Ask-WA Statistics – November, 2009

Ask-WA slowed down a bit in November compared to October, but since we were super-extra busy in October, that isn’t saying too much. November numbers were still well ahead of September, August, and July numbers, especially in terms of chat sessions requested. In numbers:

• Email questions received: 3743
• Chat sessions requested: 4912
• Chat sessions accepted: 3645
• Qwidget requests (% of total): 965 (19.6%)

As a cooperative we maintained an answering percentage of 74% for the month, which is down significantly from previous months, and falls just below our goal percentage of 75%. This is due to some drag in the public cooperative, but I’m sure we can dust ourselves off and bring the numbers back up! Chat continues to dominate email, though both services remain well-used. Qwidget traffic dropped this month to just under 20%, down from a fairly consistent 25% in previous months.

The word cloud highlights some of the most-used words left in survey comments throughout November. Some great words this month include: wonderful, excellent, fast, quick, great, impressed, and love.

Kudos – Academic Cooperative

Every month it gets more difficult to choose a top rockstar librarian, and there were seriously a ton of great sessions to choose from this month. Even so, I’ve managed to be decisive this month, and for two great sessions with excellent comments, this month’s rockstar academic librarian is Amy Herman from Olympic College. Amy helped a student at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, CA find articles in her school’s databases. In doing so, she demonstrated patience and great customer service, walking the student through the steps of logging in and searching their database, and making sure that the articles they found were appropriate before closing the session. Within the session, the student said it was “a great experience” and that she was glad “somebody is there to help us.” In addition, the student left this glowing survey comment:

“I am so happy to have this support system to help us with our school projects. I felt frustrated because I wasn’t able to find an Afghanistan article with only 1-3 pages, most of them were between 5-20. I was tired of looking for the short article and then I saw this option on my computer, I used it and a very nice lady called Amy from “Olympic College Libraries” from Washington State helped me with the information. I love this option and I will recommend it to my friends at SWC in Chula Vista, California. Thank you for having someone to help us and I didn’t even had to leave my home to go to the library. Thank you very much!”

Amy had another exemplary session in November helping a student at the UCLA, in which she was again very patient and helpful, and received the following comment: “Amy … was very courteous and helpful. Kudos!” Great job, Amy!

Some of my other favorite comments in the academic cooperative include (parentheses include name and location of librarian):

• Kate was very nice, patient and helpful. (Kate B @ Bellevue CC)
• Excellent service. Thank you. (Julie C @ Whitman College)
• I learned a lot with the short time I spent chatting with the librarian! (Lauren R @ UW)
• Friendly and knowledgeable. (Christie N @ Everett CC)
• Jonathan at Highline Community College was very helpful. (Jonathan B-Z @ Highline CC)
• The librarian at North Seattle CC was very helpful in steering me in the right direction for accurate APA citation. Thank you!!! (Maria P @ North Seattle CC)
• Andrea did a great job answering my question. (Andrea G-S @ Lower Columbia College)
• Very helpful! Glad I decided to try it. (Rachel G @ Tacoma CC)

Kudos – Public Cooperative

There are always a ton of great comments in the public cooperative, but this month they outdid themselves. Comments like “This was the best service I’ve used, ever” and “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever found on the internet” were fairly common. One public librarian really stood out this month as providing exemplary service, and so the public rockstar librarian of the month is Laura Young from Timberland Regional Library. Laura had two phenomenal sessions in November, consistently connected and built a good rapport with her patrons, and went above and beyond to ensure that she was providing the best possible reference service to her patrons. In one session, Laura helped a patron find birth records from another state, and once she determined that these would need to be ILLed, she not only walked the patron through the process, but even filled out the form to save the patron the trouble. The patron left a glowing comment: “Laura was a very helpful person that helped me with all of my questions and needs and I love her customer service.”

In her other exemplary session, Laura built a great rapport with a patron who had a reader’s advisory question. After answering the patron’s initial questions, Laura went on to proactively suggest some other similar titles she felt would be of interest, and ended up having a great conversation with the patron about shared book interests. The patron was blown away by the service, and commented:

“I really liked the person that I talked with. I haven’t been able to talk with a lot of people about books so it’s WONDERFUL to talk to people who are up to date on old AND new books; especially youth/teen books. I must say I was pleasantly surprised when the librarian I was talking to recognized the books I talked with her about. Thanks for having this service available. Sincerely, Devoted 19 Year Old Bookworm – P.S. If you could give Laura a raise or something for doing a great job communicating that’d be great.”

Great job, Laura!

Some of my other favorite comments in the public cooperative include (parentheses include name and location of librarian):

• Great way to be able to communicate with the Library and not have to go through menu options. I received a prompt response back in answer to my questions. Ana was most helpful. Thanks. (Ana A @ SPL)
• Was very helpful…received a very quick answer to my question. Thanks! (Cathy O @ Tacoma PL)
• So nice to have this feature … was a quick and easy way to get an answer to my question. (Liz B @ Timberland)
• Thank you so much for the service! It was great! (Michael P @ Timberland)
• Michael was very helpful, and fast! Great service! Will definitely use this service again!! (“Michael” @ KCLS)
• This is my first time using reference chat, and I was incredibly impressed with how easy it was to use and what great help I received. I will be recommending this service to others– what a wonderful resource! (Sara T @ FVRL)
• This is why I vote for libraries. (Cathy O @ Tacoma PL)
• What a neat service! Very helpful – very user friendly and a great way to learn about library services at facilities outside of one’s local library! (Amy S @ FVRL)
• This online chat is very good it helped me through all my projects. And the librarian that helped me was excellent. I am for sure using this website again.=] (Maria M @ KCLS)
• Kreg was very helpful and personable via chat. (Kreg H @ SPL)
• A wonderful service! Thank you. (Toby T @ SPL)
• Ask-a-Librarian hits a home run EVERY time! (David K @ SPL)
• Heather was very helpful, courteous and let me know when she needed to proceed with more research to find the information that I required. Thank you for this service. I appreciate it … especially on days when my brain has taken a vacation. 🙂 (Heather M @ SPL)
• David was excellent, and helped tremendously. I couldn’t have been happier! (David C @ SPL)
• Was running short on time and this service was incredibly helpful. Thank you. (Rondi D @ YVL)
• This was the best service I’ve used, ever. (Leah H @ Sno-Isle)
• The link to “Ask a Librarian” was always there – I never gave it a second thought until I wanted to look for an obscure journal. Once I clicked on it, everything was great! It was easy to use…the librarian, Lindsay was very helpful. Overall, an awesome resource!!! (“Lindsay” @ KCLS)
• So easy! Thanks for setting this up! (Katy M @ YVL)
• What a great resource. I was disconnected on the first try but without even trying again somebody else sent me an email the following day with more information. Thank you again. (Joanna @ SPL)
• On line librarians. I love it. Thanks. (Zack @ KCLS)
• I am truly amazed at this site!!! This is the coolest thing I’ve ever found on the internet. Kerry was so helpful and gave me several resources. I can’t thank you enough for providing this wonderful service. (“Kerry” @ Spokane County)
• This is great. I would have probably not have asked if it wasn’t for this. Excellent quality. (Michelle B @ Spokane County)
• Matt of Walla County Wa was most helpful and professional in his assistance. (Matthew B @ Walla Walla County)
• VERY helpful!!!! Thank you so much!!! (Jim L @ SPL)
• Great service. My question was answered without emailing back and forth. Easy to use and fast. Thank you for having such a wonderful, usable website. (John T @ KCLS)

Kudos – Back-up Librarians

We like to help our own patrons, but we can’t always be there for them. In the past we’ve given thanks to the QuestionPoint 24/7 back-up staff and to national cooperative staff separately, this month we got some great service from both groups, and I’d like to thank them and highlight some of the great comments they received from our students and patrons:

• I was pleased to have an answer so quickly and without a E-Mail address. Thanks it relieves stress! (Patricia B @ 24/7)
• Excellent service. Thank you. (Elizabeth D @ Virginia CC in VA)
• Jonathan B was my librarian and was extremely helpful. My stress level over this assignment has been lowered considerably. Thank you! (Jonathan B @ 24/7)
• Great help! (Patricia W @ Hunter College in NYC)
• Excellent program, great support, wish they had this years ago. Thanks again. Save me a lot of time. (Patricia M @ 24/7)
• Really well organized and clear answers. My librarian (Marie) was quick and responded to my additional questions. She gauged the responses and checked if some of them were too technical or just right. A great resource and very helpful. Thank you! (“Marie” @ 24/7)
• Very friendly & helpful. Thank you. (Samantha Y @ 24/7)
• What a wonderful resource! Thank you. I really could not have found what I needed without it. (Greg P @ 24/7)
• I liked being able to contact someone for help even when the library is closed. I will use this site again if I need help finding a book or info on a research topic. (Alma O @ 24/7)
• Fantastic, appropriate resource, enthusiastic librarian, wonderful wonderful service thanks! (Amy H @ 24/7)
• Again, another super reason why we should fully fund all libraries. Thank you for the help and the list. (Ceci R @ 24/7)

Great job, everyone, and thanks for making Ask-WA such a valuable service to library users in Washington State. Keep up the good work!