Infrequently Asked Questions about our transition to OCLC/Questionpoint

I figure, if a question is asked once, it may be asked again. Everyone deserves the answers to all the questions.


1. When are we switching?
2. Where are OCLC's servers located?
3. How will the new software work with screen readers like JAWS?
4. Are we able to make the local or global knowledge base available to our patrons?
5. If a librarian finds an answer in the knowledge base that she believes is not correct or not from a credible source, is there a way suggest that it be changed?
6. Is there any way to know exactly what some of the categories we're monitoring stand for?
7. Is it okay if some libraries use a generic login, for example for on-call staff to use?
8. Will the questions that are in our current L-net knowledgebase be transferred to our new L-net knowledge base?
9. When we are staffing the cooperative, can we transfer patrons to their local libraries?
10. If a patron disconnects, either deliberately or because of a technical problem, before the librarian has a chance to do a reference interview, what should the status of the question be when we close it?
11. When referring a call outside of the library to a subject specialist, is this done by referring to a subject matter expert?
12. When transcripts move into the email system there are lots of problems with diacritics. Is there a way to get punctuation to display properly?
13. If a librarian finds an answer in the knowledge base, what is the best way to pass that on to the patron during a chat session?
14. How big is the global knowledge base (about how many questions/answers)?
15. When we do global monitoring, all of the queues listed appear to be US queues. In global monitoring will we also be getting questions from outside the US and if so, what queues will they come through?
16. In the current software, when we click on the link to transfer a call, some librarians have a red square next to their names and some have a green square. We’re guessing that the icon has something to do with whether we should transfer a call to that person or not. What exactly do the squares mean?
17. If a patron doesn’t enter an email address when he first logs in and we want to put the question into followup, is there a way for us to ask the patron his email address during chat, and then add that to his profile in the email software?
18. In our email software, when a request for clarification is sent to a patron, the message that the patron gets includes the entire chat transcript, with the clarifying question at the bottom. Some librarians have expressed concern that this will be confusing for patrons. Unless he scrolls down, the patron won't see the librarian’s request for clarification.
Another concern from some librarians is the request clarification button itself. If the librarian clicks on the button before typing her question to the patron, an email is sent to the patron, but is likely to only confuse the patron, since he won't see a message from the librarian, just the old transcript.
19. Is it possible to change a library's login i.d. and use something other than the 6-digit number?
20. In a keyword search of the knowledge base, how are questions and answers ranked?



1. When are we switching?

December 27, we switch from Tutor.com to OCLC's current software product.

February 13, we switch from OCLC's current software product to their new "Flash Chat" product. You can learn more about their new product at www.questionpoint.org∞.

We have not yet decided when to start monitoring the OCLC cooperative queues.


2. Where are OCLC's servers located?

OCLC's chat servers are in Los Angeles, California. The e-mail servers are in Ohio. Sometimes there is a delay when you transfer questions from live chat to e-mail follow-up. The new OCLC "Flash Chat" product will have live chat servers based in Ohio.


3. How will the new software work with screen readers like JAWS?

OCLC says: "We have a group that will be doing an accessibility review of the new librarian interface before final release in February. The patron side currently doesn’t use Flash, and will also under review. The librarian side of the New Chat product will not be available in a non-flash version. One of the reasons Flash was chosen as the new platform is because of its capability as an accessible interface-building tool."

A Google search reveals that Flash and Jaws has hit-or-miss compatibility.


4. Are we able to make the local or global knowledge base available to our patrons?

We have the option to make the Global Knowledgebase available for our patrons to search. Do we want to? Let's talk about it.


5. If a librarian finds an answer in the knowledge base that she believes is not correct or not from a credible source, is there a way suggest that it be changed?

Librarians can report records they feel have issues to the Global Editors for review and editing. Report errors to
Virginia Songstad: songstav@oclc.org

For local knowledge bases, any one in your group with those permissions can make changes directly.


6. Is there any way to know exactly what some of the categories we're monitoring stand for?

Here are the Queue descriptions:


For Public library group:
A CA ASKNOW- Statewide California public libraries ( approx 150 participating)
A DELAWARE PUB- Statewide Delaware Public libraries ( approx 12 participating)
A HARTFORD PUBLIC LIBRARY (CT)- Single public library Hartford Connecticut
A James V. Brown Public PA- 23 Public library system in PA (Non metropolitan areas)
A LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY (CA)
A MASSANSWERS (MA)- State wide Massachusetts public libraries ( 5 regional libraries participating)
A METROWEST (MA)- Merging into Massanswers above soon (5 regional libraries participating)
A MID WISCONSIN (WI)- Small WI system merging into a State-Wide WI system shortly (The statewide WI system will be in overflow like Oregon, so you won't see them on the list as a separate group)
A ONONDAGA NY- Small public library in upstate NY
A ROCHESTER NH- Small public library in NH
A SCWI (WI)- South Central Wisconsin group of 50 mostly small rural libraries except for Madison Public which is opting out of the rest of WI statewide group for now
A SNO_ISLE (WA)- County wide system in Washington State
A WNYLRC P (NY)- Western NY Library group. (3 public)
PUBLIC COOP OVERFLOW - Includes Maryland state wide, Oregon Statewide, Maricopa County AZ, Spokane, WA (6 area libraries), Johnson County Kansas, Idaho public (4 libraries) and yourselves. If the librarians from these groups are busy, their excess questions will overflow into this catchall group. It turns on and off automatically as questions come and go.

Academic Library Group:
Academic Coop Overflow (includes your group, the Cal State University system (15 members) University of Washington, Boise State University, Coll of Southern Idaho,
Baruch College- A CUNY
BLC -Boston Library Consortium (7 Northeastern Universities)
Bryant & Stratton 15 college group primarily in NorthEast
CA Academic- approx. 20 community and small private colleges in CA
College of Charleston, South Carolina
Delaware Academic -Statewide Delaware colleges (approx. 5 participating)
Faulkner University, Alabama
FIU-Florida International University (2 campuses, Miami Ft Lauderdale area)
MELO- Mississippi Community Colleges
National U- California
Onondaga CC- Community College Upstate NY
Utah/Dixie- University of Utah, and Dixie College, UT
WNYLRC Academic- ( approx. 7 colleges)

To see the exact members of each group, you can log into "Info" (from the "Chat Settings and Info" link in QP), then click on Collaborative Library Policy Manual, then choose Orange link "Library Policies". Each of the cooperative groups is listed at the top of the page and points to drop down menus that show the library members of each type of group.


7. Is it okay if some libraries use a generic login, for example for on-call staff to use?

It is okay. OCLC wants to make sure that if quality-control issues come up, we can easily contact the correct librarian. We've asked that quality control issues be funnelled through Caleb and Emily, at least at first. Caleb also thinks it's a great idea for every librarian to have their own login, in order to better express your identity in the virtual world.


8. Will the questions that are in our current L-net knowledgebase be transferred to our new L-net knowledge base?

If we want to, we can transfer questions from the knowledgebase in RefTracker, but transferring the entire Buzz∞ may be too much. What do you think?


9. When we are staffing the cooperative, can we transfer patrons to their local libraries?

As a general rule, librarians monitoring more than 6 queues are staffing the Questionpoint cooperative and you can transfer calls to them. Sometimes patrons really need a local librarian, and one is online. Usually, the local librarian is staffing their queue but is busy, so the cooperative librarian picks up the call. If that librarian gets un-busy, you caninitiate an IM conversation with them and see if they can take the local patron, then transfer away.

If the local librarian is still busy, offer to refer the question to follow-up.

We haven't yet decided when we will actually start staffing the cooperative.


10. If a patron disconnects, either deliberately or because of a technical problem, before the librarian has a chance to do a reference interview, what should the status of the question be when we close it? As it's set up now, we don't have a category of just technical problems, we only have complete with tech problems or followup with tech problems.

OCLC says, "We consider an unanswered question fodder for followup, because we can’t be sure that they really hung up because they meant to, and would rather err on the side of too much info, rather than hazarding an impression that we just didn’t try to answer, so those would be 'followup-tech problem', as an explanation of why you couldn’t do a reference interview."


11. When referring a call outside of the library to a subject specialist, is this done by referring to a subject matter expert? In questionpoint does the question remain in referred to subject matter expert until he receives the answer and he sends the answer on to the patron? Or should we create accounts and provide training for those subject libraries?

OCLC says, "Yes, if you are sending a transcript to subject matter expert, you can do it from the drop down referral list. It stays 'pending' on your Active list until they answer it.

If they are internal state subject matter experts (as opposed to the national list) then you create SUPS for them , and use the 'refer to subscription group' list to send to the private subject experts. They would still show as “pending” on your list if you do that. They would also be in 'Shared Followup' until you claim it to refer specifically, or until they claim if they happened to be looking for something to do in the Shared Followup list."


12. When transcripts move into the email system there are lots of problems with diacritics. Is there a way to get punctuation to display properly?

This will not be a problem with the new Flash Chat product. It does not sound like it will be improved in the existing Questionpoint release.


13. If a librarian finds an answer in the knowledge base, what is the best way to pass that on to the patron during a chat session?

It's best to just copy and paste the text of the answer into the chat conversation. It's possible to send the answer as a web page from the knowledge base, but this might cause confusion for the patron if he tries to access the page later and is unable to.


14. How big is the global knowledge base (about how many questions/answers)?

10,946 active records, and 720 + on list to be activated.


15. When we do global monitoring, all of the queues listed appear to be US queues. In global monitoring will we also be getting questions from outside the US and if so, what queues will they come through?

The only library outside of the US in the “global” coop at the moment, is University of Alberta, which will appear for the academic librarians. The British Enquire service (public libraries in England) can’t join the coop until we move to the new software due to their Microsoft VM problems.


16. In the current software, when we click on the link to transfer a call, some librarians have a red square next to their names and some have a green square. We’re guessing that the icon has something to do with whether we should transfer a call to that person or not. What exactly do the squares mean?

The red and green squares are deceptive. Green means that they used the “available” button and have no patrons. Red means that they didn’t use it so it’s not reliable. It’s better to use the “Librarians” view to see who is busy or not. Just disregard the red/green boxes.


17. If a patron doesn’t enter an email address when he first logs in and we want to put the question into followup, is there a way for us to ask the patron his email address during chat, and then add that to his profile in the email software?

One method is to use the “Add a question” link and copy the transcript into it, and add the patron’s email address in the appropriate field. Then you can refer that to followup, after it appears in “New” list. You should then delete the original transcript so that you don’t have duplicate questions.

In the Ask module, click on Add Question tab.
Cut and paste the transcript info in the Question box.
Enter the correct email address in the input box provided.
Click the Answered radio button, then click Add. The full question will display.
Click on the Add Note button and add a note that relates this question to the QID of the original transcript.
Click on Answer button to send another answer or ask for clarification, or move to shared followup.


18. In our email software, when a request for clarification is sent to a patron, the message that the patron gets includes the entire chat transcript, with the clarifying question at the bottom. Some librarians have expressed concern that this will be confusing for patrons. Unless he scrolls down, the patron won't see the librarian’s request for clarification.
Another concern from some librarians is the request clarification button itself. If the librarian clicks on the button before typing her question to the patron, an email is sent to the patron, but is likely to only confuse the patron, since he won't see a message from the librarian, just the old transcript.

Many others have agreed with your librarians about this problem of the answer being at the bottom, and in the January upgrade install we are changing it so that new messages from the librarian to the patron are at the top.
I will send the second issue to product management. It is, I agree, potentially confusing as some of the buttons are clicked before the action of responding to the patron, and some after...


19. Is it possible to change a library's login i.d. and use something other than the 6-digit number?

OCLC wants us to continue using the 6-digit number assigned to each librarian.



20. In a keyword search of the knowledge base, how are questions and answers ranked?

They are displayed in relevance order, but Carol doesn't know that algorithm. OCLC would like feedback regarding whether it should be reverse chronological? (OCLC is compiling lists of enchanement requests). Send comments to Emily (emilyp@multcolib.org) and they will be forwarded to OCLC.