[Answerland] Staffing the QuestionPoint 24/7 Cooperative

[Tamara Ottum]

Hello everyone,

As part of our QuestionPoint subscription for Answerland, we are part of the QuestionPoint 24/7 Reference Cooperative - a group which is staffed by librarians from participating libraries around the globe as well as QuestionPoint backup staff.  You can learn more about the Cooperative here<http://www.oclc.org/support/services/questionpoint/24-7Cooperative.en.html>.

In return for round-the-clock chat service, we are required to contribute to the Cooperative. (Some of you may remember participating in the Coop when Answerland was using QuestionPoint several years ago.) To meet our required contribution percentage, OCLC recommended that we start out staffing the 24/7 queue at the same times we staff the Oregon queue. Then after a month or two I would review how it's going and OCLC would review our contribution, and we would adjust our staffing accordingly.

However, several libraries have expressed some apprehension about staffing the 24/7 Coop immediately when Answerland relaunches. I understand that people are nervous about using the new software, and also about answering questions from all over the U.S. and even some from other countries. I do want to assure everyone that helping patrons from out of state really isn't very different from helping our own Oregon patrons, and that it can actually be fun helping a wider variety of patrons.

That being said, I have discussed these concerns with OCLC and we have decided to hold off staffing the Cooperative until after the new year. This will give us time to become comfortable with the software and also some time to learn about best practices for working with global patrons.

In the meantime, OCLC has asked me to put together a small group of select libraries/librarians who would be willing to start staffing the Cooperative sometime this fall. We will use this group's experiences to determine if training is necessary and if so, how we should focus that training to best help the remainder of the Answerland librarians. If you are willing to be part of this group, please let me know.

As always, if you have any questions please let me know.
-Tamara


Tamara Ottum, Virtual Reference Librarian
Library Support & Development Services Division of the Oregon State Library
503-378-6506
tamara.ottum at state.or.us<mailto:tamara.ottum at state.or.us>
Ask me about Answerland<https://www.answerland.org/>!

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