Tips (General)

Post your links to resources that will help AskAwayers answer those Olympics questions! Here's a couple to get started with:
From Public Library AskAwayers: Over 35 sites about the 2010 Olympics, transportation, free events, tickets and more! http://delicious.com/askaway/2010+Olympics

A student wrote "what are your hours?" I immediately gave the AA hours. But, after the call, as always, I thought, "Suppose the student thought I was a Camosun librarian on the line and meant the physical library hours."
I have had students on AA complain about the heat in the library (in Kamploops) and ask if I can turn it down, so this cognitive confusion is probably pretty common.
So, note to self: Ask what is the meaning of "your".
- Richard Baer
Camosun College

Richard Baer recommended this article:
The Good, the Bad, but Mostly the Ugly: Adherence to RUSA Guidelines during Encounters with Inappropriate Behavior Online.
Authors:
Maness, Jack M.1
Naper, Sarah2
Chaudhuri, Jayati3
Source:
Reference & User Services Quarterly; Winter2009, Vol. 49 Issue 2, p151-162, 12p, 3 charts

Some very useful questions from a service provider around handling multiple patrons, with my answers:
How do we know which patron is first in the line-up?

Patrons will be listed in the New tab in the order in which they come in, with newest at the top and oldest at the bottom. The Time column will tell you how many seconds the patron has been waiting.

We've reached the busy peak of this term - on average we're handling 130 - 160 calls per day, 10-20 per hour. Our busiest hour so far was Tuesday Nov 3 from 2-3 PM when 27 calls came in!
As we get busier, things get stressful for our patrons and for us. Here's some coping strategies:
Rules of Engagement for Patrons

Just a reminder that we can only help AskAway patrons with the resources that THEY have access to at their own library. Even though you may have access to different resources at your library, it is important to direct patrons to resources that they will be able to use after their session with you.
Questions? Let me know!
- Sunni
BC ELN

Public library AskAwayers have created an incredible set of Delicious links on many of the topics that come in to their queue, as well as links to grade-level or reading-level specific resources:
http://delicious.com/askaway/bundle:**Education_Grade_Readership
There is also a link to these Delicious links on the Staff Tools page of the Portal:
http://www.eln.bc.ca/askaway/index.php?page=main

You never know, the question about how to cite a Tweet might come up!
http://gunther-eysenbach.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-cite-twitter-how-to-cite-tweets.html
- Sunni
BC ELN

Helping a patron with Refworks, but don't have it at your library? Just never used it before? The Refworks Help Pages are available for free online, and they're really useful.
Here is the link: Refwork Help Pages
If you want to know how to get references from a database into Refworks, look at the navigation on the left side of the page.
Click on: Getting References into your Account
Then on: Importing from Online Data Vendors

We've had a few irate comments from patrons, saying that the service provider has "rudely" chosen to end the session.
Of course, we as service providers know that there was no rudeness intended - that this must have been a technical glitch. So how can we communicate this with our patrons?