If It's Tuesday, This Must be Maryland or,

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If It's Tuesday, This Must be Marylandor,
What We've Learned in our Two Years of
Participation in a National Virtual
ReferenceConsortium

• Cheryl Becker
• Stef Morrill
• South Central Library System

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About SCLS

• 51 libraries one county library service
• 7 counties
• Total population over 760,000
• Largest population 217,935
• Smallest 324
• 40 are in LINK consortium (shared catalog)

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About SCLS
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Our Goal
Equalize reference service among our libraries

• Whether large or small
• Whether or not they have reference staff
• During all hourswhether theyre open, or closed.

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The 24/7 Reference Cooperative

• Began at Metropolitan Cooperative Library System
  (MCLS) in Los Angeles area
• Customized commercial tools to serve libraries
  needs
• Built national cooperatives for academic and
  public libraries
• 500 libraries
• Became part of OCLC in 2004 transition complete
  end of 2005

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Why We Chose the 24/7 Reference Cooperative

• 24/7 service to patrons
• Follow up and transfer capabilities
• Support from the 24/7 community
• Price
• Software

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Cooperative means more for less

• Policies, scheduling, scripts, databases,
  troubleshooting
• We contribute 10 hours per week coverage
• We receive coverage for our patrons
• 24 hours per day
• 7 days per week
• 365 days per year

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AskAway by the numbers
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Policies
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How the policy pages work

• (How can Maryland answer our patrons?)
• Librarian gets question
• Software provides link to policy page for
  patrons library
• Illustration
• Howd they do that?

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Scheduling
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Communicating with other librarians

• To notify when transferring
• To notify about problem patrons
• To notify 24/7 about technical problems

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Shared electronic resources
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Using librarys own resources
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Follow-up
Step 1 Answering librarian codes question for
follow-up
Step 2 AskAway librarian responds to question
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Examples of follow-up questions
I have a book being held for me until the 29th
of April. Unfortunately, Im out of the country
until the 29thwould it be possible to pick it
up on the 30th?
Do you have a copy of the Stevens Point
Journal From 12-17-1910? I am looking for a
reference to a Bessie Thulen, for my family
history search.
what is the name and /or recording artist of a
1980s? song that has in its lyrics "a Chicago
girl and a Waunakee boy" ?
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Experts
Local
National
Health Librarians
Wisconsin State Law Library
California Culinary School
Ask Joan of Art
Museum of Tolerance
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Quality Control
Survey responses
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Quality Control
Transcripts
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Marketing vs. Publicity

• Publicity, PR, promotion are only PART of
  marketing
• Promotion is effective only if the marketing
  foundation is sound

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King County Library System University of
Washington

• Virtual Reference Services Marketing Guidelines
• www.secstate.wa.gov/library/libraries/
  projects/virtualRef/textdocs/Marketing
  Guidelines.pdf

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Marketing Plan

• Staff buy-in (ongoing)
• Goals and objectives
• Target audience
• Name, logo, and tagline
• Usability testing
• Publicity and promotion
• Evaluation (ongoing)

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Promotion Beyond bookmarks and posters

• Kickoff (and trinkets)
• Media events
• Proclamation
• Virtual Press Room

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Challenge attracting NEW users

• Beyond those bookmarks and posters!
• Getting the word out to people who never come IN
  to the library
• Words
• library?
• reference?
• Movie ads?

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Did it work?
? ? ? ?
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Did it work?

• Maybe. . .
• BUT, it WAS good PR for libraries

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The Future
Brians Future from clikkids.org
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The Big Merger
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The Big Merger
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New pricing model
Service Unit Profile
Base Management Environment
Cooperative coverage
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• Cheryl Becker
• cbecker_at_scls.lib.wi.us
• Stef Morrill
• smorrill_at_scls.lib.wi.us