LibChat was purchased in August 2013 with the intention of replacing Digsby's chat service. Reasons for this switch include:
- Better integration. LibChat is a Springshare product and will work seamlessly with our existing BUAnswers and SMS reference systems. We also benefit from having one less system to log into and monitor.
- More stable, supported platform. Digsby's blog has not been updated since 2011, and as we all know, tech tools can easily fade away or cut services. On the otherhand, Springshare is a very stable platform with an excellent service record that we know we can count on.
- Ability to gather more student feedback - and give them something to "take away." LibChat will allow us to gather comments and ratings at the end of a chat transaction. It also allows students to email the chat transcript to him/herself.
How it will work:
An IC department/system widget will be embedded into several prominent areas of the website, LibGuides and BUAnswers. This chat queue will be the "main line of virtual reference defense." Answering these messages (and SMS and twitter messages) will continue to be the responsibility of Information Commons students.
Librarians are encouraged to log into LibChat whenever they are "available" because IC students will be able to transfer questions directly to any librarian that is logged in (no matter which queue the question came from or whether the librarian has set up any personal chats.)
Library staff are encouraged to log in to be available for easier inter-library communication.
Additionally librarians who wish can create their own personal chat widgets and embed them into their LibGuides profiles, Subject Guides, or Moodle courses. Departments can be created as well if there is a need for multiple people to cover a single chat queue (for example, we can create a Business department if both Teresa and Jessica want to monitor chats coming from Business Guides).
What we hope to achieve with LibChat:
- Improved virtual reference experience and (hopefully) increase virtual reference interactions. LibChat is the only chat service that allows us to automatically gather feedback at the end of a transaction; we can use this feedback to continue to improve our virtual reference services. Through more intentional marketing and more thorough integration of chat in LibGuides and other Library/IC pages, we hope to increase virtual reference stats as well.
- Easier communication amongst staff. Students at both desks (and over in CAT) will have the ability to communicate easily. They also will have the ability to seamlessly refer reference questions to librarians on the chat system.
- Give library staff a new tool to connect with subject areas and other areas on campus. Again, LibChat is suggested as a better option than Digsby, and we hope that librarians use it to create personal chat widgets to embed within Subject Guides or course pages. We also welcome conversations about other ways to use this tool for outreach.
