Digital Reference

Lose a transcript? Check your pop-up blocker!

May 17th, 2005

Two strange behaviours have recently been reported by several people:

The new patron notification (and the accompanying “ding”) failed to display
The “save transcript” window fails to open at the end of a chat session

The root problem of both of these behaviours seems to be pop-up blockers. Make sure that you turn off the pop-up blocker on your browser before beginning your LiveHelp shift. You can turn it back on at the end of your shift.

How to turn of Internet Explorer’s Pop-Up Blocker

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Click on the “tools” button on the menu bar
3. Click on “pop-up blocker”
4. Click on “Turn off Pop-up Blocker.”

How to turn on Internet Explorer’s Pop-Up Blocker

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Click on the “tools” button on the menu bar
3. Click on “pop-up blocker” (if you don’t see this option, you do not have a pop-up blocker built into Internet Explorer)
4. Click on “Turn on Pop-up Blocker.”

Posted in Tips and Solutions | No Comments »

Advertising Idea

May 16th, 2005

This is an idea for a flyer for advertising the University of Toronto’s LiveHelp service.
It tries to capture two basic ideas:

1. What is LiveHelp
2. Why/when would someone use it.

Need It Ad

The text of the add is not finalized. Please take a look and leave your feedback in a comment [requires logging in] or email the drp list.

Posted in Advertising | 2 Comments »

2005-05-12 Minutes

May 16th, 2005

Agenda

New Participating Libraries
Summer Vacation Schedules
E-mail on Summer Weekends
Summer staffing hours
Troubleshooting
Updating the blog
September promotional strategies

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Meetings | No Comments »

Summer Weekend Schedule 2005

May 13th, 2005

Here is the schedule for checking LiveHelp’s e-mail over the summer.

June 2005
4-5 Chad
11-12
18-19 UTM Librarians (tentative)
25-26 Pam King

July 2005
2-3 Gail Nichol [added 2005-05-16]
9-10 Julie Hannaford [added 2005-05-17]
16-17 Pat Serafini (tentative)
23-24 Debbie Green [added 2005-05-17]
30-31

August 2005
6-7
13-14
20-21
27-28

Posted in Schedule | 2 Comments »

Statistics April 2005

May 12th, 2005

Live Chat Sessions: 43
Email questions: 64
Total: 107

Daily averages (questions answered):
Monday: 5.5
Tuesday: 4.8
Wednesday: 2.5
Thursday: 4
Friday: 3.8
Saturday: 2.8
Sunday: 1.8

Posted in Statistics | No Comments »

VRLPlus Upgrade installed

April 25th, 2005

Docutek installed an upgrade to VRLPlus over the weekend. The upgrade should allow users using Internet Explorer with Windows XP Service Pack 2 to enter LiveHelp in Pro Mode. Please leave a comment here if you encounter any problems with the new software (You’ll need to login to leave a comment. Contact Jeff Newman.

Known issues:

Sending e-mail fails. LiveHelp’s e-mail client is not currently functioning. If you wish to reply to an e-mail you will need to use your normal e-mail client. [Docutek is working to resolve this problem 2005-04-25]Problem Resolved
Session transcripts are not getting saved. There is a long delay between the patron exiting a session and the exit questionnaire poping up for the librarian. When the questionnaire does pop up there is no text in the transcript. Problem Resolved
users using Macs or using an alternate browser (Mozilla, Opera, Firefox) will be forced into classic mode (page-push only). This will hopefully be resolved in a major upgrade expected in the next few weeks.

Posted in Software | 1 Comment »

Upgrade woes… Thursday and Friday

April 22nd, 2005

At 5:00pm on Wednesday April 20 Docutek began installing a patch for VRLPlus that should have solved the problems created by Windows XP SP2. The process did not go well and by Friday morning Docutek had attempted to install the update 5 times without success. At this point they attempted to restore our installation to its original settings however this process also failed and UofT’s VRL service is still down. Docutek is aware of the problem and will spend the weekend trying to resolve it. More to follow.

Posted in Technical Issues | No Comments »

Surprising LiveHelp Statistic

April 12th, 2005

There has been a lot of discussion on ways to extend LiveHelp hours later into the evening. Users of LiveHelp have overwhelmingly suggested that LiveHelp would be most useful between 5pm and midnight. However, is what users say they want the same as what they are actually using?

I analyzed 373 e-mail queries that were submitted through the LiveHelp service to see when we can best serve our existing user community. The pool of questions started off as 500 questions dating back to December 8, 2004 (that’s the largest number of questions I could display on a page) and eliminated questions that were submitted on weekends (n=124). I grouped the remaining questions by the time they were submitted and tried to find an “optimal” service window. The results surprised me.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Statistics March 2005

April 7th, 2005

Live Chat Sessions: 107
Email questions: 116
Total: 223

Daily averages (questions answered):
Monday: 12.2
Tuesday: 8.6
Wednesday: 7.8
Thursday: 7.8
Friday: 5.2
Saturday: 3.8
Sunday: 1.2

Posted in Statistics | No Comments »

Summer hours: maintain or reduce hours

April 7th, 2005

As the end of term approaches it is time to decide whether or not LiveHelp will continue to offer service from 5.7pm.

Please choose from one of the following options (leave a comment with your vote)

1. Reduce hours after April 15

2. Continue 5-7 service through the summer.

Posted in Schedule | 5 Comments »

April Meeting Cancelled.

March 30th, 2005

The April 1, 2005 meeting of the Digital Reference Project has been cancelled. This commitee will meet again in May, 2005. Please leave a comment below indicating your preference for either: ~~May 7 or May 14, 2005~~. May 6 or May 13, 2005 (Thanks to Pat for noticing the error)

Posted in Meetings | 4 Comments »

Classic Mode and the “Checkmark”

March 2nd, 2005

Docutek’s VRLPlus has two modes:

Pro Mode – the chat section and the browser section are in the same window. Cobrowsing is available.
Classic Mode – the chat section and the browser section are displayed in different windows. There is no cobrowsing. Page-push is available.

Pushing Pages in Classic Mode

When working in Classic mode you need to remember to remove the checkmark beside the word “escort” at the top of the page or you will not be able to push pages.

Here is how you push pages:

Click on the cobrowse button at the bottom of the chat window
Click on “escort” box to remove the checkmark
Load a web page in your cobrowse window
Click on “push current” URL

If you follow a link to another page you will need to press the “push current URL” button to display the new page on the user’s side. This is especially important when working with catalogues and databases as the user will not see the search results unless you click on “push currentURL.” If a link that you follow happens to open a pop up window you will need to use the “push current URL” button on the main screen to ensure that the user’s pop up window is updated properly.

Strange behaviours in Classic Mode
Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Tips and Solutions | No Comments »

VRLPlus 3.0 error report #1

March 2nd, 2005

Error report:

I was logged in as a user. When Chad tried to configure my browser for cobrowsing I recieved the following error message:

Error getting tag: message_non_java Click here to enter in the alternate version

I reported the error to docutek at 1:33pm. Docutek reported the problem resolved at 2:00pm. Confirmed that the problem was fixed at 2:15pm.

Machines used:
Chad: Windows XP, Internet Explorer
Jeff: Windows XP, Internet Explorer

This issue is now resolved

Posted in Technical Issues | No Comments »

VRLPlus Software Update

March 2nd, 2005

The software for VRLPlus will be updated today at 10:00am.

There is only one major change in this version that you will need to worry about. In order to speed up the process of logging in the user Docutek has removed the “configuration test” (the test with the green checkmarks and red x’s) from the login process. Hopefully this will solve some problems.

A side effect of this is that BY DEFAULT you cannot cobrowse with a patron. If you would like to initiate cobrowsing you will need to click on the “cobrowse” button. The button is located below where you type in your message.

One other detail to bear in mind is that Classic Mode and Pro Mode still exist. Classic mode is the setup where your chat window and your cobrowse window are not connected. You can only push pages in this mode. Pro Mode is the setup where the chat window and the cobrowse window are in the same window. You should be able to fully cobrowse in this mode.

If you have any questions or concerns you can either add a comment to this message or contact Jeff Newman.

Posted in Software | 1 Comment »

Statistics February, 2005

March 1st, 2005

Live Chat Sessions: 78
Email questions: 126
Total: 204

Daily averages (questions answered):
Monday: 12.5
Tuesday: 3.8
Wednesday: 10.5
Thursday: 7.8
Friday: 10
Saturday: 2.5
Sunday: 4

Posted in Statistics | No Comments »

April Meeting

February 25th, 2005

There will be no meeting of the Digital Reference Project in March. The meeting will be April 1, 2005. Robarts Library, 4th Floor Conference Room. 3-5pm to be followed by a trip to the pub.

To suggest agenda items please leave a comment!

Posted in Meetings | No Comments »

Weekend Schedule March-April 2005

February 25th, 2005

This is the schdule for checking the LiveHelp e-mail on the weekends. If you are working a weekend this spring and would like to add your name to the list please log in and leave a comment. To log in and leave a comment click on the comment link at the bottom of this post and follow the instructions on the next page.

March 5: Julie Hannaford
March 13: Felicity Pickup
March 19: Pat Serafini
March 26: Patricia Bellamy
April 3: Debbie Green
April 9: Gail Nichol
April 16: Jeff Newman

Posted in Schedule | No Comments »