As mentioned previously, INFOhio has included KnowItNow24x7 as one of the 21 Essential Things for 21st Century Success. This is a reminder to use the INFOhio canned response when the patron identifies themselves as using the learning modules.

Jennifer Schwelik, an Educational Consultant at INFOhio, recently shared some feedback from one of the current 275 INFOhio participants:

I was able to connect with a knowitnow rep in about a minute Sunday evening. He sent me a link to www.knowitnow.org and then sent another message telling me he had sent me a link to a web site. Well, I kind of realized that the blue text with http:// in front of it was a web site, and it also happened to be the site I was on. ????
He told me about the service and I asked a few more in-depth questions. Basically, and he concurred, knowitnow24x7 is a human search engine, removing any search results that would not be helpful for students. I can appreciate that, but one skill we must teach students is how to examine search results and immediately weed out the probably unhelpful ones. He explained that knowitnow personnel do not tutor, they just send web sites. This might be helpful to younger students. Given the time, efficiency, and end result, I would not recommend this at the high school level unless I had exhausted all other possibilities. By the way, the grammar and punctuation of the person with whom I chatted was not very correct, and I think it should be. I will not use this tool in my professional life.

A couple points - both positive and negative - struck me as I read this email:

1. Good pick-up time. Well done.
2. Unfortunately, the web resource sent had already been examined by the patron. The actual transcript was not shared, so it was not possible to see if there was follow-up.
3. "knowitnow24x7 is a human search engine": Searching is a big part of what KIN24x7 librarians do, but I would hope, as information professionals, that we do more than "just send web sites." Encouraging critical thinking and explaining why a resource was sent is an important part of KIN24x7 as well. We need to provide authoritative information as well as encourage our users to be able to identify authoritative sources.
4. "I would not recommend this at the high school level unless I had exhausted all other possibilities": I don't actually have an issue with this, but it emphasizes the fact that KIN24x7 librarians need to be ready to dig deeper. It is likely that users coming to us have already done their Google and Wikipedia "research."
5. The feedback also calls attention to the importance of grammar and punctuation.
6. All that is needed is for one negative interaction for word to spread to others to not use the service.

On the other hand, here is a positive interaction that another INFOhio participant had:

Question: Hello, I'm working on the INFOhio "21 Essential Things" module and am trying out the KnowItNow24x7 service. Could you please respond and show me how the service works?
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This is the conversation you had with our agent
[9:39:06 AM] Guest has joined the room
[9:39:06 AM] ad.Jeanne has joined the room
[9:39:09 AM] Guest : Hello, I'm working on the INFOhio "21 Essential Things" module and am trying out the KnowItNow24x7 service. Could you please respond and show me how the service works?
[9:39:20 AM] ad.Jeanne: Hello. You've connected to your 24x7 online reference service staffed by librarians across the state. Please wait one moment while I take a look at your question.
[9:39:30 AM] ad.Jeanne: We're glad you're testing our service out before using it with your students. As you can see, we can chat in this text box, and I can share web pages the same way. For example, here is the INFOhio webpage - http://www.infohio.org . If you entered your email when you logged in, you'll also receive a message containing a copy of our conversation after we're finished. You and your students are welcome to use this service anytime. In fact, it is funded by a federal LSTA grant awarded by the State Library of Ohio and is made available at no charge to all Ohio citizens. To find out more, feel free to check out our "About" page at http://www.knowitnow.org/about.php . Is there anything else I can help with today?
[9:40:33 AM] Guest : If a student logs in and needs database information, how do you help him/her?
[9:40:48 AM] ad.Jeanne: we refer to either Infohio or Ohioweblibrary
[9:41:14 AM] ad.Jeanne: we instruct them on which database to use ,,, how they can search them
[9:41:30 AM] Guest : Thank you!!!
[9:41:46 AM] ad.Jeanne: ok you are welcome
[9:41:59 AM] ad.Jeanne: do you need anything else?
[9:42:26 AM] ad.Jeanne: http://www.infohio.org/
[9:42:39 AM] ad.Jeanne: http://www.ohioweblibrary.org/
[9:43:48 AM] ad.Jeanne: I haven’t heard from you in a while so I will need to end the session. Please log back in if you need further help
[9:43:51 AM] ad.Jeanne has left the room
[9:43:56 AM] Guest has left the room