InfoEyes Guide for Librarians
Draft of May 25, 2004
Please send suggested additions,
corrections, and deletions to Tom Peters (tpeters@tapinformation.com).
Part 1: Getting Started with Your
“Desk” Hours
·
Launch your browser software (e.g., Internet
Explorer, Netscape).
·
Enter your “User ID” and “password”.
Note: Please use the
user ID and password assigned to you or your institution.
You should now be on a webpage called “QuestionPoint Home”.
From this page you can do many things (e.g., change your password,
browse the KnowledgeBase), but for a normal desk
shift you will want to enter the “Ask a Librarian” service to review any
unclaimed email questions and to accept any incoming chat reference
sessions.
·
To enter the “Ask a Librarian” area, click on
the “Ask” link in the upper left area of the screen.
Note: Another link to
the “Ask a Librarian” area is located in the lower left area of the screen
under the “Services” banner.
Note: For more
information about the features and functionality of QuestionPoint,
please see Mary Mohr’s PowerPoint presentation at http://www.infoeyes.org/librariantrng.2_files/frame.htm.
On the “Ask a Librarian” homepage you can review
the active questions (i.e., new and pending questions that have been submitted
by patrons). Questions with a red
question mark in the status column are available to be claimed by you and
worked on during your reference shift.
·
To monitor the chat sessions and pick up any
incoming chat sessions, click on the “chat” tab. A new window will open up, titled “monitor
chat session”.
Note: When you are
monitoring chat sessions, your QP automatic timeout timer is turned off.
Congratulations, you have now logged onto QuestionPoint and are ready to monitor the active questions
(including pending email reference questions) and to monitor incoming chat
sessions. These are two of the three
modes of communication we are using for the InfoEyes
Service.
The third, new mode of communication involves
using the iVocalize software to engage in enhanced reference
service with InfoEyes patrons.
·
Type in the moderator username assigned to you
(currently, we all are using “Librarian”) to enter the room as a moderator.
When you have entered the ivocalize
room as a moderator, your username will appear in bold.
Part 2: Providing Enhanced Reference
in an iVocalize Room
Changing Your Settings
Note: You should need
to make these changes only once. The
changes you make should stick even after you exit the program, turn off your
computer, etc.
Adding Time Stamps to Every Chat Component: Either pull down the
“file” menu and click on “timestamp chat entries” or simultaneously press alt+shift+i.
Inserting URLs into Text Chat of Every Webpage Visited: Either pull down the
“file” menu and click on “show URLs in text chat” or simultaneously press alt+shift+U.
Enhancing the Accessibility of the Software:
Highlight new text messages: Either pull down the “help” menu, click on
the “accessibility” option, then click on “highlight new text messages” or
simultaneously press alt+shift+5.
Append text icons to user names: Either pull down the “help” menu, click on
the “accessibility” option, then click on “append text icons to user names” or
simultaneously press alt+shift+4.
Speak Using Voice over IP (VoIP)
Press and hold the Control key on your keyboard.
To lock the talk key, either pull down the file
menu options and click on the “lock talk key” option, or simultaneously press
the “alt” and “L” keys, or just click on the microphone icon in the lower left
corner, which acts as a toggle switch.
Locking the talk key frees up your hands, but no one else can speak
until you unlock the key.
Synchronized Browsing
Either pull down the “moderator” menu and click on “synchronized browsing”
or press the F3 key.
Note: the phrase
“synchronized browsing” will appear in the lower right area of the screen.
Note: you may want to
routinely turn on synchronized browsing when you begin your “desk” shift.
Note: it always is
possible to have another browser window open outside the iVocalize
reference room, so that you can browse individually.
Text Chatting in an iVocalize Room
The text chat input box is located in the left center area of the screen. You can send your text chat to everyone in
the room, or to a specific individual.
Use the drop-down menu immediately above the text chat input box to do
that.
Transmitted text chat messages appear in the box in the upper left corner
of the screen. The most recent message
is at the bottom of the box.
Scripts
Scripts are not provided in the current version of iVocalize.
Application Sharing
Application sharing is not currently available in iVocalize,
but a beta version of application sharing is being tested by the iVocalize product development team.
Part 3: Reporting iVocalize Reference Sessions
Saving the Text Chat at the End of Every Reference Interaction
The text chat portion of each reference interaction should be saved as a
separate file.
To save the contents of a text chat interaction into a file, pull down the
“file” menu, then click on “Save Text Chat to File”. Alternatively, simultaneously press Alt+Z.
When prompted for a file name, just leave the file name offered by the
software. It includes the date and time
that the file was saved.
Note: Unless you
specify otherwise, the text chat file will be saved on the local hard drive of
the computer you are using to provide enhanced reference service.
Until further notice, please send each text chat file as an email
attachment to Tom Peters (tpeters@tapinformation.com),
who is serving as the evaluator of this project. He will input the session information into
the QuestionPoint administrative module.
Protecting Patron Confidentiality
The InfoEyes iVocalize
room for enhanced online reference will be only a two-seat room, so that only
the reference librarian (also known as the moderator) and the patron can fit
into the room.
If another patron attempts to use enhanced online reference while a patron
is in the room, the second patron will be redirected to a webpage of options
(e.g., wait for a few minutes, then try again; use the basic chat interface; or
email us your question).
When you have finished a session with a patron, you should save the chat messages (see below), then clear the chat message window. To clear the text chat messages, either pull down the “file” menu, then click on “Clear Text
Chat Display”, or simultaneously press Alt+C.
Part 4: Closing Down at the End of
Your “Desk” Shift
·
In QuestionPoint,
in the “Monitor Chat Sessions” window, click on the “logoff chat” link in the
upper right corner. Then click on
“close window” or the “x” in the upper right corner to close that window.
·
In QuestionPoint,
in the “Ask a Librarian” window, click on the “exit” link in the upper right
area of the window. This will
return you to the QuestionPoint Logon window. You then can close that window.
·
In iVocalize, merely
close the entire window by clicking on the “x” in the upper right corner. Alternatively, pull down the “file” menu and
click on “exit”.