Final update on the All Tab

Hello again, AskAwayers, We have an update to our earlier communications on the All tab.

Further inquiries tell us that the utility of the All tab has changed due to our shift to institutional queues, and it is no longer a reliable way to view your colleagues' questions. According to QuestionPoint, and supported thus far by reports from the field, the All tab now functions as follows: If you are from an institution that is using an institutional queue, your All tab will show only questions from your institution's patrons If you are not from an institution with an institutional queue, your All tab will only show questions that are not from institutional queue patrons However, if you are not from an institutional queue, you may see patrons from institutions that have institutional queues appearing in your All tab, if nobody from their institution is currently online. Suffice to say, the All tab will not show you an accurate count of how many questions are being handled by your colleagues.

What does this mean for queue management?

Before the institutional queues came along, the All tab showed all active questions. AskAwayers have been trained to use this as a way to see how busy their colleagues are and to help determine how many questions they should be handling at once. However, now that the All tab only shows a small proportion of ongoing sessions, it is no longer a useful tool for queue management. The Librarians tab lists all AskAwayers currently online, the number of queues they are monitoring, and the number of sessions they are currently handling. This will give you a better idea of how busy the service is, and how comparatively full your plate is. This provides an accurate picture of the service at a glance, and is a highly useful queue management tool. For more detail, you can use the Chat Monitoring Tool, found on your QuestionPoint home page. This tool lists everyone who's on, and all of the questions currently being handled. It's a very useful way to get a picture of the service. As always, please email the Admin Centre if you have any questions or notice any other issues with the service or our tools. Thanks, and happy AskAwaying! Brandon