AskAway Opens Today

AskAway opens today September 7th at 9am (PT). For the first two weeks (September 7th-19th), we'll be open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm (PT). Regular hours will resume September 20th.

Below, you'll find information about updates to LibraryH3lp as well as important reminders heading into this Fall term. As always if you have any questions, contact your local coordinator or the Administrative Centre.

Schedule and Hours

The schedule for September 7th-19th is now displayed on the staff schedule page. The schedule that comes into effect on September 20th is currently available as a PDF and will display on the staff schedule page by the 20th. The Hours page displays hours and term dates, including holiday closures.

Take a moment to review your shifts in your calendar for both schedules and set shift reminders as needed.

Using Policy Pages

In the past, when AskAway has opened early, there have been a fair number of circulation questions as well as questions about where to access IT support in the first couple weeks. 

Policy pages can be especially helpful for finding quick links to this information:

• In particular, the Borrowing Information section for circulation questions, and
• The “Technical Help” field (under Resources & Services) for IT questions.

At the top of each policy page, you should also find a link to COVID-19 updates at the library and/or institution.

Protecting Patron Privacy

To protect privacy, AskAway is an anonymous service. As always, please don’t ask patrons for personal information (e.g. student number, email address, etc.). This includes those from your home institution.

If follow-up is needed, one option is to pass on your professional contact information or make a referral.

Sometimes students offer up their personal information. If someone shares personal information, send them the Problem - Privacy script (type-ahead shortcut privacy) to inform them that any personal information they provide is recorded in the transcript and stored on LibraryH3lp servers in Canada.

FAQ: How does AskAway protect patron privacy?

Proactive Chat

The proactive chat pilot phase (July 12-August 13, 2021) is now complete, but this fall term you can still expect to receive proactive chats from Alexander College, UBC, and UNBC. Service providers at these institutions should continue to select their proactive queue when signing on to LibraryH3lp.

Incoming proactive chats can be handled like regular AskAway chats. The proactive chat pilot user survey has been discontinued, so you can now direct patrons to the standard AskAway survey.

FAQs: Proactive chat (updated)

LibraryH3lp Updates

LibraryH3lp continues to roll out updates to the staffing webclient. 

When you login to LibraryH3lp for your shift, you’ll see a LibraryH3lp News notification announcing the latest updates:

• The ability to easily view the day’s chats with a particular patron, which can be helpful for repeat patrons who may have previously chatted with someone else or to refresh your memory
• Volume control for sound notifications in your Preferences
• Updated emoji set (released earlier this summer and not included in the blog post linked below)

Blog post: LibraryH3lp blog post (scroll to New Webclient Features)