Tips (General)

When you're working on AskAway, there should always be at least one other person on shift with you. If you find yourself alone or short-staffed, your colleagues and the Admin Centre are here to help. Below, you'll find the steps you can follow to request help as well as strategies to manage calls while you wait for help to arrive.

WriteAway is a BC post-secondary collaborative online writing tutoring service. Undergraduate students at participating institutions can submit draft papers to WriteAway online and receive feedback and strategies to improve their writing from qualified tutors. WriteAway can be a nice complement to AskAway, as students who prefer online services or who are working off-campus can take advantage of online writing support.

The real value of Campfire comes from the community of service providers who use it to support one another during their shifts and keep AskAway running smoothly.

Log into Campfire and listen for notifications during each shift so that you'll be aware if something important comes up and your colleagues need assistance. You'll also be able to ask for help if you run into an issue.

A reminder on how to log out fully at the end of your shift.

QuestionPoint recently hosted a brief 30 minute webinar with quick tips to improve chat reference conversations.

Best practices and tips to help you prepare for unexpected patrons.

How to send permalinks (i.e. reliable links to database search results) to patrons.

Tips for busy times and handling multiple patrons.

New citation videos from Memorial University.

Shorterning URLs for Qwidget patrons.