Configuring L-net Local

Configuration and set-up

To get started with your widget, log into your account on this website and visit the link to My Widgets. If you don't have an account yet, register and then contact Caleb Tucker-Raymond, calebt@multcolib.org (503) 988-5438.

Please consider these configuration options:

Online message

In addition to a green status icon and your library’s name, what message should display to patrons when your library is online? Your message may include HTML.

Examples:

Enter your question to connect with a librarian

We’re online!

Offline message

What message should display to patrons when your library is not online? Your message may include HTML.

Examples:

We’re not here right now, but click here to leave us a message

We’re offline, but you can leave us a message or connect to L-net, Oregon’s 24/7 reference service

Offline rollover to L-net

You have the option to provide 24/7 service by implicitly “rolling over” your widget to L-net when you are not online.

Patrons can still type and use your widget, only they will be connected to whoever is staffing L-net.

If you decide to turn this feature off, you can still direct patrons to L-net by explicitly linking to L-net in your offline message.

Post-session message

What message should display to patrons when their session is finished? Your message may include HTML.

Example:

Thanks for chatting with us. We hope we were able to help. If you want, you can help us by completing a brief survey about your experience.

Schedule Information

You can have your widget display information about who is currently staffing L-net never, always, or only when you are offline. We hope this makes it more clear to patrons who they will be connected to.

You can also set whether the schedule information shows up below or above your online/offline message.

A note about links in pop-up windows

If you are using HTML links in your message and your chat is happening in a pop-up window, the links will open in the same window. You can fix this by using target=“_blank” in the tag.

For example:

<a href=“http://www.oregonlibraries.net/ask” 
target=“_blank”> Or you can ask your question now 
and we will get back to you by e-mail</a>

 

Survey

Your post-session message may include a link to a survey if you like. You can use any survey software you like, or have it hosted on the L-net website, www.oregonlibraries.net.

Chat options

You can optionally have the patron enter their e-mail address and one extra field.

Weights determine the order the fields are displayed. Lower-weighted fields will display first. The question entry field is weighted at 0. Click on the image to the left to open it in a new window.

E-mail address

The e-mail field can be optional, required, required to match a specific domain, or non-existent.

Extra field

You can add an extra field to have patrons enter some other information. The more fields you have, the less your widget will look like the chat interface. Chat transcript L-net chat transcripts come with a standard header and footer, based on our template. If you would like you to use a different template for chats with your patrons, just let us know what you want it to say.

Look and feel

Unfortunately, we aren’t able to customize the look and feel or style of the chat or widget right now. If this is something