Overview
QuestionPoint is a cooperative virtual reference service that allows our library to provide research help to our patrons 24/7. It also allows libraries to manage all of their virtual reference services (text, chat, email) through one interface and can even be used to track walk-up and phone research requests. For the time being, we are only using the chat service. Chats from our patrons that librarians at other institutions flag for us to follow up on will come through the emailref listserv and should be answered within the QuestionPoint interface.
Our librarians staff the 24/7 Reference Cooperative several hours a week in exchange for librarians at other universities (and, occasionally, OCLC back up staff) answering our patrons' questions any time of the day or night. Our patrons can easily initiate a chat using the widget (a.k.a. "Quidget") on the Ask Us page of the library's web site. Eventually, this widget will be located throughout the site and, we hope, embedded in other locations that will make it more visible to students.
Many other CSUs also use QuestionPoint and one of the queues we monitor when we are staffing the service includes these member CSU libraries. More about queues can be found on the Getting Started page.
It is important for us to keep up our answering percentage to remain in the QP Cooperative. Our answering percentage is calculated by dividing the number of chats our librarians pick up (regardless of whether the patron is a Fresno State student or from another library) by the number of total "chats requested" (the number of chats initiated by our patrons). For example, if our students ask 100 chat sessions in a month, and our librarians pick up 50 chat sessions during that same time period, then our answering percentage is 50%. Ideally, our answering percentage should be around 75%, which is why it is important to pick up as many chats as you can during your scheduled shifts and monitor the Fresno State queue whenever possible.
Although it may seem a little overwhelming at first, QuestionPoint is a powerful service that we not only help us meet our users' needs--at their point of need--but will also make reference management easier and more consistent. And, as with most things, it gets easier to use with practice.
If you have any questions, please contact Amanda. We are very excited about QuestionPoint's potential at our library and sincerely appreciate your willingness to staff the service.
Our librarians staff the 24/7 Reference Cooperative several hours a week in exchange for librarians at other universities (and, occasionally, OCLC back up staff) answering our patrons' questions any time of the day or night. Our patrons can easily initiate a chat using the widget (a.k.a. "Quidget") on the Ask Us page of the library's web site. Eventually, this widget will be located throughout the site and, we hope, embedded in other locations that will make it more visible to students.
Many other CSUs also use QuestionPoint and one of the queues we monitor when we are staffing the service includes these member CSU libraries. More about queues can be found on the Getting Started page.
It is important for us to keep up our answering percentage to remain in the QP Cooperative. Our answering percentage is calculated by dividing the number of chats our librarians pick up (regardless of whether the patron is a Fresno State student or from another library) by the number of total "chats requested" (the number of chats initiated by our patrons). For example, if our students ask 100 chat sessions in a month, and our librarians pick up 50 chat sessions during that same time period, then our answering percentage is 50%. Ideally, our answering percentage should be around 75%, which is why it is important to pick up as many chats as you can during your scheduled shifts and monitor the Fresno State queue whenever possible.
Although it may seem a little overwhelming at first, QuestionPoint is a powerful service that we not only help us meet our users' needs--at their point of need--but will also make reference management easier and more consistent. And, as with most things, it gets easier to use with practice.
If you have any questions, please contact Amanda. We are very excited about QuestionPoint's potential at our library and sincerely appreciate your willingness to staff the service.
