BC Provincial Virtual Reference: Local Administrator Manual

BC Provincial Virtual Reference:
Local Administrator Manual
Table of Contents
I. IMPORTANT RESOURCES .................................................................................... 1
II. YOUR QUESTIONPOINT ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT ......................................................... 2
Change Administrator Contact Information ....................................................... 2
Change Institution Name.............................................................................. 2
III. CREATE, DELETE AND MANAGE SERVICE PROVIDER (SP) ACCOUNTS IN QP ................................ 2
Create New Service Provider Accounts ............................................................. 2
Edit an Existing Service Provider Account.......................................................... 3
Delete Service Provider Accounts ................................................................... 3
IV. TRAINING SERVICE PROVIDERS ............................................................................ 3
New Service Providers ................................................................................. 3
Refresher Training ..................................................................................... 3
V. THE ASKAWAY QWIDGET: CREATING AND MAINTAINING YOUR QWIDGET ................................... 4
Create a Qwidget for Your Library Website ....................................................... 4
Change the Qwidget Message When AskAway is Closed Between Terms ...................... 8
VI. GATHER ASKAWAY STATISTICS FOR YOUR INSTITUTION ................................................... 9
VII. REVIEW YOUR SERVICE PROVIDER TRANSCRIPTS ........................................................ 12
Review Your Library Transcripts................................................................... 12
Search for Your Library Transcripts by Librarian or Date ..................................... 12
Bulk Download of Transcripts ...................................................................... 12
VIII. CREATE SCRIPTS AND URLS ........................................................................... 13
IX. TROUBLESHOOT BASIC SERVICE PROVIDER ISSUES ....................................................... 14
X. PREPARE FOR THE START OF A NEW TERM ............................................................... 16
XI. MARKET ASKAWAY AT YOUR INSTITUTION ............................................................... 17
Thanks for agreeing to be an AskAway administrator at your library! The following pages
describe basic AskAway Administrator functions. If you do not find an answer to your question
here, please contact the AskAway Coordinator.
All AskAway local administrators should be subscribed to the [email protected] listserv. This is
the main communication tool used by the Coordinator to send out critical AskAway
information. If you don’t think you are subscribed to this listserv, please contact the
Coordinator.
I. Important Resources
AskAway Coordinator
Sunni Nishimura, Coordinator
[email protected]
Mon – Fri 9 AM – 2:30 PM 778.782.6937
Other times 778.237.6276
AskAway Administrative Centre:
[email protected]/778-782-6937
AskAway Staff Portal:
http://askaway.org/staff
QuestionPoint Website:
http://www.questionpoint.org
BC Provincial Virtual Reference:
Local Administrator Manual
II. Your QuestionPoint Administrator Account
The user ID for your QP Admin account is a 9-digit number, not the regular 6-digit
number used by service providers. When staffing AskAway, please use your 6-digit
login, not the 9-digit administrator login.
If you don’t know what your admin login or password is, or if you have trouble logging
in, contact the AskAway Admin Centre <[email protected]>.
Change Administrator Contact Information
To change the contact information for your QP Admin account, login using the 9-digit
login, and click on Settings in the red navigation bar. Here you can change the name
and email address of the QP Admin. Let the AskAway Admin Centre know if there has
been a change in QP Administrator in order that the listservs can be updated, etc..
Change Institution Name
To change your Institution Name in QP:
1. Login using the 9-digit login. From the Select Service drop-down menu in the
top right-hand corner, choose Profile.
2. On the Administration tab, under Administrative Functions, click on My
Institution to edit the profile.
3. Near the bottom, under Institution Services, click on Institution Information.
4. Change the Institution Name, and then click Save.
III. Create, Delete and Manage Service Provider (SP) Accounts in QP
Create New Service Provider Accounts
1. Login to your 9 digit QP administrator account.
2. From the “Select Service” drop-down menu, choose Administration.
3. By default you should now be on the “Create New Librarian Account” page.
4. Enter the SP’s full name and email address.
5. For Screen Name, use the format: FirstnameLastinitial@AskAway e.g.
SunniN@AskAway
6. Profile: Choose View profile
7. Ask A Librarian: Choose Ask Librarian
8. Leave all other settings at default.
9. Click Submit.
The SP’s User ID (6 digit) will appear at the top of the completed form. The SP will
use this to login. By default the password is the email address entered on the form
– the SP will be prompted to change it upon logging in for the first time.
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Edit an Existing Service Provider Account
1. Login to your 9 digit QP administrator account.
2. From the “Select Service” drop-down menu, choose Administration.
3. Click on the grey View/Update Accounts tab.
4. Find the SP’s name and click Edit.
5. You can now change the SP’s Name, Screen Name or Email address.
6. Click Save.
Delete Service Provider Accounts
1. Login to your 9 digit QP administrator account.
2. From the “Select Service” drop-down menu, choose Administration.
3. Click on the grey View/Update Accounts tab.
4. Find the service provider’s name and click Remove.
1. Login to your 9 digit QP administrator account.
2. From the “Select Service” drop-down menu, choose Administration.
3. Click on Passwords in the red navigation bar.
4. Choose whether you are going to Email the SP their existing password, or reset
their password to the email address listed in their account.
5. Under either Email or Reset, use the drop-down Authorization, Name or Email
lists to find the service provider.
6. Once you have found the SP in the list, click on the corresponding
Authorization, Name or Email button to perform the action (emailing or
resetting the password).
IV. Training Service Providers
New Service Providers
Whenever possible, the AskAway Coordinator will attempt to train new service
providers in person or online. At the beginning of every term the coordinator sends a
call-out to the eln-vref listserv to find out if any training is required. In-person or
online sessions are then scheduled as needed. If you require training for any service
providers outside of these times, please let the Coordinator know.
It is possible for training to be undertaken locally by experienced AskAwayers.
AskAway training materials are available on the AskAway Portal  Staff Tools 
Training. Please let the Coordinator know if you have new service providers to be
added to the listservs.
Refresher Training
Refresher training sessions are also available for service providers who have already
taken the basic training. Contact the AskAway Coordinator for details.
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V. The AskAway Qwidget: Creating and Maintaining Your Qwidget
Create a Qwidget for Your Library Website
1. Login to QuestionPoint using an Administrator account (9 digit)
2. Use the drop-down Select Service menu in the top right-hand corner to go to the
Administration module
3. Select Forms > Forms Manager > Create Qwidget
4. Select English from the menu of languages, and click Submit
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5. Choose the settings that you require:
Very important settings!
a) Type the Qwidget Name, e.g. “AskAway: Chat with a BC Librarian” (or
whatever phrase fits) – this will appear at the top of the Qwidget.
b) Enter an offline message that users will see when AskAway is closed. The
following is an example of the kind of message you could use:
AskAway is currently closed. Please try again during service hours:
Sun - Thurs 10 AM - 9 PM
Fri - Sat 11 AM - 5 PM<br><br>
To send your question by email, please click on the following link: [enter
your own library email reference address mailto link here, OR use the
generic AskAway page: <a
href="http://www.eln.bc.ca/vr_portal/email_ref.html">Reference Emails by
institution</a>]
c) Choose the Qwidget size that you prefer. Choosing Fill means the Qwidget
will fill whatever frame it is given on your webpage.
d) Choose the Qwidget colour that you prefer.
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e) Select "Do not Offer Email Service when Chat is not available". **Please
note: not only does AskAway not subscribe to the email feature of
QuestionPoint (rendering this useless), it is illegal for us to collect email
addresses from patrons. It is very important that this setting be set
correctly.
f) For Mask Patron IP addresses, choose “Yes”. This is another essential
setting that will protect patron privacy.
g) For Require Email for Patron Chat, choose “No”.
h) For Nudge Patron to Enter Email Address, choose “No”.
6. Customise the Qwidget Patron Waiting Messages Configuration. Below is one
suggested configuration:
7. Once you are satisfied with your selections, click on Submit.
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8. If you wish, test your Qwidget by clicking Test.
9. Copy and paste the Qwidget code into your library website code. (If your CMS
makes this difficult, contact Sunni.)
It is helpful to insert some wording near the Qwidget on the webpage so that users
know what it is for. For example, with a Qwidget on a Article Databases page, you
might put: "Don't know which database to choose? Ask a Librarian."
Some examples of Qwidget implementations:
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Change the Qwidget Message When AskAway is Closed Between Terms
To change the text of the Qwidget when AskAway is closed between terms:
1. Log into the AskAway Admin account (9 digit login).
2. From the drop-down menu in the top-right corner, choose Administration.
3. In the red navigation bar, click on Forms and then Forms Manager.
4. Click on Create Qwidget. Choose English and then click Submit.
5. You can change the text of the Offline message here and click Submit to save
the changes. The Qwidgets on your library webpages will now show the updated
text. (You do not have to copy any updated code to your webpages.)
A suggested text might be: “AskAway is now closed for the
holidays/intersession. The service will reopen on [date]. Try <a
href="http://www.eln.bc.ca/askaway/email_ref.html"> sending your question
in by email.</a>”
Instructions for capturing Qwidget statistics are available in this manual, Section V.
Gather AskAway Statistics for Your Institution
If you have any questions about the Qwidget, contact the AskAway Admin Centre
<[email protected]>.
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VI. Gather AskAway Statistics for Your Institution
How many of my students have been helped by my own library staff vs. staff
from other libraries? How many questions have my library staff handled?
This information is available in the monthly reports on the AskAway Portal  Local
Admin  AskAway Statistics. To read the monthly spreadsheets:
•
Columns under Sessions with Our Learners give data about how many of your
learners used AskAway, and how many were helped by staff from your own
library or by staff from other libraries.
•
Sessions with Other Institutions’ Learners gives data about how many sessions
your library staff handled with learners from other institutions.
•
Total Sessions Handled per Institution gives data about how many questions
your library staff have handled, with their own learners and those from other
libraries.
This data is also available in your QP account: (although not as nicely formatted!)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Login to your QP account (9 digit administrator login or 6 digit librarian login)
Click on Reports tab in red navigation bar
Under Institution (in the red navigation bar), choose Reports of Sessions
Choose the date range you wish to view, but please note: this information is
only accurate for the past 90 days.
5. Numbers for your institution will be hot-linked to the corresponding transcripts,
e.g. if you click on the number in the Library column under Sessions with Our
Patrons, you’ll see a list of transcripts from your patrons handled by your
service providers.
How many calls have been made by my students? When are they calling?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Login to your QP account (9 digit administrator login or 6 digit librarian login)
Click on Reports tab in red navigation bar.
Under the Institution Tab, choose Institution Report.
Choose Monthly to view a list of monthly totals for Jan - Dec
OR
Choose Daily to see hourly breakdown for a single month – this will tell you
when your patrons are calling. (Remember that all times are in EST – subtract 3
hours for PST.)
Choose Year and Month.
Choose to Generate Report for Chat
Click Submit.
This report can be copy-and-pasted into an Excel spreadsheet.
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How many of my students have been helped by my library staff vs. library staff
from other institutions for a longer period of time than the past 90 days?
1. On the AskAway Portal Administrator Tools tab, scroll down to Statistics and Feedback.
2. Under Usage Statistics, open the spreadsheet for the particular month or term you wish to
view.
3. Reading the spreadsheets:
• Sessions with Our Patrons: Library are your patrons helped by your SPs.
• Sessions with Our Patrons: Group are your patrons helped by SPs from other
institutions.
• Our Sessions with Others' Patrons are patrons from other libraries that your SPs
have helped.
On average, when are my patrons asking questions on AskAway?
1. Navigate to AskAway Staff Portal  Local Admin tab  Statistics.
2. Under Other Statistics, reports of questions by hour are available for each institution for
September – December 2007.
I want to know which of my patrons are asking questions on AskAway (i.e. 1st-2nd
year, grad student, faculty, etc.).
1. Navigate to AskAway Staff Portal  Local Admin tab  Statistics  Form Fields.
2. Open the spreadsheet for the particular month or term you wish to view.
3. The Are-You worksheet will tell you how your patrons are self-identifying as either 1st-2nd
year, 3rd-4th year, college, grad student, faculty, or other.
Where are my patrons logging in from (the library, from home, etc.)?
1. Navigate to AskAway Staff Portal  Local Admin tab  Statistics  Form Fields.
2. Open the spreadsheet for the particular month or term you wish to view.
3. The Location worksheet will tell you where your patrons identify themselves as logging in
from (i.e. home, library, off-campus, etc.).
Where can I see my patron responses to the patron exit survey?
1. Navigate to AskAway Staff Portal  Local Admin tab  Surveys.
2. Patron exit survey results are available here, sorted by institution. (NOTE: Prior to
September 2008 patron institution information was not captured.)
Can’t find the answer to your questions? Contact the AskAway Office
<[email protected]>.
Additional information about QP statistics can be found on the QP website
<http://www.questionpoint.org> under Documentation.
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Qwidget Statistical Reports
Monthly Qwidget statistics by institution are available as part of the regular AskAway
statistical reports on the Local Admins  Statistics page of the Portal.
Daily/hourly statistics for your Qwidget are available as part of your Institution Report
in the MyQuestionPoint Reports module.
To get daily/hourly statistics for your Qwidget:
1. Log into the AskAway Admin account (9 digit login).
2. Click on the grey Reports tab in the top left-hand corner.
3. In the red navigation bar, click on Institution.
4. Click on Institution Report under Activity Statistics.
5. Choose the monthly or daily report: the monthly report will give you
summary statistics for a whole year; daily report will give you daily statistics for
a single month.
6. Choose the Year and Month (if running a Daily report) and choose Chat from
the Generate Report For drop-down menu.
7. Click Submit.
8. Copy the resulting report and paste (as plain text) into an Excel spreadsheet
to save and manipulate.
•
Number (Total) of Chat Sessions Requested is the total number of
sessions requested by your patrons, INCLUDING those requested via the
Qwidget.
•
Number of Chat Sessions Requested via Qwidget is the subset of your
total patron calls that came in via the Qwidget.
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VII. Review Your Service Provider Transcripts
Review Your Library Transcripts
1. Login to your QP account (9 digit administrator login or 6 digit librarian login)
2. Click on Reports tab in red navigation bar
3. Under Institution (in the red navigation bar), choose Reports of Sessions
4. Choose the date range you wish to view, but please note: this information is
only accurate for the past 90 days.
5. Numbers for your institution will be hot-linked to the corresponding transcripts,
e.g. if you click on the number in the Library column under Sessions with Our
Patrons, you’ll see a list of transcripts from your patrons handled by your
service providers.
Search for Your Library Transcripts by Librarian or Date
1. Login to your 9 digit QP administrator account.
2. From the “Select Service” drop-down menu in the top right-hand corner of the
screen, choose Ask.
3. Click on the Review Transcripts tab.
4. Search for the desired transcripts by name, date etc. Note: only transcripts
from the last 90 days will appear here. Earlier transcripts can be accessed in
the Service History tab.
5. To view the full transcript, click on the ID number.
6. Transcripts can be printed using the Print View link in the top right-hand
corner.
Please note: BC ELN does not undertake review of service provider transcripts. We
encourage institutions to undertake transcript review of their own transcripts, as it
provides a great opportunity for improving reference and VR skills.
Bulk Download of Transcripts
If you are interested in downloading a large number of transcripts from a certain time
period, contact the AskAway Coordinator for instructions.
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VIII. Create Scripts and URLs
1. Login to your 9 digit QP administrator account.
2. From the “Select Service” drop-down menu in the top right-hand corner of the
screen, choose Ask.
3. Click on the grey Settings tab. The different types of scripts/URLs are as
follows:
My Scripts/URLS: Will only appear in the My Library Scripts list of the chat
monitor to the service provider that creates them
Institution’s Scripts/URLs: Will only appear in the chat monitor to service
providers at your institution or service providers helping your patrons
**We recommend adding an institutional script that describes to a patron how
they can authenticate into your databases.**
Shared Scripts/URLs: Service-wide scripts/URLs that appear to everyone
staffing AskAway
4. Click Add when you’ve finished typing in the script/URL. They will appear
alphabetically by Name in the chat monitor.
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IX. Troubleshoot Basic Service Provider Issues
Here is a list of the most commonly reported technical issues. For more detail, please
consult the Troubleshooting manual on the Administrator Tools tab of the AskAway
Staff Portal. If the suggested solutions aren’t solving the problem, please report it to
the AskAway Coordinator.
Problem: The chat monitor has been ‘Updating’ for 5 minutes and I can't type
anything.
There may be issues with the QuestionPoint server. This is usually resolved in a
few minutes – close your browser windows, re-launch your browser and keep
trying to log back into QP. If issues persist, send a message to the elnvrefservprov listserv letting folks know you are having trouble, and report your
situation to the Coordinator.
Problem: I don’t see any other librarians in the chat monitor OR I see other librarians
on AskAway answering questions, but I don’t see questions coming in OR There don’t
seem to be any questions coming in
1. Check the Staff schedule on the Portal to see if it is a holiday (it does
happen!)
2. Log out of QuestionPoint, shut down your browser and open it back up
again. Try using Internet Explorer.
3. Check your Internet Explorer settings and delete your temporary internet
files:
a. Go to the IE Tools menu and choose Internet Options.
b. Under "Temporary Internet Files" (or "Browsing History") delete your
temporary internet files and/or cookies.
c. Under "Temporary Internet Files" (or "Browsing History") click on
Settings. For "Check for newer versions of the page" make sure it is
set to "Every visit to the page." Under "Amount of disk space to use"
make sure it is set to either 50 MB for IE7 or 1 MB for IE6.
d. Click OK to close.
e. Log back into QuestionPoint.
4. If you still don't see anyone on with you, and you’re getting lots of
questions, use the Swamped button on the Staff Portal to send an automatic
help message to the eln-vrefservprov listserv.
5. As soon as you have a chance, contact the AskAway Admin Centre
<[email protected]> to report the problem.
Problem: When I’m in the Chat Monitor, message pop-up windows (New patron, New
IM) keep opening and won't go away when I click OK.
Keep clicking. When they finally go away, in the Chat Monitor, click "Settings".
Change your Patron Notification Settings: "Flash based popup alert" – Off.
"Browser based alerts" - On
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Problem: I think my screen may be frozen.
Check the system clock. If it is not updating every few seconds, you are frozen.
Log out and log back in again.
If that doesn’t help, check your browser settings:
a. Go to the IE Tools menu and choose Internet Options.
b. Under "Temporary Internet Files" (or "Browsing History") delete your
temporary internet files and/or cookies.
c. Under "Temporary Internet Files" (or "Browsing History") click on
Settings. For "Check for newer versions of the page" make sure it is
set to "Every visit to the page." Under "Amount of disk space to use"
make sure it is set to either 50 MB for IE7 or 1 MB for IE6.
d. Click OK to close.
Problem: I crashed/had a power failure/had to restart my browser/computer, and
lost all my patrons.
No, you haven't lost them. Just log back in and they'll be there. If it's after the
end of your shift, please log back in anyway, close any open sessions, and log
out again (to ensure that the service doesn't stay open all night).
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X. Prepare for the Start of a New Term
AskAway closes for intersession in December, April and August. At the beginning of
every new AskAway term we ask that you check the following:
1. Is your AskAway guest login still valid? Guest logins are linked from the Staff
Tools page of the Portal. Contact the AskAway Office for access to the Guest
Login page.
2. Are all the links on your AskAway policy page still correct? Please update as
necessary. If you’ve forgotten where your Policy page lives, find it on the
Library Policy Pages webpage (under Staff Tools) on the Staff Portal.
3. Are there any new pieces of information it might be useful to put onto your
Policy page for the benefit of AskAway service providers? (e.g. newly available
maps, local knowledge, contact information for SPs at your institution, etc.)
4. Are there any new service providers at your institution that need to be added to
the AskAway listserv? Contact the AskAway Admin Centre <[email protected]>
to have them added.
5. Are the AskAway service hours and closure dates correctly listed on your
website? The AskAway schedule is available on the Staff Tools page of the
Portal.
6. Does the offline message on your Qwidgets need updating? Instructions for
making changes to your Qwidget are available in this manual, Section V: The
AskAway Qwidget.
7. Do you need any further AskAway marketing materials? Contact the AskAway
Admin Centre <[email protected]> to order more. Printing of marketing
materials is coordinated by BC ELN to keep prices as low as possible. Libraries
will be invoiced on a cost-recovery basis.
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XI. Market AskAway at Your Institution
Information about marketing AskAway can be found on the Staff Portal  Local
Admins  Marketing Materials. The following are some tips for marketing AskAway at
your institution:
Web-Based
o Place the Qwidget on library/institution webpages
o Prominent link on library website
o Display linked Askaway banner on website
o Link from instructions for access from home, database connection pages
o Ticker-tape ads at bottom of library website
o Add banner to library computer desktop pictures and screensavers
o Reminder: " Tips of the day" when students login on campus
o Make screencast/podcast about service
o Reminder in "My Library Account" page
o Reminder in institution portal
o Pop ups or mandatory clicks
o Email all students
Print based
Keep them simple – not too much text
o Give away flyers, doorknob hangers, bookmarks, magnets (PDFs available on
Portal)
o Post Posters, Flyers, Fact Sheet (PDFs available on Portal)
o Wall signage in libraries, computer labs, study areas
o Sign on reference desk when closed, but Askaway open
o Signs on computer monitors in library and department computer labs
o Promote on library check out receipts
o Add promos to existing library handouts and subject guides
o Ad in free student agendas, orientation materials (PDF available on Portal)
o Mail flyers to dorms
o Book store ads/bags
o Student newspapers
o Hand out flyers or doorknob hangers at student organisations and clubs
Instructors
o Market to instructors via internal communications – newsletter, email etc
o Instructors do in-class demos to students
o Instructors add into their course outlines or assignments
o Instructors require students to use Askaway as part of assignment – students
attach printout of transcript as proof
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Live Demonstrations
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Laptop demos in high-traffic areas and library - interactive kiosk
Mention or demo in library research classes
Mention in Library Tours for new students
Demos in the common areas of dorms
Promote on the campus radio station
Promote in orientation tours of the campus for prospective students
Peer to peer demos by students
Mention on announcement TVs around campus (ticker tape ads?)
Word of Mouth
o
o
o
o
Prep circulation and reference staff to promote
Target promotion when reference desk is closed, on Fridays, etc…
Promote at end of Askaway chat sessions – “tell your friends”
Reciprocal promotion with campus Writing Centre or Learning Commons
General promotion ideas:
o Use words “help” or “information” rather than “reference”
o List sample questions – let them know what to expect, what’s expected of them
o Use words like “Live”, “Chat”, “Real-time”, “Standing by”, “Search together”,
“Search Expert”, to emphasise that it is a real person, not a search engine or
database
o Emphasize difference between chat, guided search, and co-browsing
Please note: Incentive programmes were suggested and considered, but have not been
included in this document. Distribution of incentives would require some identification
of Askaway users, which would violate our privacy policy.
Thanks to the marketing students at Langara College, their instructor Stephanie
Koonar, and librarian Suzanne Ottewell, for their useful suggestions!
If you have anything to add to this list of marketing tips, please contact the AskAway
Admin Centre <[email protected]>.
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