Coordinator on Leave This Summer

The Answerland Coordinator will be on leave later this summer (July through September). A colleague at the State Library will be providing Answerland support; if you need assistance, please contact answer.land@state.or.us. During that time, Answerland will not being providing training, taking on new volunteers or partner libraries, or making major changes to the chat schedule.

Update on the QuestionPoint Chat Monitor Redesign

QuestionPoint has successfully implemented an updated chat interface for library staff. It is no longer based in Flash and includes enhancements such as automatic spellcheck, emoji’s, and searchable scripts. Documentation and videos on the new interface are available on the QuestionPoint Support page. If you experience issues, please contact the Answerland Coordinator (answer.land@state.or.us) or OCLC Support (support@oclc.org).

Join Us at the Reference Summit!

Join us at the Oregon Reference Summit on May 31! In particular you won’t want to miss Clare Sobotka and Joanna Milner talking about the Quality Team’s “Improvements to Answerland Resources for Librarians.”  There is also a social the night before, which is a great chance to hang out with Answerland and reference colleagues from around the state. Register today!

New Tutorials

There are two new Answerland training tutorials available – one for new staff and one for volunteers. They are available from the Training & Events page on the Answerland Staff Toolkit. Feedback welcome!

Patrons Chat Back

Recent comments from our survey…

• Staff was so very helpful and thoughtful!! I’m grateful for this service!!!
• [The librarian] gave me steps to figure out why some of my emagaines wouldn’t open to read while some would. Thank you for having this helpful service. Even at night when another library far away helps me, it is so nice to get help when I’m stuck.
• I feel my librarian went above and beyond what was necessary to help me. I could not have found my article without her.
• The chat feature made it very easy for me to resolve an issue with my account while I was at work. The librarian who assisted was quick and very helpful.
• You saved my life. Whew! Thanks so much.
• I really appreciate the help during my strict deadline. She was incredibly helpful and willing to go out of her way!
• My contact person explored several avenues to give me the help I requested and even when I was ready to pursue the suggestions he came up with more answers. This person went overboard to be of assistance. His efforts are appreciated.
• I was helped by two librarians and both were very patient with me. I can be a tad slow on the computer so this patience was very much appreciated.
• The service was very helpful, and appreciated on a rainy Saturday when I was not on campus. Thanks!