QuACK Meeting Minutes Wednesday, July 28, 2010, 10:30 a.m.

Present:Don Boozer, Cheryl Lubow, Michelle Makkos, Meagan Mitchell, Kate Blocksidge, Wendy Ensor

This month's email is a response that Anita Carroll of Franklin-Springboro Public Library provided. The patron was worried about bed bugs and their ability to bite. Anita does a great job of addressing the patron's concern, providing authoritative information, and encouraging the patron to return if they have more questions. Nicely done, Anita!

-- Original Message from Patron --

can bed bugs bite thru intact clothing or borrow/tear to get inside?

-- Reply from Anita --

Hello,

Congratulations this month go to librarian30 from Columbus Metropolitan Library and ad.stuart, as well as to several honorable mentions.

In the first transcript, librarian30 made sure that the question was understood, reminded the patron that the browser Find feature is a valuable tool, and sent a link to a reliable reference source in digitized form.

This month's email is a reply from Andrea Adkins, Washington County Public Library. The thing that catches one's eye is Andrea's ability to use the most basic of information ("earthwuake that changed the path of Mississippe river") to find the name of the event as well as several authoritative resources to answer the question.

Congratulations to Joelle (OhioLINK) and ad.connor (AfterDark) for providing an array of helpful resources during their respective sessions.  Both agents were very thorough and demonstrated enthusiasm toward the patron and the reference question asked.

Joelle found and shared how-to web sites, a book, open-source podcasting software, and online tutorials that the patron truly appreciated.

ad.connor suggested 5 web sites that offered authoritative information on hypoallergenic dogs and went so far as to add a medical disclaimer.

Congratulations this month go out to Dee (OhioLink) and ad.Kay (AfterDark).  Searching for articles can be a daunting task for patrons when they are presented with so many options like library databases and internet sites.  Both Dee and ad.kay assisted their patrons in navigating through a variety of authoritative resources in searching for articles and show that teaching is also an important role of the library profession.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010, 10:30 a.m.

Attendance: Don Boozer, Wendy Ensor, Michelle Makkos, Cheryl Lubow, Katie Blocksidge

This Email of the Month posting examines an interesting interaction that took place entirely by email. The patron obviously had a difficult time connecting to a librarian on the live service (for any number of possible reasons not spelled out in their initial question). The question was asked at 10:52 AM on a Saturday. Later that day, one of our Kent State University School of Library and Information Science (KSU SLIS) interns responded with an authoritative answer along with citation information! The patron asked a follow-up question that Sunday morning to which a reply was sent by another of our interns later that same day. A couple days later, the patron had yet another follow-up to which Emma at Rocky River Public Library emailed an encyclopedia article to answer the question. The ability of various librarians to seamlessly respond to patron questions via email is demonstrated beautifully with this series of interactions in March.

Congratulations this month go to Librarian04 (Cleveland Public Library, Social Sciences), and ad.rhiannon (AfterDark).

Both librarians provided authoritative resources, communicated easily with the patrons, and received glowing comments from the patrons in the follow-up surveys.  Both librarians also made sure their patrons were satisfied before closing the conversations.  Librarian04, especially, waited for the patron to say "bye" first before logging off.

In keeping with the QuACK goal of sharing exemplary work from the KnowItNow24x7 librarians, the following is an email transaction answered by the leave-a-message answering librarians. This month we recognize one of KIN24x7’s interns from Kent State University, Kris.

Kris has done a great job of circumventing the patron’s request for an opinion (“Do you think…”) and providing historical documents and a magazine article that directly address the question posed.

-- Original Question Entered by Guest --