On last Friday, I had the opportunity to speak with a group of directors meeting at Minerva Public Library on how KnowItNow24x7 worked and what benefits could be had by participating. Before the meeting, I had the chance to look around the library and took several photos of the Children's Department. Lovely library and the artwork was stunning...
dboozer's blog
Beautiful Example of Dealing with a Prankster
I was trying out some different searches with our new transcript feature when I came across the following session from November that I had to share. It's from Ozzie@Sinclair (who has made several appearances on the QuACK blog). This session beautifully illustrates what happens when each patron's initial question is taken seriously. (SPOILER: There are several profanities in the session transcript)
New Favorite Search Engine
SMS Reminders
I had someone ask a couple questions today about answering SMS questions and thought this would be a good opportunity to revisit some of the procedures involved in responding to these kinds of messages. The manual is always available online, too. You also have access to all the texting articles we've done on the Provider site as well. If those don't answer questions you might have, don't hesitate to email support@knowitnow.org or give me a call.
1) Don't chat with SMS QUESTION.
"Thank You" and Holiday Wishes
As the holidays are upon us, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank each and every librarian - public, academic, special, AfterDark - who serves patrons on our collaborative statewide virtual reference service. The literally thousands of sessions handled on the service this past year were made possible by your commitment to the project.
Statewide Database Experiment
I mentioned I'd be using my blog entries to talk about topics that required more length than a Coordinator's Corner entry in the monthly newsletter. This post fits that description. In light of our recent issues (now resolved: Thanks, OPLIN!) with Science Online, I decided to do a little experimenting with some of the other statewide databases available to us all. I looked at four of the most popular ones: EBSCOHost Masterfile Premier, Newsbank, Biography Reference Bank, and World Book Advanced.
Welcome To My Blog
I would like to welcome everyone to the official KIN24x7 Coordinator's blog. The purpose of this will be to highlight information that falls outside things that might show up in the Monthly Newsletter, in an Update, or in a story for the Provider site. Sometimes, I may call attention to a blog entry in those venues; other times we'll let the blog entries speak for themselves.
Screencasting Software Options
A posting to the BUSLIB listserv was shared with me listing a number of screencasting and screenshot applications. It included both free and commercial software. Having talked about screencasting before (here, here, and here), I wanted to share this list with KIN24x7 librarians considering a venture into this area. I had heard of a couple of these and have used Jing, Wink, and Captivate, but had never seen this comprehensive of a list before. Please note, this is not meant to be an endorsement of any one software package. Investigate each offering, and see what might work best for you and your library.
Happy screencasting!
KIN24x7 at OLBPD
I had the opportunity to speak today at the Family Fun Day held at the Ohio Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled (OLBPD). Will Reed, the manager of OLBPD, graciously invited me to introduce KnowItNow24x7 to the attendees at the day's events.After briefly describing what KIN24x7 did, I encouraged them to also try the instant messaging services connected to us (i.e., AOL, Yahoo!, and MSN).
