Submitted by admin-boss on
The first AskAway statistics and survey information of 2012 are now available on the AskAway Portal.
Compared to January, 2011, we engaged in an average of 10% more sessions per day. January of last year's daily average was 94.3 sessions, this year's was 103.3.
January usage statistics are available here.
Submitted by admin-boss on
We have added some new scripts in response to suggestions from AskAwayers.
Here they are, along with some context.
Close - Left Session
I haven’t heard from you in a while, so I am going to close this session. Thanks for using AskAway, and please feel free to come back if you have further questions.
When a user has not responded for an extended period of time, this is a quick way to let them know you are ending the session and inviting them to return again.
Submitted by admin-boss on
Screenr is a great new tool that many Ask-Awayers might find useful. It's a webcasting product which allows you to create videos of website navigation. This type of thing can be helpful in a reference situation where there is a complicated set of steps a chatter must follow in order to navigate to a particular article or database, or in cases where the chatter is having trouble understanding your directions.
Submitted by admin-boss on
ProQuest has now added the option to embed custom widgets into their databases!
Already have an AskAway Qwidget in your EBSCO databases or library web pages? Why not check-out the new option in ProQuest to add a custom widget to all your standard-platform ProQuest databases like CBCA (the options to select individual databases or non-standard platforms like Chadwyck are not currently available).
You can re-use your already existing AskAway qwidget code OR create/update your AskAway qwidget code to embed in ProQuest.
Submitted by admin-boss on
We have just completed another busy and successful semester! Our busiest day this semester was November 15, when we had a whopping 216 sessions! That's up 10% from last year's busiest day. The busiest hour was from 7:00pm - 8:00 pm on October 31, with 31 sessions. Spooky!
November and December's usage and form fields statistics are available on the AskAway webpages below:
Submitted by admin-boss on
Many ELN libraries use a Content Management System (CMS), such as IronPoint, to deliver their Institutional and Library web pages.
Submitted by admin-boss on
We wanted to clarify the policy around AskAway transcripts and user privacy, and put together a short FAQ on the subject.
Can AskAway transcripts be re-sent, at the user's request?
If a user asks for a transcript to be re-sent, we unfortunately have no way of verifying the identity of the person asking, so re-sending the transcript violates the patron's privacy.
Submitted by admin-boss on
We have updated the swamped button - our new tool that allows you to quickly send an email to the listserv when AskAway is swamped. We're pleased to say that it now works with both web-based email and email clients (so that should be everyone)!
The swamped button remains in the same place on the AskAway Portal - Staff Tools page, but will now lead you to a form. Just enter your institutional email (the one that is subscribed to the listserv), click "send" and an email asking other AskAwayers to help out will be sent.
Submitted by admin-boss on
Keyword Searching AskAway transcripts may be useful for monitoring trends in question subjects, or just taking a glance at how frequently a session contains a key topic. As an example, we searched the entire system (all AskAway questions for the past 90 days) and found 39 questions mentioning “copyright”
To keyword search transcripts from your patrons:
1) Log in to your Question Point Admin account (9-digit login).
2) Select “Ask” from the drop-down box at the top right of the screen.
3) Verify the active tab is “Questions”
Submitted by admin-boss on
When answering business questions on AskAway, institution-specific guides and resources are the first place to check; if you are looking for additional information, though, a great new resource called Small Business Accelerator (SBA) may be the next place to look.
It helps with queries such as: