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Tag: Ask-Wa

Get great answers to tough questions, online and 24/7.

Get great answers to tough questions, online and 24/7.

Your librarians will answer your questions, day or night. Have you ever had a question you couldn’t answer? Has Google left you empty-handed – or overwhelmed? Have you considered asking an expert for help? Your library has professional information specialists (we just call them librarians) who know how to go beyond Google to find you the information you need. And now asking a librarian is just as convenient as searching the Web. Over 60 libraries in Washington State have joined…

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Ask-WA(tch): Stats, Kudos and Comments for August 2009

Ask-WA(tch): Stats, Kudos and Comments for August 2009

Ask-WA Statistics – August, 2009 Ask-WA maintained a busy service during the month of August, with email again outpacing chat service. In numbers: Email questions received: 3821 Chat sessions requested: 3067 Chat sessions accepted: 2599 Qwidget requests (% of total): 789 (25.7%) As a cooperative we maintained an answering percentage of 84.7% for the month, which is lower than in July but remains well over the goal rate of 75%. Keep up the good work! The email aspect of the…

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Ask-WA(tch): Stats, Kudos and Comments for July 2009

Ask-WA(tch): Stats, Kudos and Comments for July 2009

Ask-WA Statistics – July, 2009 Despite a fairly quiet academic cooperative, Ask-WA maintained a busy service during the month of July. In numbers: Email questions received: 3512 Chat sessions requested: 3238 Chat sessions accepted: 2927 Qwidget requests (% of total): 883 (27%) As a cooperative we maintained an answering percentage of 90.4% for the month, which is well over the goal rate of 75%. Keep up the good work! The email aspect of the service remains robust, and outpaced chat…

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Got a question? Try Ask-WA!

Got a question? Try Ask-WA!

When you think of libraries, I bet you think of books. Don’t worry, everyone does. If you’re a library power-user, you might be aware of free internet access, computer use, and some fun programs. What you might not be aware of is that libraries have powerful information experts eagerly waiting for you to ask them your toughest questions. Getting the best answers to  your questions just got a lot easier with Ask-WA. More than 60 Washington libraries, backed by an…

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Ask-WA Quality Tip: Updating Flash/Java/Web Browsers

Ask-WA Quality Tip: Updating Flash/Java/Web Browsers

If QuestionPoint seems more buggy than useful to you, it may be because certain settings on your computer are causing issues. Here are a few tips that may help improve your QuestionPoint experience. Update Java and Flash You can get the latest version of Java here: http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp – and the latest version of Flash here: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/. Keeping both of these updated will improve your QP performance (generally), and will help you get the most out of your web experiences in…

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Ask-WA Quality Tip: Resolution Codes

Ask-WA Quality Tip: Resolution Codes

They appear simple, but within their murky depths lurks weird issues you may have never considered. Here’s a quick guide: ANSWERED: If you’re not using this most of the time, you might want to review how you are helping people. You don’t have to stay on the line with them until their paper is written or their family tree thoroughly researched. You SHOULD spend the time, though, to identify why they came to us in the first place, and to…

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Ask-WA: Tips & Tricks for Serving Multiple Patrons in Chat

Ask-WA: Tips & Tricks for Serving Multiple Patrons in Chat

One of the benefits of being part of a large national cooperative is that we can share expertise not only within the state, but globally. And by share, of course, I mean that we can benefit from the hard work all the other states are doing while we sit around and … Okay, so we’re working hard too. Anyway, AskAway Best Practices meetings cover Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois virtual reference cooperatives, and they rotate monthly to cover an issue pertinent…

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Ask-WA: Quality Tips of the Week

Ask-WA: Quality Tips of the Week

Some tips of the week for staffing Ask-WA: Washington’s Statewide Virtual Reference Cooperative. Tip #1: No such thing as anonymous follow-up Please make sure that there is a way for the patron’s library (even if that is you) to follow-up before you close a session and before you code for follow-up. Even when patrons submit an email address with their question, it is worth checking to make sure that is the correct address at which they would like to be…

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QuestionPoint Trainings for Ask-WA (and a Survey)

QuestionPoint Trainings for Ask-WA (and a Survey)

Over the last two weeks we had some very successful QuestionPoint training sessions online using Wimba software. At least, I’d like to think they were very successful. Thanks to everyone who attended the sessions; I enjoyed your great questions and hope the trainings were useful and worthwhile. If you attended either (or both) of the trainings, PLEASE fill out the survey linked below. It should take you about 10 minutes and will be immensely helpful for me, both for statistical…

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