Aubri Keleman of Whatcom County Public Library was born to be a chat librarian. Well honestly she was born to be ANY sort of librarian, but today I want to tell you about one of her evening shifts covering the Ask WA queue for WCLS. Ask WA, you ask, what is Ask WA? Ask WA is a cooperative of public and academic libraries around the state which work together along with librarians around the world to provide 24/7 access to…
Volume 11, November 12, 2015 for the WSL Updates mailing list Topics include: 1) PROGRAM IN A BOX WEBINARS 2) VIRTUAL REFERENCE CONFERENCE PLANNING 3) DIGITAL LITERACY SERVICES IN ACTION WEBINAR 4) NEW AGENCY FOR HOMELESS YOUTH PROGRAMS 5) MUSEUMS FOR ALL 6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK
Believing that a good way to reach teenagers is through that tool they all so dearly love (their phone), in late September, Ask WA Coordinator Nono Burling headed to SE Washington. With the start of the new school year she hoped to spread the word about Washington State’s Virtual Reference Cooperative and how it could help them. But wait, step back! What is Ask WA you ask? Ask WA is a cooperative of public and academic libraries around the state…
Imagine you are out and about and have a burning question. Or maybe you have a big paper due tomorrow and there is something you need to cite that defies all logic. What do you do? Pull out your smartphone or tablet, or log on to the internet and Ask a Librarian of course. Ask WA is the statewide virtual reference cooperative coordinated by Washington State Library. Nearly 60 public and academic libraries around the state take part in the program. …
Librarians at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center, Washington Corrections Center Shelton, and Washington State Penitentiary, have started using kiosks at their local institutions to send overdue notices and hold pickup notices to offenders. We are also answering questions submitted by offenders. The result has been even better than expected! At Coyote Ridge, we have drastically reduced our paper usage by sending the notices over the kiosk. The new system is a win-win for staff and offenders alike; correctional officers don’t have…
Ask-WA Statistics – December, 2009 December tends to be a slower month for Ask-WA, mainly because academic traffic drops off so sharply during the holiday breaks. In numbers: Email questions received: 3319 Chat sessions requested: 3474 Chat sessions accepted: 2883 Qwidget requests (% of total): 791 (22.8%) On a positive note, our answering percentage rose from its dangerously low 74% last month up to 83% in December, which is ideal. The best part is that this higher ratio is due…
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…
Ask-WA Statistics – October, 2009 Ask-WA picked up significantly in October, beating September and August in every category. Except Qwidget requests, which remained about even, percentage-wise. In numbers: Email questions received: 4287 Chat sessions requested: 5303 Chat sessions accepted: 4343 Qwidget requests (% of total): 1282 (24.2%) As a cooperative we maintained an answering percentage of 81.9% for the month, which is down nearly 5% from September (probably because of the increased traffic), but remains well over the goal rate…
Day three started off with a funny and interesting keynote with Paul Holdengraber (who had interviewed Vint Cerf the previous day), and continued in good form with some great sessions. Paul talked a lot about the Live from the NYPL series they do and as opposed to doing straight author readings. They record these sessions and they are available on the website, so you should check some of them out. Sessions on Day 3 include: Keynote: Libraries of the Future:…
Ask-WA Statistics – September, 2009 Ask-WA maintained a busy service during the month of September, and chat picked up slightly over August as schools came back into session. In numbers: Email questions received: 3707 Chat sessions requested: 3457 Chat sessions accepted: 2993 Qwidget requests (% of total): 848 (24.5%) As a cooperative we maintained an answering percentage of 86.6% for the month, which is a good 2% over last month, and remains well over the goal rate of 75%. Keep…