Ask a Librarian Blog

Wow! You can definitely tell August is back to school month.   While the first half of August was fairly quiet (1,601 chats from August 1-15), we definitely saw users return with the school bell.   The second half of the month Ask a Librarian had 2,134 live chat sessions.

Overall, Ask a Librarian assisted 4,079 via live chat and 1,275 via email.

In order to get statistics out for your monthly reports, I am posting a quick post today and will have a detailed post next week.

• Live Chat

• Email

Usage by Time and Day Charts

We are excited to introduce Ask a Librarian’s new Spanish interface!

The page provides an interface for Spanish speakers to have questions answered in their native language by you!   The site offers users direct contact via email to their local library.  The portal also provides access to valuable information such as the About Us (Sobre Nosotros) and FAQ (Buscar Respuestas) sections, the “What are people asking now?” scrolling text, LSTA information, and other page components in the Spanish language.

If you have staff available to answer questions from your Spanish-speaking users and would like a Spanish interface for your library system, please contact us today.

Ask a Librarian would like to thank the following individuals for their unending assistance and patience in the translations for the new Spanish portal

:

• Tatiana Alvarez, St. Petersburg Public Library
• Sandra Lopez, Hialeah Public Library
• Maria Palacio, Lee County Public Library System
• Jorge Perez, St. Petersburg College

New College of Florida (Jane Bancroft Cook Library) has joined Ask a Librarian and should be live this month.

Please take a moment to welcome them when you see them online!