Re: [libraryh3lp] Digest for libraryh3lp@googlegroups.com - 1 update in 1 topic

[Paula Martin]

Jen,

My library situation is similar to yours. I think one option is changing the message that is in the box where students type. Right now, ours says "Type here to chat. Press ENTER to send." It could be changed to give a message to have patience, as we may be helping others.

The other option would be to put it in your website, near the chat box, if that's the way most of your chats come in. I am not guaranteeing that they will read it :) but it might help a little. 

I do try to explain this when I introduce chat to classes as part of library instruction, but I understand that doesn't reach every student.

On Wed, Nov 12, 2014 at 2:21 AM, <libra...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

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• Patrons starting chat and leaving quickly - 1 Update

Patrons starting chat and leaving quickly

Jen <jennife...@maine.edu>: Nov 11 04:41PM -0800 We've been having problems with patrons starting a chat and then leaving very quickly before we can respond. I'd really love to know if there's tricks other libraries are using that help patrons understand they may need to give librarians a minute or two to respond.   Our specifics, if it helps: - Small academic library; most of the time we have one librarian assigned to chat, but that person is also responsible for being the point person for in-person interactions at the main information desk that student workers can't handle, so there are times we're gone for a minute or two. (About 10 feet away: we can hear the sound go for the chat.)   - Our chat is often very quiet - on a busy day, we might get two questions in a 2 hour desk shift, and there are lots of times we get none. We feel like it's a great outreach, and we've been getting more uses over time (and toward the end of semester), but it's obviously not the main way we interact with library users.   - People seem to respond well if we can get to them immediately, but often disappear if we don't get to them within the first 30-60 seconds. We've already started being clear with instruction classes (when we go over library tools) that they should give us a minute. That seems to be helping, but of course, not everyone hears it in an instruction session, or remembers it.   - We're not entirely opposed to having more than one person log in to chat as backup, but because of varying schedules/etc. it's really tricky to arrange a schedule of backup coverage. (Because people have varying meetings/etc. that change week to week.) If you're doing this, I'd be really curious how it works for you.

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