Online Librarian - a joint project of Murdoch and Macquarie Universities.

Reference librarians' opinions about virtual reference

2007-01-04T15:28:00.000+09:00

The Thrill of the Chase in Cyberspace: A Report of Focus Groups with Live Chat Librarians
by Lynn Silipigni Connaway and Marie L. Radford,

It's a guest piece at the Informed Libarian Online site.

Reference chat - users publishing transcripts

2006-12-11T09:35:00.000+09:00

Be polite. Be very polite.

A disgruntled library user published the transcript of a chat reference session on her blog. Our users could easily cut and paste from the chat window.

The link has been taken down now, but this post, Librarians are always on display, from the Alaskan Librarian discusses it.

Chat reference training - how do we do it?

2006-12-08T14:58:00.000+09:00

Via Librarian in Black:

.......

Lili Luo, a Doctoral Candidate at the School of Information and Library Science University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, posted on several listservs a link to the results of a survey she did of librarians about chat reference training techniques (what's being used currently). A lot of variation in the results--but simulated sessions with one librarian pretending to be a user and live hands-on practice and demos lead the pack.

Trends in chat and IM

2006-11-30T08:56:00.000+08:00

via Stephen's Lighthouse:

Trends in Chat and IM

TechCrunch has a neat little posting about trends in Chat. Read the whole post here. The comments are interesting too. Here's the big six headings:

1. Interoperability
2. In-Browser Chat
3. Location Based Chat
4. Flexible Identities
5. Contextual Chat
6. Rich Media Chat

It's interesting to read these ideas in the context of libraries, virtual reference, our conversations and relationships with users as well as trends in the technology. I believe that all of these ideas are good opportunities but ultimately the market decides what they (real end-users) are comfortable with and what they will use. It is paramount that we continue to focus on simplicity as the magic sauce in this space.

Online Librarian to continue during semester break

2006-11-28T16:48:00.000+08:00

Following discussions with Macquarie we have decided to continue to offer Online Librarian during the break, so Librarians please continue to register. Currently we are not receiving many calls, however we are still teaching OUA courses; then in January there will be trimester/summer school offerings. Also during the disruptions to the building at Murdoch it should be useful for students to use chat reference.

Online Librarian will be available:
December hours After Daylight Saving Commences in WA:
Monday – Friday 7 am – 5 pm wst / 9 am - 7 pm est (no weekends)
Not available 22 December - 5 January
8 Jan – 19 Feb hours
Monday - Friday 7 am – 7 pm wst / 9 am - 9 pm est (no weekends)

Online Librarian down at Macquarie

2006-11-27T13:56:00.000+08:00

Online Librarian was off air today. Peter has just reset it but unfortunately it wasn't picked up til late in the day. Anyway, seems to be working now.

Instructions for installng Psi (Murdoch)

2006-11-10T14:11:00.000+08:00

Download Psi software

Go to http://psi.affinix.com/download
Select Windows 98/2000/XP Installer (3 MB) .
Select the mirror site Sydney, Australia.
Follow the prompts, accepting the on screen defaults, and save to a temporary drive on your computer. (for example, c://temp)

Installing Psi software

Open the folder you saved the software to (for example, c://temp)
Click on the file psi-0.10-win-setup.exe
Click on “Run”
Install to the default location, C:\Program files\Psi
Once the installation is complete, click “Finish”.
Psi should then open on your screen. If it doesn’t, open using the Psi icon on your desktop.

Setting up your Jabber Account

Using the dropdown menu on the bottom left of the screen, Go to Account Setup.
Click on the “Add” button
Give your account a name (for example, you own name). Make sure the box for “Register new account” is not ticked. Click on Add.
Enter your Jabber ID in the account section. This will be in the format firstname and surname Initial followed by @jabber.federation.org.au For example, helenb@jabber.federation.org.au
Enter the default password onl1n3l1b
You can change this later to an individual password.
Click on Save, and Close.
On the Psi screen, change your status to Online (at the bottom right of the screen). You should now see a list of Murdoch names.

Hello from JeanC

2006-11-10T13:19:00.000+08:00

Hi, I'm Jean Coleman. I am one of the Reference Librarians at Murdoch with subject responsibility for Australian Indigenous Studies, Tourism and Journalism.

Online Librarian offline Thursday morning

2006-11-09T09:32:00.000+08:00

MQ reported Online Librarian was down this morning; it was shortly restored by MAMS/Kevin. Thanks. Operators please keep an eye on it just in case instability persists.

Another blog freshie

2006-11-09T04:34:00.000+08:00

Hi,
I too am new to the world of blogging, bloggers and blogspots. Thanks for the invitation Annmaree. My name is Susan Vickery and I am Manager, Liaison & Research Services (Sciences) at Macq U. I job share with Perri-Lee Sandell. I welcome this chance to contribute to and benefit from discussion. Thanks for setting up.

Online Librarian offline and online again

2006-11-08T13:27:00.000+08:00

Hello all,
Online Librarian was offline temporarily just now at approx 1.00pm WST but is back now. You will need to re-register if you were previously registered.

Helen

Proquest downtime, 11 November

2006-11-07T16:28:00.000+08:00

Proquest will be down for maintenance on Saturday 11 November, 11am to 12 midday WA time (2-3pm for the east).

OLL at Murdoch downtime

2006-11-07T15:54:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

Online Librarian at Murdoch will be unavailable from 12-1pm WST on Wednesday 8 November so that our IT guys can upgrade the server which handles the authentication process.

cheers

Helen B

Improvements to Online LIbrarian 1 November

2006-11-07T14:37:00.000+08:00

MAMS staff have created some improvements for Online Librarian.
Statistics
System generated statistics are available through a feed. The report includes: user; operator; operator’s campus; user’s campus; start time; end time; and number of messages exchanged.

These statistics provide a record of activity, including any conversations that have been initiated for testing. From tomorrow we will be able to add notes to the statistics table to indicate where we have initiated a chat session for testing. To do so when you use the “bye” command please add “Testing” – ‘!bye Testing’. This will then show on the statistics table as a test.

Other improvements

Timeouts -a conversation is closed automatically after non activity for 15 minutes. When this happens the operator will be notified; also a note will be included automatically in the statistics report for conversations that are closed due to a timeout
Conversations that have ended
If messages are sent to a conversation that no longer exists it will get an automatic reply rather than nothing (as currently happens)
OLL server restarts
If the system is restarted during the day a reminder message for operators to log back in will be sent
Display of user names
Murdoch users will now have their first name displayed in the initial chat screen

Our developers are still working on other enhancements including routing calls onto another operator if they are not responded to in 3 minutes. Ideally we set our status to ‘away’ however it’s very easy to forget and currently callers are left hanging.
If you experience any problems, especially a call just disappearing please let either Helen or Jean M know (Murdoch) and Annmaree or Margaret W(MQ) so we can relay the problem onto MAMS.

Thanks everyone for your efforts so far, they are much appreciated.

Thanks for setting up

2006-11-07T13:17:00.000+08:00

Thanks to Kathryn and Annmaree for getting this blog going. Good communication tool for us to use, not to mention opportunity to practice blogging!

Slow response times sending and receiving on PSI

2006-11-07T11:35:00.000+08:00

Dear all,

MU is experiencing 2-3 minute delays in sending and receiving messages within a each PSI session. Has anyone at Murdoch experienced this problem?

Thanks

Margaret Wright (Marg)

Greetings from Macquarie

2006-11-07T11:33:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone,

What a great idea! Many thanks to Kathryn for organising this!

Cheers

Margaret Wright

Hi again

2006-11-07T11:21:00.000+08:00

Hi - just trying my first post,
I'm an Enquiry and Lending Services Librarian here at Murdoch and also do Online Librarian when I'm able.
Good to meet you all at Macquarie!
Thanks,
Amanda

Cool IM reference ad.

2006-11-07T11:12:00.000+08:00

From the Canadian University of Guelph Ask us! service . They have a nice starting screen too.

There are more photos in K Jane's library signs photostream. Part of a series that includes "Ask a librarian while making macaroni cheese", "Ask a librarian and stay in your fuzzy pink slippers".

I'm afraid I like it better than our dorky guy with headphones. :)

Testing

2006-11-07T06:42:00.000+08:00

This is great!

Another Hi

2006-11-07T06:33:00.000+08:00

Hi, another newbee. I'm Liaison Librarian for Society Culture Media & Philosophy and Education at Macquarie Uni Library. I use Online Librarian at the Ref desk. The authentication is great, I can retrieve my split brain.

Hi from Sue Hele

2006-11-06T14:09:00.000+08:00

Hi, I am the librarian responsible for Environmental Science at Murdoch University. I also work in online librarian. I previously worked in cataloguing at Murdoch, and continue to catalogue Indonesian language material. This is my first blog attempt, and so I am just testing the ground ..

IM talking points

2006-11-06T13:07:00.000+08:00

Some IM talking points for libraries considering using IM for their reference service have been posted by Aaron Schmidt at walkingpaper.org.

Among them:

IM is just for kids
IM is going to destroy our computers (a favorite IT chorus).
We don’t have enough money to do IM.
Speaking of virtual reference, we’re already doing it with tutor.com / questionpoint / docutek. We don’t need IM.
We don’t have enough time to do IM.
Small bonus

Hi from Annmaree B

2006-11-06T12:25:00.000+08:00

Hi from Annmaree at Macquarie.
I'm a liason librarian for law & humanities as well as being involved with online librarian for the past few years. This is my very 1st time as a blogger
Kathryn, can you let me know what the next step is in setting up the staff here? So far it all seems pretty easy thanks to your excellent instructions. Online librarian was offline here today but it has now come back to life.

Factiva downtime, 12 November

2006-11-06T11:55:00.000+08:00

Factiva will be down this coming Sunday, 12 November, from 9am to 11am West Australian time. There will also be intermittent downtime from 11am to 3pm. For "eastern staters" (Vic, NSW, Tas) the downtime is 12midday to 2pm, and intermittent from 2pm to 6pm. The downtime is for maintenance purposes.

Daylight Saving Time in the West

2006-11-03T16:20:00.000+08:00

The Private members "Daylight Saving Bill" if passed will mean Western Australia will not longer be 3 hours behind the Eastern States. Our curtains may fade of course!

Hello from Sue D

2006-11-01T17:41:00.000+08:00

I'm Sue Dowling, Murdoch's electronic resources librarian. I'm the CAUL datasets coordinator, so all the Caul stuff about offers, renewals, and so on comes via me. I also look after (well, try to) SFX, and I'm currently working on implementing our Millennium Electronic Resource Management (ERM) module.

How to find the site

2006-10-30T21:17:00.000+08:00

Site address is http://m2oll.blogspot.com. (Note that the service is blogger, but the address is blogspot).

When you log in to blogger, the m2oll blog will be listed in the dashboard. Click on it to view it.

If you are using Internet Explorer, you could add a link to your favourites or drag a link to your toolbar. In Windows, you could create a shortcut on your desktop. Murdoch staff will have a link from the sidebar of the internal communications blog.

How to search

2006-10-30T21:02:00.000+08:00

There are two ways to search.

1. "Search this blog" box

You can use the search box in the top left hand side.

Use the back arrow to get back to the main blog.

2. Search box on right sidebar

The search box in the sidebar lets you do simple searches on the full contents of each post.

The results will display in a window from technorati, which looks like this.

If blogger is unreachable, you can go to our page on technorati and see recent posts.

To view a post, click on the title and it will take you back to the post at this blog. If you do not find what you want, click on the link in the green box, or use the "back" arrows of your browser to return to the blog

Technorati is a site that indexes blogs. It is a good site to find interesting blogs and understand how they interconnect.

How to comment

2006-10-30T21:00:00.000+08:00

Use comments to continue a discussion. Only create new posts for new topics.

To read comments, click on the "1(or 0 or 15) comments" link.

To post a comment:

1. Click on the "1(or 0 or 15) comments" link.
2. Enter your comment in the "Leave your comments" box
3. Choose your identity.

3.1 If you are logged in to blogger, your blogger ID will show as an option. Select this.

3. 2 If you are not logged in to blogger, you will see a box to enter your blogger ID and password. Enter this.

4. Enter the wavy letters into the "word verification" box. In theimage above, this is "mxkqr". This lets blogger know you are a real person, not a spambot.
5. Select preview to double check your message.
6. When you are ready, select "login and publish".

Comment on this post to experiment if you'd like.

How to login

2006-10-30T20:59:00.001+08:00

You need to log in to make new posts or edit existing ones.

1. Go to blogger.com

2. Select "Sign in to blogger" in the top right hand corner of the screen

3. Enter your name and password.
4. Tick the "Remember me" box so that next time you open blogger in your browser you are automatically logged in. Do not choose this if it is a shared PC.

How to join

2006-10-30T20:58:00.000+08:00

Joining allows you to make posts on the blog.

If you are part of the Online Librarian project, you will be sent an invitation to
1) sign up to blogger
2) join the m2oll blog.

Follow the instructions in the email.
Do not select the blue "name your blog" button. This creates a personal blog for you to use. You can do this later if you want.

If you do not receive an invitation by 14 November 2006 and think you should have, please ask your Online Librarian contact for one.

Helen's Introduction

2006-10-26T17:29:00.000+08:00

Hi, I am the Library Web Coordinator at Murdoch and have been helping Jean get OLL set up.
The feedback I have had from students using OLL so far has been really positive. They seem to like the immediacy of the response they get to their questions.

Individual IM reference at Carleton College

2006-10-25T20:41:00.000+08:00

Thought people would be interested in this post on the Pegasus Librarian blog. Iris blogs about how they use individual IM accounts to answer reference enquiries at her library. She concludes that even though there is not a high uptake, it is worth doing.

Walt Crawford's comment on the post is interesting:

Given that IM reference doesn't seem to get used much (2% of all reference transactions seems to be the reported level),is it worth doing? Under the circumstances you state--it didn't replace anything else, you're comfortable with it, the PC would be on anyway, and even rare usage might be new usage--I think the answer's clearly "Yes."

Carolyn's Intro

2006-10-25T20:16:00.000+08:00

So here is my intro post, as requested by Kathryn.

I am the IT coordinator at Murdoch, which means I do bits of lots of things, including managing our Library system, Millennium. One of my primary roles is to manage the relationship between IT Services and Library, which I think means I am a translator from IT speak to Library speak, and vice versa.

2006-10-25T07:47:00.000+08:00

Hi - well I've got this far following Kathryn's instructions. Thanks Kathryn for getting our OLL blog up and running. it will be good to have a way to communicate about all the issues that come up with our new Online Librarian service. Hope all Online Librarians at Murdoch and Macquarie join the blog and contact Kathryn so they can post to OLL blog. More from me soon!

Kathryn's introduction.

2006-10-25T06:43:00.000+08:00

In the how to post instructions, I'm asking people to make an introductory post just to get the hang of how to do it, so I thought I'd do mine.

I work at Murdoch a couple of days a week as a reference librarian, Philosophy subject librarian and looking at social software/new web tools - blogs, wikis, RSS etc.

I still get a thrill at being able to answer OLL enquiries via chat. I enjoy interacting in real time and really like being able to post URLs into the chat box. It's much easier than trying to explain screens via telephone, and you can pinpoint the question and get feedback in a way that you can't with email.

How to subscribe

2006-10-24T18:51:00.000+08:00

This blog has an RSS feed, which will allow you to instantly receive updates of new posts, without having to visit the site.

IF YOU ALREADY KNOW ABOUT RSS

This blog has a Feedburner feed

Please ensure that this is the feed you subscribe to:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/
OnlineLibrarian-AJointProjectOfMurdochAndMacquarieUniversities

IF YOU ARE NEW TO RSS

More information about RSS feeds is here.

Bloglines is a useful feed aggregator. Here are links to some screencasts showing you how to:

The screencasts start as soon as they are loaded and have sound, so ensure you have headphones. You'll need to use broadband and they will take a while to load from off campus.

Murdoch staff who choose to use RSSPopper with their Outlook inbox will find RSSPopper instructions here.

How to post to this blog.

2006-10-24T17:59:00.000+08:00

Make a new post for a new topic, but discuss an existing post by commenting.

All posts here can be accessed by anyone using the internet, so please don't post any confidential information

You can get to the blogger dashboard by clicking on the "B blogger" icon on the left hand top of the blog. If you are not logged in, it will take you to the login screen.

Blogger instructions about how to post are here. It has step-by-step screen shots.

More help on blogger posting is here.

Test posting

2006-10-24T17:34:00.000+08:00

This blog is designed as a communication tool about the Online Librarian service offered by Murdoch and Macquarie Universities.