AskAway Updates

Happy New Year!
AskAway opens today for the January to April 2008 term. What can you do to be ready for your first shift?
Have a look at these recent blog entries:
- Top Ten Tech Tips
- New Patron Exit Survey
- New Script: Problem - Prank

We are very pleased to announce that public library AskAway will be re-opening for service tomorrow, November 1st. Hours will be the same as before:
Sunday to Thursday, 10am to 10pm
Friday and Saturday, 10am to 5pm
As before, when appropriate please make referrals to the public library service by directing folks to AskAway.org.
- Sunni
BC ELN

It's been one year since AskAway was officially launched by Minister of Advanced Education Murray Coell and Minster of Education Shirley Bond, and since then we've answered over 10,000 questions from patrons around the province! That means 1 in 20 BC learners has asked a question on AskAway! Congratulations to all of you who have worked so hard to make this service such a success!

For those of you that are interested in how the calls come in throughout the day, here’s the hourly breakdown for last week (as reported by QP):

PST
Mon Sep-17
Tues Sep-18
Wed Sep-19
Thurs Sep-20
Fri Sep-21
Sat Sep-22
Sun Sep-23

10:00 – 10:59
2
2
4
2
Closed
Closed
4

11:00 – 11:59
10
3
4
5
3
7
0

12:00 – 12:59
5
4
5
4
2
4
1

For those of you that missed out on the fun of the BCLA AskAway reception, we've posted pictures of the crowd to Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8103581@N05/

Just a remind that next Friday, April 13th will be our last day of service for this term, with the following closures for the Easter holiday:
Friday, April 6th - Service closed
Sunday, April 8th - Service closed
Monday, April 9th - Service closed
The schedule for April 6 - 13th is available on the Staff Schedule tab of the Portal.
AskAway will reopen for service on Monday, May 7th.
Have a great long weekend!
- Sunni
BC ELN

Service-wide statistics for February are available on the For Local Admins tab of the Librarian's Portal.
Busiest day: Monday, February 5 with 91 calls
Slowest day: Sunday, February 18 with 17 calls
Busiest hour: 12:00 - 1:00 PM on Monday, Feb 5 with 18 calls!
- Sunni
BC ELN

We continue to get overwhelmingly positive feedback from our patrons. Here's a small sample of the quotes we've gathered from the exit survey over the past two months. (AskAway patron feedback is also now appearing on the BC ELN website as part of the Appreciative Inquiry display.)
“What a great service. I wish this service had been available to me in first year. Thanks for all of the help. This takes the worry out of needing to find help and not being able to obtain it.” (Malapsina patron)

A spreadsheet with detailed service-wide statistics for January is available on the For Local Admins tab of the Portal.
Busiest day: Monday, January 29 with 81 calls
Busiest hour: Monday, January 22 11:00-12:00 with 16 calls
Slowest days: Saturday, January 20 & Friday, January 26 with 23 calls each

Welcome to the first AskAway update for 2007!
AA Open Expanded Hours
AskAway opens for service on Monday, January 15th with expanded hours:
Sun-Thurs 10 AM – 9 PM; Fri-Sat 11 AM-5 PM
The finalized schedule has been posted to the Librarian's Portal: http://www.eln.bc.ca/vr_portal/staffschedule.html
Staff News