Ask a Librarian - Florida's Virtual Reference Service

Exemplary Reference Winners

Thurs, 17 Dec 2009 12:03:14 -0500

The Quality Assurance Workgroup has been hard at work and has awarded the following transcripts for October 2009 Exemplary Reference Awards of the Month. Transcripts were awarded in three categories: Best Detailed Chat, Best Brief Chat, and Best Teaching Chat.
Katie Banks, Palm Harbor Library will receive a gift card to Amazon.com for her Exemplary Detailed Chat and all three winners will receive a certificate at a presentation at this next year's annual Florida Library Association Conference. The Ask a Librarian's User Forum is set for April 7th at 1:30 pm.

November Statistics

Mon, 7 Dec 2009 07:00:32 -0500

We had our best November ever!!! Ask a Librarian assisted 5,301 users last month; 4,937 in live chat and 1,008 in email.

November Summary Report

The Director’s Chair Kicks Off!!

Mon, 5 Sep 2009 12:13:04 -0500

I am excited to announce Ask a Librarian is kicking off our 3^rd annual Director’s Chair contest. We are looking for our next PSA.

What is The Director’s Chair?

The Director’s Chair is a video contest for Florida high school students. Create a 30-second video promoting Ask a Librarian for a chance to win some great prizes.

So…what exactly IS Ask a Librarian?

It’s a free online service that allows you to chat with a Florida librarian for instant help with homework, papers and general questions. (Want to learn more? Click here.)

Now that you know what Ask a Librarian is, go out and make a creative and entertaining 30-second video that tells the world just how wonderful Ask a Librarian is. Just submit it here between Oct. 1, 2009, and Jan. 24, 2010 (11:59 p.m.), and the grand prize could be yours.

Be funny! Be serious! Do a spoof! Do a dramedy! Do whatever you want! Just be creative and have fun.

The contest details are online at http://www.tblc.org/aal/directorschair/

New PSA available!

Fri, 4 Sep 2009 11:40:35 -0500

Ask a Librarian has a new PSA available for you to use to promote Ask a Librarian. You can share the video by embedding it from Vimeo. It is already playing on the Knowledge Network and we hope to place it in a few other venues statewide.

Ask a Librarian - 2009 PSA from Ask a Librarian on Vimeo.

Ask a Librarian awards YouTube contest winners

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:19:42 -0400

On Feb. 23, Palm Beach County Library Director John Callahan and Ask a Librarian officials awarded prizes to the winners of The Director's Chair, a contest in which Florida high school students created commercials to promote Ask a Librarian. Although the contest was statewide, all three winners came from the School District of Palm Beach County.
First-place winner Joshua Stadlan is a sophomore from Weinbaum Yeshiva High School in Boca Raton. Casandra Brescacin, a senior from Seminole Ridge High School in Loxahatchee, won second place in the contest, and Elyse Lautenschlager, a senior from Park Vista High School in Lake Worth, won third prize.
"Ask a Librarian is an amazing service, and it was a great tool to use for my huge English research paper," said Stadlan, whose computer-animated video of President Obama using Ask a Librarian earned the most votes. "I've told quite a few friends about the service."
A panel of judges narrowed all the entries down to five finalists, and the public determined the three winners by voting online.
Visit www.askalibrarian.org/thedirectorschair to see the winners' videos.

Ask a Librarian day was a success!

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:31:02 -0500

Our first Ask a Librarian Day was this past Friday, and thanks to the enthusiastic participation and abundant creativity of our librarians, it was a complete SUCCESS! We had about a 75 percent increase in usage from the previous weekend, and we know that your word-of-mouth marketing efforts caused our numbers to jump. We couldn’t have asked for better results! Read more...

Ask a Librarian Day

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:49:33 -0500

Although there won't be noisemakers or confetti, librarians all over the state will celebrate Ask a Librarian Day on Feb. 20 to bring awareness to Ask a Librarian, a free online reference service that allows Floridians to chat with a librarian for help with homework or general questions. Read more...

Two New Libraries joining Ask a Librarian

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:26:13 -0500

We are really excited to announce Hernando County Public Library and Marion County Public Library System will be joining Ask a Librarian in February.

December Statistics

Wed, 7 Jan 2009 21:10:03 -0500

In December, we had 21% increase from the previous December in usage. Considering we were closed for a week and a half with the holidays (we did not have this shut down in 2007), we really had an incredible month with 2,312 live chat sessions and 901 email sessions.
Ask a Librarian December General Statistic Report
Chat By Entry Point (Dec08)
Email by Entry Point (Dec08)
Usage by County

Ask a Librarian 2007 - 2008 Annual Report

Wed, 7 Jan 2009 12:03:37 -0500

Ask a Librarian's 2007 - 2008 Annual Report has been posted and is available for viewing as a 1.05 MB PDF.

October Exemplary Reference Awards

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:28:27 -0500

The Quality Assurance Workgroup has been hard at work and has awarded the following transcripts for October 2008 Exemplary Reference Awards of the Month. Transcripts were awarded in three categories: Best Detailed Chat, Best Brief Chat, and Best Teaching Chat. Katie Tyler from Winter Park Public Library will receive a gift card to Amazon.com for her Exemplary Detailed Chat and all three winners will receive a certificate at a presentation at next year's Florida Library Association Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.

The Director’s Chair - Take Two!

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:04:25 -0400

We are getting ready to launch our second year of The Director’s Chair, a contest in which Florida high school students create 30-second videos to promote Ask a Librarian. Read more...

Ask a Librarian expands service with new software: Instant Service provides unlimited growth potential for Ask a Librarian

Mon, 6 Oct 2008 19:57:54 -0400

After five years of progressive and reliable virtual reference service, Ask a Librarian migrated on October 1 to a software platform provided by InstantService. The statewide service has increased in usage by almost 200 percent and in participating libraries by more than 150 percent since its 2003 inception, with strong continued growth expected. InstantService’s range and flexibility provides unlimited support for Ask a Librarian’s growing needs. "With the level of growth our service has experienced, we are excited to introduce this fantastic – and quite necessary – new software platform," said Diana Sachs-Silveira, virtual reference manager for Ask a Librarian. "This is a positive change that allows us to provide even better, faster service to our users."

New Software

Sat, 9 Aug 2008 14:49:52 GMT

Ask a Librarian officials announced today that they signed a contract with InstantService to provide Ask a Librarian's new software platform. The statewide service has increased in usage by almost 200 percent and in participating libraries by more than 150 percent since its 2003 inception, with strong continued growth expected. InstantService's range and flexibility will provide unlimited support for Ask a Librarian's growing needs.
Read more...

University of Central Florida Joining Ask a Librarian

Tue, 20 May 2008 18:38:05 GMT

We are excited to announce the University of Central Florida is joining Ask a Librarian. They will begin staffing Ask a Librarian in the next few weeks.

Get to know the Quality Assurance Workgroup

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 19:14:16 GMT

Ever wonder who decides on the Exemplary Reference Awards each month? Now you can find out by checking out the biographies of the Quality Assurance Workgroup.

Invitation to Negotiate

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 13:07:20 GMT

After five years of live virtual reference service, Ask a Librarian is taking a moment to reevaluate our software platform. We have the opportunity to evaluate and accept proposals for a new software platform for Ask a Librarian. We want to ensure that we have the best software available to enhance Ask a Librarian's interface and our users' experience. This is an exciting time for Ask a Librarian, as we have a great opportunity to build on the success of the last five years. We have decided to issue an Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) for virtual reference software, which is found below. We are inviting any company interested in working with Ask a Librarian to respond by Monday, April 28, 2008.
The ITN and additional information is available at http://info.askalibrarian.org/itn.asp.

New Participating Libraries

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:31:41 GMT

We are happy to announce the Keiser University Libraries have joined Ask a Librarian and will begin staffing the service this week.

The Director's Chair winners

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 05:16:12 GMT

The Director's Chair winners were announced today. Find out who won and watch the winning commercials.

Ask a Librarian Mobile

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:06:11 GMT

People don't just need us when they're sitting in front of their computers. They need us when they're driving across the state, or ordering dinner in a restaurant, or playing Trivial Pursuit with their friends. We proudly introduce Ask a Librarian Mobile, which allows our users to access Ask a Librarian from their cell phones, PDAs or any other handheld device. We’ve been working hard to take our service to the next level, and we're excited to offer just one more way for our users to take advantage of our valuable service right when they need us. Currently, only our email service is available through AAL Mobile. The URL for the mobile interface is http://www.askalibrarian.org/mobile/ or http://www.askalibrarian.org/m. Our next step is to implement the live chat service. We’ll keep you posted on our progress.

New Participating Libraries

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 03:06:50 GMT

Two new libraries began staffing Ask a Librarian in January, Fort Walton Beach Library and Warner Southern College.