AskAway Blog

It has been almost a year since UBC Library implemented OpenAthens for e-resource authentication. Many thanks for all of your help in supporting our users transitioning to the new process. We have heard that accessing UBC’s e-resources via OpenAthens as an AskAway service provider can be tricky. We have updated the wording on the Guest Login page as follows, and we hope it clarifies the issue.

We're pleased to share that FAQs for service providers have been refreshed!

Previously, these FAQs were spread out in two places, with some available on the AskAway website FAQs page and others available on the Service Provider FAQs site. Initially, this was to support the transition to LibraryH3lp but having this information available in two places made it difficult to know where to look for answers and less efficient to maintain.

Now, you can find all of your FAQs in one convenient place: the Service Provider FAQs site, linked from the AskAway website FAQs page and the homepage.

A new tool is now available to you on your evening and weekend AskAway shifts. If you’re alone or short-staffed on an evening or weekend shift (weekday after 5pm, Saturday, or Sunday), you can now easily send an automated message to the evenings-weekends list and request assistance.

AskAway has guidelines in place to help you respond to patrons who are abusing the service with prank calls, inappropriate language, or rude behaviour. They're designed to provide you with the tools you need to communicate clearly with the patron, give them an opportunity to change their behaviour, and if needed, to end the session.

In addition to these guidelines, here are some general tips to respond to inappropriate and prank chats based on feedback and input from service providers.

Regular AskAway hours resume today January 17th. In this post, you'll find information about an update to LibraryH3lp as well as important reminders heading into this term.

In case you missed it, catch up on the December 2021 issue of the AskAway newsletter.

The UNBC library is undergoing significant renovations for the next few months, including temporarily moving our circ and reference desks from the first to the second floor and slightly modifying our study rooms (including adding two new ones!). Please refer students with questions about this to our blog for the most recent information: https://libguides.unbc.ca/blog.

In case you missed it, catch up on the Fall 2021 issue of the AskAway newsletter.

Four AskAway libraries now use OpenAthens software to provide access to online resources. If you're using the Guest Logins at one of these libraries to access resources on your shift, that's no problem. But, if you're using the guest logins to access resources at two or more of these libraries simulatenously or within a short time frame, that can create problems. See below for more information on what's happening and workarounds.

AskAway opens today September 7th at 9am (PT). For the first two weeks (September 7th-19th), we'll be open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm (PT). Regular hours will resume September 20th.

Below, you'll find information about updates to LibraryH3lp as well as important reminders heading into this Fall term. As always if you have any questions, contact your local coordinator or the Administrative Centre.

In case any of you are assisting KPU folks on AskAway, just a heads up that we have recently launched a new service for mailing out print items.

You can direct questions to the “Mail-to-me” page, located on our COVID-19 guide here: https://libguides.kpu.ca/COVID19response/mailtome

I’d like to tell you about a resource you can use to help students and other AskAway patrons access research relevant to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES).

The Research Access Portal (RAP) is an easy-to-use resource that makes research relevant to the DTES more accessible and easier to discover. We provide access to academic materials such as scholarly articles and theses, as well as community materials such as reports, historical newsletters, and other, more accessible forms of scholarship such as clear language research summaries, podcasts, and more. We have been working with researchers to help make more than 70 per cent of these items freely available to anyone. That means that most of this material does not require a subscription or institutional log-in to access.

The move to remote learning, coupled with the isolation of COVID-19 means that many are feeling stressed and this is especially true when exam and final assignment season approaches. On AskAway, we've heard that the overwhelming majority of interactions are positive but on rare occasions, a student or other AskAway patron may lose patience and openly express their frustration. As AskAway service providers, these interactions can be hard on our well being and resilience and having some scripts in our back pocket can help us be prepared with the aim of turning the conversation around.

Just a heads up that you may be receiving questions via chat about library notices. We recently turned on our recall and overdue notices as normal circulation borrowing periods have started again. If you receive a question about this, the key thing is to reassure the patron that any fines accrued during the COVID period will be waived (March onward).

In case you missed it, catch up on the Summer 2020 issue of the AskAway newsletter.

The Research Anywhere site supports UVic community members who are doing research remotely: https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/ResearchAnywhere/

Many Users (Students, Faculty, and others) are accessing the Library’s online resources for the first time. If you get general questions from new Users, please direct them to read this: https://services.library.ubc.ca/electronic-access/connect/ If you get specific questions about access, please direct Users to our Help Form: https://about.library.ubc.ca/contact-us/ejournal-help/

The UBC Library has implemented loan regulations since September 14th, and we anticipate specific inquiries and responses from our users. We have the following standard messaging and would like to share it with you. We have also posted this information on the UBC Policy Page.

You may have noticed an uptick in questions coming through the SFU queue related to Canvas issues since a Research Help link is now available in all Canvas courses. To assist AskAway service providers who answer these questions, Canvas help has been added to the Help section of the SFU Policy Page.

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up about Douglas College's Library lab assignment. With the transition to online, asynchronous library instruction you may find that more Douglas College students are logging into AskAway for help with their Library assignments.