[Libs-Or] Sleepless in Salem? - a Job Opportunity!
Robert Schroeder
schroedr at pdx.edu
Mon Mar 19 14:02:02 PDT 2012
Hello All,
I just got wind of a request process going on to staff L-Net after hours
(see below) . It's kind of late in the game for this year - the
proposals are due by Friday March 30th, and the last day for questions
to Sue Robinson ( 503 988 3355) is this Friday, March 23rd. If you call
Sue Robinson you can get a copy of the full Request for Proposals and
also a spread sheet of the times that need to be covered as well as the
number of questions that typically happen during those hours.
I just thought it would be great for an enterprising Oregon Librarian
to put together a proposal that might help keep more librarians in
Oregon working - and doing great L-Net work at that!
-Bob Schroeder
*Request for Intermediate Proposals (RIP)
for Virtual Reference Service Provider
March 1, 2012
PROPOSALS DUE: Friday, March 30, 2012 4:00 PM PT
Refer Questions in Writing to:
Sue Robinson
Senior Procurement Analyst
205 NE Russell Street
503-988-3355 Fax 503-988-5511
suer at multcolib.org
* *The last day for questions regarding this solicitation is Friday,
March 23, 2012-- 2:00 PM PT
**Submit Proposals to the Attention of:
Multnomah County
Department of Libraries
Attention Sue Robinson
205 NE Russell Street
503-988-3355 Fax 503-988-5511
suer at multcolib.org*
Proposals by fax, Proposals by email
Here is the first part of the RIP:
INTRODUCTION: Beginning in 2003, The Multnomah County Library (MCL)
received a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant from the
Oregon State Library to coordinate a statewide virtual reference
service, L-net. L-net provides access to a reference librarian via live
chat, text messaging and e-mail to everyone who lives, works or goes to
school in Oregon. 39 libraries in Oregon work together to deliver the
service roughly Monday-Friday, 9am-8pm Pacific Time, plus some weekend
hours, and a virtual reference service provider extends the hours to 24
hours a day, 7 days a week.
The Library is seeking a virtual reference service provider to extend
the hours to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for July 1 2012 to June 30,
2013. The provider should employ librarians who have experience in
libraries as well as experience providing virtual reference. The
provider and their employees should be willing to follow L-net's service
philosophy (www.oregonlibraries.net/philosophy) and rubric for quality
in virtual reference (http://www.oregonlibraries.net/notable) when
delivering virtual reference service to L-net patrons.
SCOPE OF WORK: The Library currently provides virtual reference service
via live chat, e-mail and text messaging. The Library is seeking to
contract a virtual reference service provider to deliver chat and text
messaging reference service through our SparkRef instant messaging
client, as well as new formats that can be integrated into that client
in the future.
SparkRef is a modified version of Spark from Jive Software. It is a
Java-based instant messaging client and is available for Windows,
Macintosh and Linux. It can be downloaded from
www.oregonlibraries.net/spark and test logins are available upon request.
The library seeks staffing (all times Pacific): Sunday: Midnight to
1:59pm, 7:00pm to 11:59pm
Monday -- Thursday: Midnight to 8:59am, 8:00pm to 11:59pm
Friday: Midnight to 8:59am, 5:00pm to 11:59pm
Saturday: Midnight to 9:59am, 2:00pm to 11:59pm
For these hours, our service is generally busiest during the school year
(mid-September to June) during the hours of our local coverage, 9am-8pm.
The rest of the time, traffic averages fewer than five patrons per hour.
Attached is a spreadsheet detailing traffic by hour on our service from
February 1, 2011 to January 31, 2012, and broken out by weekends vs.
weekdays.
In delivering service, librarians will follow L-net's service philosophy
(www.oregonlibraries.net/philosophy) and rubric for quality in virtual
reference (http://www.oregonlibraries.net/notable). Specifically,
librarians will:
1. Respond to queries in a reasonable amount of time. Patrons should
wait less than one minute for service.
2. Greet patrons with a friendly and welcoming tone.
3. Conduct a reference interview to clarify the patron's request.
4. Use authoritative sources to answer questions, including licensed
resources available to Oregon citizens. The Library will provide access
to these for the contractor.
5. Ask follow-up questions to confirm the patron's needs are met.
6. Offer additional help to each patron.
7. Offer to refer patrons to L-net's follow-up service when questions
can't be answered in live chat. The SparkRef software provides an easy
way to refer patrons to local or subject expect librarians.
--
"OCCUPY RESEARCH!"
_________________________________________________________
Robert Schroeder
Education and University Studies Librarian,
Coordinator of Library General Education Instruction
Associate Professor
Portland State University
503.725.4519 phone
503.725.4524 fax
schroedr at pdx.edu
P.O Box 1151
Portland OR 97207-1151
280F Millar Library
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/libs-or/attachments/20120319/9f1b88d8/attachment.html>
More information about the Libs-Or
mailing list