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Current Newletter Full Text

ASKAWAY WISCONSIN

December 2008/January 2009

Workload Statistics (including South Central Library System chats)

AskAway Statistics for ALL WISCONSIN Libraries	Patrons of this library chatted with a librarian at:				Librarians from this library took chats with patrons from:			Total chats	This library responded to emails from patrons of:			Grand Total
AskAway Statistics for ALL WISCONSIN Libraries	Their own library	Other WI library	Non-WI library	Total	Other WI library	Non-WI library	Total	Total chats	Their own library	Another library	Total	Grand Total
December 2008	36	88	573	697	116	392	508	1205	699	0	688	1904
January 2009	53	173	775	1001	225	327	552	1553	974	1	975	2528
February 2009	67	199	907	1173	246	435	681	1854	934	1	935	2789
Total	156	460	2255	2871	587	1154	1741	4612	2607	2	2598	7221

Virtual Reference News and Best Practice Tips

Second Annual, “I Love AskAway,” Contest Announced

The AskAway public relations committee is once again asking Wisconsin library patrons of all ages to get creative in showing their support of the statewide virtual reference service during the second annual, “I Love AskAway,” contest. This year’s contest is open to all forms of media and expression and could include videos, posters, bookmarks, poems, or songs. All original ideas are welcome and will be accepted through April 15, 2009.

An independent panel of judges will determine the winners based on quality and content of the idea. First place will win a $150.00 gift certificate to Best Buy, and second place will receive a $75.00 gift certificate to Best Buy. Winners will be announced by April 27, 2009.

A press release and other promotional information is in the process of being distributed to libraries throughout Wisconsin. Librarians interested in judging contest entries should contact Allison Coshenet at Allison.coshenet@dpi.wi.gov, or 608-224-5393. Complete contest information is available on the AskAway PR wiki at http://askaway.pbwiki.com/pr

AskAway Trial in Wisconsin Schools Shows Great Results

Four Wisconsin high schools have been participating in a trial of AskAway this school year. After six months we have some exciting results to share. Beginning with just 9 sessions in August (many the result of training school library media specialists), traffic peaked with a high of 148 sessions during January. Librarians in participating schools confirm that the true total number of sessions logged by their students is higher than reflected in the statistics. The discrepancy is largely the result of student’s failure to enter their school’s name when logging in to the service.

Milwaukee Public Library has been supporting the participation of South Division High School in the AskAway trial. Sandy Byrnes, head of Reference at the Milwaukee Public Library Central branch, reports that the AskAway trial program has generated more student interest in virtual reference than they have EVER seen before. South Division High School in Milwaukee logged the second highest number of chat sessions during the trial. Ellen Latorraca, the South Division High School library media specialist, has done a wonderful job marketing the service as well as training students and teachers on the benefits of the AskAway service.

Homestead High School in Mequon has made great use of the AskAway trial, logging the highest number of sessions. Homestead High’s library media specialist, Suzanne Zellman, has done a great job training students in the library and in the classroom. Suzanne will also be working with her counterpart at a Mequon elementary school to train younger students on the most effective ways to use the virtual reference chat.

Ruth Stamm at George Nelson Tremper High School in Kenosha and Sandra Wurdeman of the Mosinee School district have done great work launching the AskAway service in their schools, and we’ll be focusing on their experiences in an upcoming Newsletter.

Look for more news on the expansion of AskAway into Wisconsin schools in the coming months!

Best Practices Recap and Reminder

Many thanks to the AskMN group in Minnesota for kicking off 2009 with a presentation about co-browsing. Though many chat reference librarians may be hesitant to use this feature, librarians in Minnesota showed us some of the great ways this feature can be utilized to deliver superior reference service.

A special thanks to QuestionPoint backup librarian guest speakers, John Dey and Louise Greene. John and Louise lead an interesting discussion in February about the challenges of helping multiple patrons simultaneously. They introduced the concept of “rotisserizing” patrons as a way to manage chat patrons during peak times. Their presentation was followed by a productive Q&A session.

As a reminder, best practices sessions are the third Thursday of every month. Librarians can participate from anywhere there is Internet access and a phone. If you can’t make the live session you can always watch recordings of previous presentations on the AskAway Webinars Blog. It's all online at http://www.wils.wisc.edu/ask/askawaybp/

AskAway on the Radio

We’re very excited to announce that AskAway will be a corporate sponsor of Wisconsin Public Radio during March, April and May, 2009. There will be a total of 45 AskAway sponsorship announcements that you’ll be able to hear between 5:00am and 11:00pm, including during typical drive times. You can catch these announcements on WPR stations throughout the state including the Ideas Network, and NPR News & Classical Music. This is a wonderful opportunity to reach people throughout Wisconsin to raise awareness of the outstanding services our libraries provide when and where patrons need it.

Mark Beatty will be compiling statistics about the announcements to share with us this summer. Please send Mark an email at mbeatty@wils.wisc.edu, if you hear these announcements. Be sure to include in your message to him when and where you heard the advertisement.

Share your concerns, comments and questions about AskAway

Please share your concerns, questions and comments by phone, email, or snail-mail. Call me (Martha Berninger) at 608-224-6168, email to Martha.berninger@dpi.wi.gov, or send a note to 2109 South Stoughton Road, Madison, WI, 53716. Thanks for your input and your ongoing support of AskAway!

Newsletters as Doc files

AskAway Dec-Jan 2009 Newsletter.doc