Service expectations and technical requirements
This document outlines the service expectations and technical requirements for staffing
L-net's live chat digital reference service.
Service Expectations
Contact person
A participating library should designate a contact person to work with the
service coordinator. This person will be responsible for making sure your
library's schedule and availability are accurate, for reporting technical problems,
and for making sure your library's assigned shifts are covered.
Training
For libraries who would like to help staff the chat service, a day-long training will be scheduled. Librarians will receive hands-on training with L-net's chat software, e-mail software, and instruction on techniques for communicating effectively online with patrons and providing reference services online.
The project expects you to stay with the service for at least three months, which may look something like this:
- attend software training
- staff the live service with a partner library for 2-4 weeks
- attend virtual reference training
- staff the live service alone (or with a partner if it's busy) for 9-11 weeks
After three months, we expect you will have sufficient expertise to make a decision about whether your library wants to continue to participate.
Staffing the service
Most libraries staff the service 2 hours per week, and some do more. Some
libraries that do not have a lot of staff time to give staff the service
every other week. We expect that each librarian staffing the service will
be "live" at least once every other week to maintain their skills.
Right now, the service is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and is staffed by L-net partner libraries Monday-Friday, 9am-6pm. If we get enough libraries to join, we will probably expand hours to open at 8am. We would like to expand in the evening, but have had trouble getting libraries to staff these shifts.
We expect that participating libraries will follow the service guidelines for the project.
Technical Requirements
Access to computers with a high speed Internet connection and with L-net software downloaded.