveys?</span></h3><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>Do you use surveys (chat or otherwise) to improve your library's services? Or maybe you have questions for Doreen, Kim, and Gabriel? If so, please post a comment. We'd love to hear from you!<br /><br /></div></div></p>

Interested in using surveys to improve your library's virtual reference services? In this post, we've partnered with the University ...

FAQ on regional servers + New password protection feature!

<p>Our <a href="http://docs.libraryh3lp.com/faq-intro.html" target="_blank">FAQ module</a> is now available on the LibraryH3lp servers in Europe, Canada, and Singapore, in addition to our main US server.<br /><br />The FAQ module lets you quickly and easily build a <a href="http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com/2012/09/new-feature-for-patrons-searchable-faq.html" target="_blank">searchable, browsable knowledge base for your library</a>. Plus, real-time chat and an offline e-mail form are automatically integrated so that patrons can get answers directly from you. It's one more thing included at no additional charge with your unlimited, low flat-rate LibraryH3lp subscription. More bang for your buck. Better virtual reference service for your patrons.<br /><br />And now for that new feature. Each FAQ offers the option of password protection so that only your librarians have access to your knowledge base. A couple LibraryH3lp libraries were interested in using the FAQ as an internal knowledge base for librarians rather than as a resource for patrons. We thought that was a fantastic idea! To enable password protection for your FAQ, click on the 'Require login?' checkbox in the Pages tab of the FAQ module in the admin site. <br /><br />We want to hear from you! Build your own FAQ. Try it out. Collect feedback from your librarians and patrons and <a href="mailto:support@libraryh3lp.com" target="_blank">let us know</a> how we can make it better for you.<br /><br />Oh! And one last thing. If you are building a FAQ and don't mind sharing, please leave a link to your FAQ in the comments below. We've been getting quite a few requests to see what other libraries are doing with their FAQs. We'd appreciate any inspiration you'd care to share.<br /><br /><br /></p>

Our FAQ module is now available on the LibraryH3lp servers in Europe, Canada, and Singapore, in addition to our main US server. The FAQ mod...

New feature for patrons! Searchable FAQ

<p>[Update: <a href="http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com/2013/01/new-in-place-faq-editing.html" target="_blank">Edit your LibraryH3lp FAQ in place</a> rather than via the admin site.]<br /><br />Exciting news: your LibraryH3lp subscription or trial is now 100% more awesome. Today, we released a knowledge base feature as part of LibraryH3lp (on the main U.S. server only so far) that lets you quickly and easily build a searchable, browsable FAQ for your library. Plus, real-time chat and an offline e-mail form are automatically integrated so that patrons can get answers directly from you.<br /><br />The great thing about a FAQ is that it saves time for both librarians and patrons by providing thorough answers to commonly asked questions, questions often encountered when chatting with patrons online.  Now you can combine real-time chat with a browsable FAQ to provide a richer virtual reference experience for your patrons.<br /><br /><h3>What does it look like? </h3>Visit our shiny new <a href="http://ask.libraryh3lp.com/" target="_blank">LibraryH3lp FAQ</a> to see an example in action. There is even a built-in mobile-specific version for smart phones. Which version patrons see depends on the device browsing the FAQ. And yes, your FAQ comes automatically with a mobile specific version too!<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh96cqG87xlvBpmM7EQtDAdZn8Cn0Ul3hr2EXCiuD8IA1coWkzbIe7kI_1V4t-TKMIsZeHQRBcIiVDEfzo9GtjYIcu3tKwIU7-x3TStyEdDS_zZMV81mfwcAYRovwa9ZjJYROmb5VzFwBM/s1600/drop-down-blog.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh96cqG87xlvBpmM7EQtDAdZn8Cn0Ul3hr2EXCiuD8IA1coWkzbIe7kI_1V4t-TKMIsZeHQRBcIiVDEfzo9GtjYIcu3tKwIU7-x3TStyEdDS_zZMV81mfwcAYRovwa9ZjJYROmb5VzFwBM/s640/drop-down-blog.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screenshot of our <a href="http://ask.libraryh3lp.com/" target="_blank">FAQ demo site</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>The FAQ is comprised of three basic types of pages. Each type of page has an instant search at the top, contact information to the right, and a tag cloud of topics to the right. The <b><a href="http://ask.libraryh3lp.com/" target="_blank">primary page</a></b> contains all of your questions. Yup. Keep scrolling. They're all there. Or you can look at all questions tagged with a particular <b><a href="http://ask.libraryh3lp.com/topics/168" target="_blank">topic</a></b>. To see that in action, click a topic in the tag cloud on the right. Topics are a handy way to categories the various types of questions. And finally, there are <b><a href="http://ask.libraryh3lp.com/questions/429" target="_blank">individual question pages</a></b>.<br /><br />You can see of the number of views for each question and the last updated time stamp indicating answer "freshness." And there is a built-in social component as well. Vote a question up as useful (a like) or down (a dislike) as not useful and see a tally of the likes and dislikes from other viewers.<br /><br />Look and feel for the FAQ is highly customizable. You have access to all the underlying templates used to create the three basic types of pages, giving you complete control over the look of your own FAQ site. Restructure and build upon the default templates as needed to best suit your needs. But you don't have to start from scratch, we also offer 12 preconfigured themes for your FAQ. You can see each of the themes in action in our LibraryH3lp FAQ. To switch between themes, use the drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner. Pam likes Spacelab. Eric digs Journal. Amy prefers Superhero.<br /><br /><h3>How do I build my own?</h3>There are two tabs available within the new FAQs tab of the <a href="https://libraryh3lp.com/admin" target="_blank">admin site</a> - Questions and Pages. Use these to manage your questions and customize your pages respectively.<br /><br />The <b>Questions </b>tab shows a tabular listing of all your questions. You can add, edit, and remove questions. Plus you can see the number of views, likes, dislikes, last update date, and topics for each question.  You can do keyword searches to easily find existing questions you'd like to edit, and you can sort by any column heading.<br /><br />The <b>Pages </b>tab is where you control the look and feel of your site.  Choose your theme, select the queue you want chats directed to, and enter an email address for offline queries, and you're all set.  You also have complete control over your site's HTML in the Templates area, if you need it.<br /><br />We take care of the hosting and your FAQ gets its own address, shown on the Pages tab as Site. Also on the Pages tab, you can enter a custom URL for your site within your own domain as a CNAME.  This means that instead of your patrons seeing your FAQ URL as "something.ask.libraryh3lp.com," you can show them something using your own domain instead, for example, "faq.myschool.edu."  Your network administrator will be able to help out with the needed DNS tweaking on your library's end.  <a href="http://docs.libraryh3lp.com/faq-intro.html" target="_blank">More documentation.</a><br /><br /><h3>Making the FAQ better.</h3>All of the basics are there. We have lots of ideas for improvements, but we also want to hear from you! Build your own FAQ. Try it out. Collect feedback from your librarians and patrons and <a href="mailto:support@libraryh3lp.com">let us know</a> how we can make it better for you.<br /><br />And finally, the best part of all is that there is no fine print or gotchas. It's just one more thing you get with your unlimited, low flat-rate LibraryH3lp subscription.  More bang for your buck. Better virtual reference service for your patrons.<br /><br /><br /></p>

[Update: Edit your LibraryH3lp FAQ in place  rather than via the admin site.] Exciting news: your LibraryH3lp subscription or trial is now 1...

Recent U.S. server downtime

<p>Customers using the main U.S. server were affected by server instability on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week brought on by high load. Wednesday's downtime severely impacted our customers' ability to chat with patrons during peak use hours. We understand that you rely on us to provide stable services so you in turn can provide a high quality of virtual reference for your patrons. We sincerely apologize for the disruption during this hectic time of year and thank everyone for their kind patience while we worked to correct the issue. Last Wednesday night, we released an infrastructure upgrade to our main U.S. server designed to greatly enhance our long-term stability, performance, and ability to scale quickly in advance of future crises.<br /><br />The infrastructure changes are part of a long-term plan to improve performance and fault-tolerance by way of redundant systems distributed across the network. Because the migration to the new architecture was already in-progress, we were able to complete the restructuring by the end of the day on Wednesday and get chat back on track as quickly as possible. Additional servers were added Friday morning to enhance performance.<br /><br />We take great pride that our server uptime over the last year is 99.91% (including the downtime last week) which is above the industry average of 99%.  These changes will ensure our continued high availability moving forward so that you are able to provide the best quality of service for your patrons.</p>

Customers using the main U.S. server were affected by server instability on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week brought on by high load. Wedn...

New to LibraryH3lp? Here's a roadmap.

<p>Coming to LibraryH3lp from another chat system, you may feel that your administrative user interface has suddenly transformed from:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEircpu0aPomWcGA5pR9ERY-N18gtgFABHJDsIyAPMhbRckoiSeJGSoDczib2X_eZ7KfeexDYjfC-nAVHjoZfbEY4maJLVaDL4-mPeZmj1-DdxODQbO0eJYGj5-mn4tA4EstSbcAkwveSdI/s1600/69075298_d84059ca01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEircpu0aPomWcGA5pR9ERY-N18gtgFABHJDsIyAPMhbRckoiSeJGSoDczib2X_eZ7KfeexDYjfC-nAVHjoZfbEY4maJLVaDL4-mPeZmj1-DdxODQbO0eJYGj5-mn4tA4EstSbcAkwveSdI/s320/69075298_d84059ca01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />To something more like:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRSqdqIkfkfti3tB_zTURA_cNJz3myFAU1ksPCTFEuh3uV_uj7VYz0-JDDC-BaV_iSgcT7rjyYqW-87PL9q_t8VFY2I-RP5gBlSkv1f35vXlyQ5aV69O5yF58iT557JUThCGCf1gKqoKc/s1600/090810homer.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRSqdqIkfkfti3tB_zTURA_cNJz3myFAU1ksPCTFEuh3uV_uj7VYz0-JDDC-BaV_iSgcT7rjyYqW-87PL9q_t8VFY2I-RP5gBlSkv1f35vXlyQ5aV69O5yF58iT557JUThCGCf1gKqoKc/s320/090810homer.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />We don't deny that LibraryH3lp has lots of features, but it is not as complicated as it may appear at first glance. Yes, we have more buttons, dials, levers, and switches, but they each exist for a very specific purpose, and together they work to provide your <i>patrons</i> with the simplicity of "Push for Cheese".  Here is a walkthrough of the core concepts.<br /><br />Fundamentally, of course, is the <b>widget</b> - that box you stick in a web page that the user can type in to chat with you in real-time.  In single-operator systems like Meebo, a widget corresponds exactly to one <b>user</b>: you have one login, and this is used to sign in and answer chats.  If you share the login among multiple people, things get a little weird because all of the guest-side messages go out to all of the people using that single account. There's no need to further review the other shortcomings of this setup, as you've experienced them, but it is easy to understand and setup.<br /><br />Building on that, multi-operator systems like LibraryH3lp break the one-to-one limitation of single-account systems like Meebo.  You still have a widget, but you can have multiple user operators, all of whom can answer chats without tripping over each other.  This is a popular arrangement because it is a lot more powerful to use and only slightly more challenging to deploy.  The weaknesses of this system center primarily on organization.  But LibraryH3lp has organizational knobs too.<br /><br />From the patron's external point-of-view, you're a library, but of course internally you have branches and departments, individuals, and specialties.  When the patron contacts the "library" (via chat, phone, or email), job one is to direct him or her the individual or department best suited to provide help.<br /><br />To facilitate this, LibraryH3lp breaks the concept of a widget into two pieces: a widget and a <b>queue</b>.  The widget is still a box on your web page, and the queue specifies the target or destination of the chat.  Another way to think of a queue is as a tag or a label.  Some librarians are reference librarians, some are science specialists... some are even both.  Queues are a way to organize your users.  So you can have a widget in your page that targets your circulation or reference queue, but when an ILL question comes in you can transfer that chat to your ILL queue (tag/label) so the patron receives the most appropriate help.  Because widgets and queues are separate, this works whether the chat comes in from the web, IM, or SMS.<br /><br />Of course, once you've organized your users into queues, you shouldn't need to setup a "chat dispatch" operator who answers and routes chats.  That's silly... let the computer do it, that's what it's for.  And that is what we call a <b>service</b>.  It's a way to describe how to route the chat to the most appropriate operator.  You can say, in effect, if any of my science librarians are online right now, send the chat to them.  Otherwise send the chat to the reference desk so they can help as best they can.  If none of my librarians are available for chat, send the patron to my <a href="http://chatstaff.us/">after hours backup service</a> or to my email form.<br /><br />With all the knobs comes flexibility. Instead of just a user and a widget, we give you any number of <b>users</b> to answer chats, <b>queues</b> to organize your users, <b>widgets</b> to display in your web pages, and <b>services</b> to ensure that your patrons get the best help possible.<br /><br />Most importantly, you don't need to worry about any of that if you don't want to.  When you signup for LibraryH3lp, we set you up with one service, one widget, one queue, and one user, in a way that is functionally nearly identical to a Meebo setup.  And we send you a code snippet in your welcome letter to do all of this.  Once you've put that code into your web pages, you can learn what the knobs do later and never have to make any code changes.  That's as close to "Push for Cheese" as any nuclear power plant can get.<br /><br /><br /><span id="goog_78755167"></span><span id="goog_78755168"></span></p>

Coming to LibraryH3lp from another chat system, you may feel that your administrative user interface has suddenly transformed from: To somet...

New Services Designer (plus handy tip for creating tutorials)

<p>With LibraryH3lp's new Services Designer, it's even easier to create code snippets for embedding chat widgets into your website!<br /><br />Why snippets? With a single snippet, you can:<br /><ul><li>Associate widgets with queues, to give your chat entry points the right look and feel.</li><li>Customize how your chat service looks when offline.</li><li>Add custom HTML code before or after your chat widget.</li><li>Easily switch between our <a href="http://docs.libraryh3lp.com/which-widget.html" target="_blank">three widget types</a>.</li><li>Create <a href="http://docs.libraryh3lp.com/service-rollover.html" target="_blank">Service Rollover</a>, if desired.</li><li>Make changes from within the <a href="https://libraryh3lp.com/admin" target="_blank">admin site</a> without modifying your web pages!</li></ul><br /><div>Code snippets can be pasted into your web pages, <a href="http://docs.libraryh3lp.com/libguides.html" target="_blank">LibGuides</a>, and pretty much any place that accepts HTML and JavaScript.  Our code snippets are optimized for speed and won't interfere with loading of your larger web pages.<br /><br />Once a code snippet is deployed, you can make changes to the look and feel of your chat service solely through the LibraryH3lp admin site.  (Hopefully, your IT department won't start to think that you don't like them anymore since you can do everything yourself.)</div><br /><h4> Services Designer Tutorial (powered by iorad)</h4><div>With a new tool comes new <a href="http://docs.libraryh3lp.com/putting-widget-on-page#service-designer" target="_blank">documentation</a>, and we tried a new-to-us tool (<a href="http://www.iorad.com/" target="_blank">iorad</a>) to <b>quickly </b>get a tutorial for the new Services Design up and running.<br /><br />[Blog post edited Oct 13, 2014, since the iorad-backed tutorial content is no longer available via iorad's site.  PS] </div></p>

With LibraryH3lp's new Services Designer, it's even easier to create code snippets for embedding chat widgets into your website! Why...

Zawinski's Law: LibraryH3lp, now with 100% more email

<p>(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Zawinski#Zawinski.27s_law_of_software_envelopment">See</a>.)<br /><br />I think Pam and Amy are all blogged-out, so it falls on me to tell you about our new email integration features.  No, we have not written yet another email reference tool, and let's hope it doesn't come to that.  Instead, we've made it easier to combine LibraryH3lp with your existing email service.<br /><br />First up, a quick note that these new features are on top of our existing email integration, <i>Tag for Followup</i>.  Tag for Followup is in the webchat client and lets operators send a transcript and explanatory note easily, without specifying a particular email address.  It transparently emails the operator involved in the chat, the owner of the queue, and the top-level admin, so that the referral can get handled.  [Edit: <a href="http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com/2013/01/new-tag-for-followup-email-behavior.html"><i>Tag for Followup</i> has been improved</a> since this post was published.]  If the operator wants to target a specific email address, that's what <i>email transcript</i> is for. <br /><br />Over the years we've noticed that occasionally patrons will email questions to queues.  This is understandable given that XMPP Jabber IDs look like email addresses, and services like Google and Facebook encourage users to conflate the two.  We want these questions to get to you.  By default, queues are <i>opted out</i> of email forwarding.  To opt in, you need only define a forwarding email address for your queue in the admin site.  Then anything sent to the queue will be sent on to you.<br /><br />We've also noticed that patrons will all too often mistype their email address when sending themselves a transcript of their chat session.  Apparently "edu" is about as hard to type correctly as "the" ("edg" is a popular variation).  Who would have thought?  We want you to be able to catch these errors and fix them, without us storing any patron-identifying information.  Even though today's students prefer chat for communication, email still plays an important role in archival storage.<br /><br />To catch bounces, transcripts are now sent from the queue, using <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_envelope_return_path">VERP</a>.  This way, bounces will go back to the queue and on to your forwarding address, with the patron's alleged email address clearly visible in the "from" line.  (The point of VERP is that there is no standard for bounces, and the patron may be using their own email forwarding service, so this is the only reliable way to determine where the message was intended to go.)  Oh, and emails will respect the "profile" argument, so bounces and replies can be directed to the most appropriate specialist.<br /><br />As a bonus, patrons can now directly reply to emailed transcripts in order to continue the conversation... which I guess means we'll be joining with Google and Facebook in encouraging users to confuse JIDs and email addresses.  This falls under the category of "if you can't beat 'em..."<br /><br />Because this is email, a few words about spam are in order.  Yes, patrons sometimes send email to queues.  Spammers <i>frequently</i> send email to queues, because they scrape the Jabber IDs out of your web pages.  If you use our new-style code, as produced by the service designer, this will not be an issue.  Either way, our server does spam and virus filtering on all email before forwarding it to you.  (But if the filtering is not sufficient, you can always opt back out of email forwarding.)<br /><br />Also, as desirable as it would be to email transcripts "from" your email address rather than "queue@chat.libraryh3lp.com", that's a recipe for getting flagged as spam and would cause problems with getting transcripts to patrons.  The flip side of that is bounces (failed attempts to deliver to patrons) may well get delivered to your spam folder, depending on the particulars of your email server.  (This is because sending fake bounce messages is a known spam technique, and that's what these emails look like, but safety and convenience have been at war with each other since networking was invented.)  In this case, we're choosing the patron's convenience over yours.<br /><br />Anyway, there you have it: LibraryH3lp, now with 100% more email.<br /><br /></p>

( See .) I think Pam and Amy are all blogged-out, so it falls on me to tell you about our new email integration features.  No, we have not w...