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G2S Project Code: 2018-FL-81650
State: Florida
Fiscal Year: 2018

Grantee
Tampa Bay Library Consortium

Project Director
Director Name: Diana Silveira
Director Phone: 8136010693
Director Email: diana@tblc.org

General Information
Title: Ask A Librarian
State Project Code: 18-LSTA-A-07-A
Start Date: 10/01/2018
End Date: 09/30/2019
Abstract: Ask a Librarian (AAL) is Florida’s collaborative virtual reference service. The service provides live reference assistance to Florida residents at their moment of need via chat, email and SMS. The Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC) manages the Ask a Librarian service provide by Florida libraries to their patrons.

Ask a Librarian is open for live chat and live SMS service 84 hours per week, staffed by trained participating library staff and Ask a Librarian virtual reference interns. Email reference and asynchronous SMS queries are available 24/7. During the period of October 2018 through September 2019, a total of 59,390 transactions were conducted by librarians throughout the State of Florida. This included 37,577 chat, 5,107 SMS and 16,706 email questions.

Springshare’s Ask a Librarian software enables the creation of an answer database that can be embedded into a web page for quick and easy access. Ask a Librarian continues to add to and maintain this FAQ database, called "Queries," for libraries to use as an additional resource for their patrons to find pertinent information without waiting for a response from library staff. From October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019, 336 available public FAQs were viewed a total of 1,576 times.

State Goal: Goal 1 - Services: Floridians use information and innovative and responsive services from all types of libraries and archives that meet diverse information needs.

Budget Information

LSTA

MATCH-State

MATCH-Other

Total

$195,462.00

$0.00

$75,150.00

$270,612.00

Intent(s)
Improve library operations.
Library Infrastructure & Capacity
Systems & Technologies

Activities
Activity Details
Title: Provide a quality, collaborative reference service for Floridians.
Narrative: Ask a Librarian is open for live chat and live SMS service 84 hours per week, staffed by trained participating library staff and Ask a Librarian virtual reference interns. Email reference and asynchronous SMS queries are available 24/7. During the period of October 2018 through September 2019, a total of 59,390 transactions were conducted. These transactions consisted of 37,577 chat, 5,107 SMS and 16,706 email questions.

Intent: Improve library operations.

Activity: Content
Mode: Other
Format: Digital

Quantity

Partner Information

Organization Type of Partner Organization(s):
Libraries: Yes
Historical Societies or Organizations: No
Museums: No
Archives: No
Cultural Heritage Organization Multi-type: No
Preschools: No
Schools: No
Adult Education: No
Human Service Organizations: No
Other: No

Legal Type of Partner Organization(s):
Federal Government: No
State Government: No
Local Government (excluding school districts): No
School District: No
Non-Profit: No
Private Sector: No
Tribe/Native Hawaiian Organization: No

Beneficiaries
Is the activity directed at the library workforce: No
For a targeted group or for the general population: General

Locale
Is the activity state-wide: Yes
Specific Locations: No
Library Types

Public Libraries: 41
Academic Libraries: 48
SLAA: 1
Consortia: 1
Special Libraries: 3
School Libraries: 0
Other: 0

Activity Details
Title: Support and encourage local implementation of site-specific virtual reference services at participating libraries.
Narrative: A local desk has been created for all active library participants in the Ask a Librarian program, a total of 94. The local desk can be staffed by participating library staff who can answer all questions from their library's users through email, chat and SMS. If the local chat department is not being staffed, questions automatically roll over to the collaborative desks (academic desk first for academic libraries). Emails and SMS queries are answered asynchronously by the originating library. From October 2018 through September 2019, a total of 16,237 chats were fielded through local desks.

Participating libraries implement their use of the local desk as they see fit to meet the needs of their users. For example, Florida State University, Lee County Library System, and Seminole County Library System staff their local chat departments every hour that their libraries are open. In another example, the University of South Florida, Tampa Campus, has two email queues through which questions of different types are routed to the appropriate staff. They use a queue for all e-resources support and inquiries from their students, faculty and staff, and a general queue for other inquiries. Questions can be transferred between these queues if needed.

Intent: Improve library operations.

Activity: Content
Mode: Other
Format: Combined physical & digital

Quantity

Partner Information

Public Libraries: 41
Academic Libraries: 48
SLAA: 1
Consortia: 1
Special Libraries: 3
School Libraries: 0
Other: 0

Activity Details
Title: House and maintain a public-facing Frequently Asked Questions database as a passive resource for information gathering.
Narrative: Springshare’s software enabled the creation of an answer database that can be embedded into a web page for quick and easy access. Ask a Librarian continues to add to and maintain this FAQ database, called "Queries," for libraries to utilize as an additional resource for their patrons to find pertinent information without waiting for a response from library staff. From October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019, 336 available public FAQs were viewed a total of 1,576 times.

Intent: Improve library operations.

Activity: Content
Mode: Other
Format: Digital

Quantity

Partner Information

Public Libraries: 41
Academic Libraries: 48
SLAA: 1
Consortia: 1
Special Libraries: 3
School Libraries: 0
Other: 0

Activity Details
Title: Create and provide informative and instructional training opportunities for the partnering library staff.
Narrative: A new Screenshare feature was made available to participants, and an introductory training showing how to use it and what the end user can see was conducted on April 26, 2019 with 23 in attendance for the live webinar.

In response to a meeting of participants and a review of the program as a whole, an Expert Series was launched in February 2019 that gave participants the opportunity to learn about not only resources to tap into while on the chat desk, but also soft skills that they can apply to customer support. All of these trainings were conducted by paid experts in Florida who tailored the content specifically to Ask a Librarian participants. Eight sessions were provided and 144 people total attended the live webinars.

From October 1, 2018 through September 30, 2019, a total of nine live sessions were provided with 167 project participants in cumulative live attendance. A total of 72 recorded and archived sessions are available for participants to use and during this time frame were viewed 707 times.

Intent: Improve library operations.

Activity: Instruction
Mode: Other
Format: Virtual
Other: Live, recorded and archived sessions.

Quantity

Partner Information

Public Libraries: 41
Academic Libraries: 48
SLAA: 1
Consortia: 1
Special Libraries: 3
School Libraries: 0
Other: 0

Activity Details
Title: Support and seek to improve the technology infrastructure.
Narrative: Project staff continuously monitored all aspects of the service to make needed adjustments and improvements. From monitoring new Springshare software releases and analyzing the impact on the program to testing new browser or smart phone operating systems updates, project staff remain vigilant in staying current with technology trends and proactively testing those improvements on the Ask a Librarian infrastructure.

Intent: Improve library operations.

Activity: Content
Mode: Other
Format: Combined physical & digital

Quantity

Partner Information

Organization Type of Partner Organization(s):
Libraries: No
Historical Societies or Organizations: No
Museums: No
Archives: No
Cultural Heritage Organization Multi-type: No
Preschools: No
Schools: No
Adult Education: No
Human Service Organizations: No
Other: No

Public Libraries: 41
Academic Libraries: 48
SLAA: 1
Consortia: 1
Special Libraries: 3
School Libraries: 0
Other: 0

Activity Details
Title: Market and promote Ask a Librarian.
Narrative: In January 2019, the new campaign bookmarks were printed and distributed, centering on crazy questions that librarians are asked such as “How do I find scholarly articles about the zombie apocalypse?” The tag-line is “Ask us anything. Virtually.” The new designs include bookmarks with space available for local library branding, notepads, mp4 and gif files to post on social media accounts and websites.

Intent: Improve library operations.

Activity: Content
Mode: Other
Format: Combined physical & digital

Quantity

Partner Information

Public Libraries: 41
Academic Libraries: 48
SLAA: 1
Consortia: 1
Special Libraries: 3
School Libraries: 111
Other: 0

Project Outcomes
Project Outcomes
List any important outcomes or findings not previously reported:
1. Provide a quality collaborative reference service for Floridians: # of libraries: 94; # of hours service is available: 4,137; #of chats: 37,577; # of emails: 16,706; # of SMS: 5,107. 2. Support and encourage local implementation of site-specific virtual reference services at participating libraries: #of libraries using local desk: 49; # of local desk chats: 16,237. 3. House and maintain a public-facing Frequently Asked Questions database as a passive resource for information- gathering: # of available FAQ entries: 336; # of views: 1,576. 4. Create and provide informative and instructional training opportunities for the partnering library staff. # of live sessions offered: # of recorded sessions available:72; # of participants in live: 167; # of views for recording: 707. 5. Support and seek to improve the technology infrastructure: # of Help Desk Tickets: 184. 6. Market and promote Ask a Librarian: # of collateral items produced and distributed: 380,000 produced and 213,751 distributed; # of online promotional pieces created: 2. Three surveys are administered throughout the grant year to assess the program: Match Hours Survey for site coordinators to confirm average hourly wages of their staff and to allow them a direct contact for requesting personalized training or assistance with other needs. Desk Survey for assessment of comfort level staffing the collaborative academic and statewide desks and using the Springshare software. Patron Exit Survey for library patrons utilizing the service. This is used as an end-user evaluation to assess the degree of help they were offered and how comfortable they would be using the service or resources again. The Match Hours Survey revealed very little need for additional site-specific training and provided the average salary number used to determine the match number for the Partner Libraries salary line. The Desk Survey comments revealed a need for additional training opportunities for addressing patron confusion about who is answering the chat. Of the four topics presented for comfort-level rating, the 91 respondents indicated they are most comfortable with the email software, second most comfortable with chat, less comfortable with SMS, and the least comfortable out of these options with the knowledge base. Future training will be tailored to these topics in order to address the needs of the library staff participants. Patron Surveys were sent after chats throughout October, 2018 and we received 53 responses. 87% indicated it was their first time using the service. 94% had their question answered and expect no follow up; 2% had their question partially answered and expect follow up; 4% had their question partially answered and expect no follow up; and zero responded that their question was not answered at all. 56% were shown web-based resources; 38% were not; and 6% were not sure if they were shown them or not. 79% believe they could or might be able to use that web-based resource again. 100% believed they definitely or probably would use this service again.
Please briefly describe the importance of these outcomes and findings for future program planning:
The Ask a Librarian will continue to grow in years to come as many respondents found value in the resources they were offered and the help they received in the program as a whole. Here are some direct quotes from this evaluation: Kristen- Polk state was very fast and resolving my problem and providing answers for me. She was polite and professional and provided me with a website to use for future research. Thank you soooooooo much! Great Job. Kira was fantastic, thank you. Kira was great and was able to help me with my question and also provided a piece of advice. Thank you or making me feel welcome in the virtual library today. Great resource. Very quick in responses and very polite, my question was answered and understood completely in a matter of 10 minutes! Thanks so much for your help. Your search and references were helpful. Keep up the good work. Miss. Kiara was very helpful and nice. Thank you for this service. I'm an online student and it was so helpful. Paul did a great job guiding me to the resources I needed. Thank you Cathy in Tallahassee for helping me get the information I needed about an ecard application I submitted through JPL. I did not think you would be able to help me, but you did. Thanks again! This is very handy! Thanks. very helpful resource to use to assist in finding to correct information I needed. Pleasant experience. This service is wonderful! Thank you. You are doing great.
Explain one or two of the most significant lessons learned for others wanting to adopt any facets of this project:
Participants understand the advantage of offering the service to their users. Below are some responses from the Desk Survey and Match Hours Survey: Wonderful service and support provided to me to serve our students. Thanks to the AAL team for all they do. Our patrons comment often how helpful it is to reach us by chat or text. Our local collaborative desk is incredibly valuable to our library! I enjoy the training opportunities, especially with the LibGuides resources. Thank you, AAL staff, for being responsive to all our questions. We always receive positive comments about AAL. It provides a valuable resource for everyone that uses it! A great resource and really enjoy utilizing it in our library system. Ask a Librarian is a valuable service to us because it allows our students to get expert help even when our libraries are closed. Ask a Librarian is a wonderful resource! We are a small school and without this service, we would not be able to meet the needs of our students. Thank you for providing it! It enables our patrons to ask questions and get answers in a timely manner. It allows customers to reach us more easily outside the walls of our brick and mortar branches we could not cover all the hours with existing staff AAL local desk functions (widget form, email, and text) have greatly improved our library system's customer service. We are able to answer inquiries quickly and consistently. Tickets and macros enable us to conduct greater quality control than just email alone. We are a small school. Ask a Librarian allows us to provide more hours of reference assistance than we would otherwise be able to offer. It helps to be able to give patrons an option for help when the library is closed. Email, in particular, provides library users convenient access to reference assistance. It has let us expand the hours that our students can get get help online with research questions. It has provided an excellent opportunity for our staff to gain more confidence with virtual reference. In addition to helping with the statewide reference service, we are able to provide local assistance to our patrons. Provides assistance beyond our campus library staff's regular operating hours availability. Provides additional avenues of reference inquiry for our users.
Do you anticipate continuing this project after the current reporting period ends:
Yes
Do you anticipate any change in level of effort in managing this project:
No
Explain:

Do you anticipate changing the types of activities and objectives addressed by the project:
No
Explain:

Was an evaluation conducted for this project:
Yes
Was a final written evaluation report produced:
No
Can the final written evaluation report be shared publicly on the IMLS website:
No
Was the evaluation conducted by project staff (either SLAA or local library) or by a third-party evaluator:
Third-Party
What data collection tools were used for any report outcomes and outputs:
Did you collect any media for the data:
What types of methods were used to analyze collected data:
Other:
How were participants (or items) selected:
What type of research design did you use to compare the value for any reported output or outcome:

Exemplary: No
Exemplary Narrative

Project Tags: