[Answerland] Tip of the Week: IM and Transfer Best Practices

[Tamara Ottum]

Hello Answerlanders,

Here is a reminder from the QuestionPoint Cooperative Coordinator:

"Always ask for (and receive!) confirmation via IM before transferring to an individual librarian. Otherwise, it is a 'blind transfer' and the librarian might not really be present (leaving the patron hanging with no response), or might be ending a shift and is unable to assist another patron.

"Librarians with the 'Ask Administrator' account privilege have an additional tab on the Chat Monitor: the 'All' tab. This tab gives the administrative librarian the ability to view and enter live chat sessions that originated from their institution. This feature serves as a useful method of training new librarians on chat, but it can be disconcerting if a local librarian jumps into a Cooperative librarian's session and starts chatting with the patron. Per Cooperative Policy 5.4<http://wiki.questionpoint.org/w/page/13839422/247-Policies#54nbspJumpingintoSessions>, the administrative local librarian should send an IM and request a transfer through the normal process before sending any chat to the patron.

"But what should a chatting librarian do if a local librarian doesn't follow Cooperative Policy 5.4 and jumps into the chat session without warning? The chatting librarian should transfer the session to the local librarian. Doing so will allow the chatting librarian to leave the session so the local librarian can continue the session with the patron. The first chatting librarian should never end the session, because that will terminate the chat for both the patron and the local librarian."

-Tamara

Tamara Ottum, MLIS
Answerland Coordinator
State Library of Oregon | Library Support & Development Services
tamara.ottum at state.or.us<mailto:tamara.ottum at state.or.us> | 503-378-6506 | www.oregon.gov/osl<http://www.oregon.gov/osl>

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