[Libs-Or] L-net has changing software and is expanding roles

[TUCKER-RAYMOND Caleb]

Hello!

Two weeks ago, L-net, Oregon's statewide reference service, switched to
an open-source software platform to deliver live chat and e-mail
reference service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

For over 5 years, we have been a centralized service. Now we are now
able to expanding our role to also become a utility that every Oregon
library can use to provide online reference service to their own
community.

L-net has two goals:

The first is to provide quality online reference service to all
Oregonians. Last year, we served over 21,000 people with our live chat
and e-mail service, most of whom identified themselves as kids. 

Our second goal is to provide workers in Oregon libraries with skills
and tools to deliver online reference service. 

We hope that our new software, Jive Software's OpenFire, FastPath and
Spark suite of Enterprise Instant Messaging tools will help us realize
our second goal in the same way that our previous software provider,
OCLC QuestionPoint, helped us to grow into such a busy service.

Please visit us anytime at www.oregonlibraries.net.


Caleb Tucker-Raymond

Oregon Statewide Reference Service Coordinator
Multnomah County Library
(503) 988-5438
calebt at multcolib.org
AIM/Y!: calebMCL
www.oregonlibraries.net