Total Chat traffic in NC in 2009

Last year we saw a slight increase in NCknows’ traffic over 2008. However, because some other libraries in NC were offering their own chat reference options, that increase was merely the tip of the NC chat reference iceberg. We now have a better idea of how many questions were asked with chat in NC:




The total amount of questions asked by chat reference by all NC patrons was a whopping 47,006. NCknows traffic comprises about 22% of that. Here is the breakdown based on the traffic reported by these libraries' independent chat services (not their NCknows traffic):

Questions
NCknows 10264
UNCCH 10000
Duke 8732
NCSU 8212
PLCMC 3952
UNCW 1998
ASU 1948
UNCG 1795
NC LIVE 105


The good news is that this is likely the portrait of the chattiest year in NC’s history. More people are chatting with librarians than ever before. This is mostly due to the academics that have been adding widgets to their website and staffing them. However it is interesting to note that even with some of NC's biggest libraries diverting substantial traffic to their independent services, NCknows was still able to increase its total over last year. My guess is that people have come to accept and expect to chat online with libraries (and companies and friends and coworkers, etc). NC LIVE’s traffic reflects December only, the first full month they have offered chat.

Even though academics are far outpacing publics in total chats, we saw that when a public did offer the widget, as in PLCMC’s case, traffic grew similarly. When I speak with other public libraries about adding widgets, the main stumbling block to offering the service is staff time. Currently, libraries must monitor their own widgets during the hours they want the widget to appear. My hope is that this will change soon as ways of sharing widget traffic become possible (with Questionpoint, the ability to roll traffic from widgets up to the backup staff is becoming technologically possible and with Libraryh3lp, where the technology has always made sharing traffic possible, the feasibility of a multi-state backup coop is being explored- more on this soon I hope.)

All in all, there was a shockingly dramatic increase in people being helped by NC librarians through chat in 2009.

Welcome NCCU!

North Carolina Central University is now helping to monitor NCknows on Monday nights 5-7. Thanks to Ife Grady and Elizabeth "Libby" Gorman for working with me to get the training and scheduling together for NCCU.

Excellence

Here is another great transcript from Nina Exner (NCAT), who is able to bring a very helpful, conversational and informative tone to her calls. Plus she is sending messages at a very frequent rate (check the timestamps!) Thank Nina!

Question History
Patron:
20:41:36 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Chat Transcript: Looking for sociological articles on satire and society
Librarian:
20:41:36 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Note: Patron's screen name: (ANONYMOUS)
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:41:42 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Librarian 'NC A&T Librarian Nina' has joined the session.
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:41:50 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I'm glad you logged back in!
Patron:
20:42:04 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Sorry about that! We got disconnected somehow
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:42:09 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I'm sorry for that; my computer's having issues and I disconnected you accidentally trying to get it to behave
Patron:
20:42:22 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) haha, no problem
Patron:
20:42:38 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Did you get my last couple of messages regarding my topic?
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:43:02 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Yes! I sent you a book review on a book called "Good Humor, Bad Taste: A Sociology of the Joke."
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:43:20 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I don't have access to the book, but the book review talks some abotu the conclusions in it. So it might be a little helpful
Patron:
20:43:39 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Ok, thanks! Did that go to my e-mail address?
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:44:40 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I hope so ;) And the one we discussed earlier too
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:44:44 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Can you check for me?
Patron:
20:45:08 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Yes, they are in my inbox
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:45:21 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I have another possibility, "Humor styles and personality-vulnerability to depression." from the International Journal of Humor Research. Is that in line with what you're thinking of, or is that too psychological?
Patron:
20:45:32 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Do you think I can find enough resources to write on this topic?
Patron:
20:45:57 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I don't know, I'd be willing to read the abstract and make a call. Do you mind sending that one along as well?
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:46:11 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I'd be happy to
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:46:30 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) There's alot more on sociology of humor in general than specifically on satire, fortunately
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:47:21 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) There are two humor papers that might interest you from the American Sociological Association's 2008 annual conference. One is "Class Differences in Volunteers' Group Process Preferences and Humor Styles." The other is "Laughing Matters: The Stand-Up Comedian as Social Observer, Teacher and Conduit of the Sociological Imagination."
Patron:
20:47:44 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) well, I could try to use some of those articles to form the base of my essay, and from that make some further comments about satire
Patron:
20:48:28 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I'd at least like to open the discussion, because I suspect there is a lot to be said in that regard
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:48:39 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Those are more indirect to your topic, yeah. But maybe you could tie them in? For example, talk about how satirical television is expanding on the one-person satire of stand up
Patron:
20:48:54 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I'm a little surprised there has not been more research done on the topic. I guess it flies a little below the radar
Patron:
20:49:09 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Yes that's what I'm thinking
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:50:25 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) It may also be a terminology issue. As I look through the humor abstracts I'm seeing satirical, satirist, parody, and alot of other word-variants I didn't get with my initial search for satire
Patron:
20:50:44 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Perhaps another approach would be to discuss (and this assumes there is sociological research on this topic) the ways that societies make judgments about themselves and/or the lenses through which a society can view itself
Patron:
20:51:09 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) and from there tie in the role of tv sponsored satire
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:51:21 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) That sounds like a good framework for it, yeah.
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:53:26 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Outside of sociology, I find, "The Language of Laughter: A Quantitative/Qualitative Fusion Examining Television Narrative and Humor." from the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media,
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:53:47 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) and "Political Satire and Postmodern Irony in the Age of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart." from the Journal of Popular Culture,
Patron:
20:53:48 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) that sounds very interesting
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:54:11 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) and ""I Am Not Down with That": King of the Hill and Sitcom Satire." from the Journal of Film & Video,
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:54:20 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) but those are all getting away from the sociology angle
Patron:
20:54:48 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Yes. And I know I need to be careful about being to argumentative
Patron:
20:54:59 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Sometimes I have trouble with that. =)
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:55:22 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) lol :) It's hard to write in a neutral tone when doing research papers though
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:55:38 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Do you want any or all of those three articles?
Patron:
20:56:03 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Yes, please send them along. Even if they aren't exactly what I need they might help direct my thoughts
Patron:
20:56:55 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Well, do you think we can find some material along the second line of attack? Regarding the mechanisms of societal self-reflection
Patron:
20:57:50 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) It may be that I have to abandon this topic, but I'd hate to do that. I think it's very interesting, and I imagine my professor will find it interesting as well. Seems pertinent.
Patron:
20:58:07 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Thanks again for your assistance Nina!
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:58:19 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I think your professor would find it interesting to look at. There's alot out there; it jsut needs a LOT of synthesis to pull it together
Patron:
20:58:58 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) haha...that's a fair point. unfortunately I'm not in a position to bite off more than I can chew right now
Patron:
20:59:06 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) =)
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
20:59:24 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) The biggest issue with TV as a mechanism for self-reflection is, I think it's too broad for articles. It's really the kind of topic that's more in the book literature
Patron:
20:59:49 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) hmm
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:00:09 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) That's a topic that's likely to have someone constructing a comoplicated model to try to explain the why and how of societal self reflection. They usually get really expansive on that stuff
Patron:
21:00:27 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) You may be right, at least as regards sociology. Which, by the way, is no strong point of mine! =)
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:01:09 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) So while I think it's a good framework, it might not be practical right now. Sociologists tend to build models to describe things when they get into a broader topic like that
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:01:26 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) How long is your paper?
Patron:
21:01:31 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Well maybe I should just shelve this topic for now and think of something with more accessible research. Gender roles, anyone? lol
Patron:
21:01:42 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Uh, 10-15 pages
Patron:
21:02:27 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) And sadly I have no guidance on the topic, just whatever interests me and is represented in sociological research/essays
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:02:53 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Not due tomorrow I hope?
Patron:
21:03:34 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) No - due last semester. =) I have a couple of weeks to finish the incomplete, but I'd like to get it out of the way sooner than later
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:04:00 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Good plan!
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:04:37 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) What you might do is, check with your professor about whether media studies journals are acceptable. If they are then there's alot more to pull from.
Patron:
21:05:22 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) No, I just looked over the requirements again. It needs to be specifically sociological
Patron:
21:05:44 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Well, given your knowledge of whats available, do you have a recommendation for a topic I can look into? I honestly don't care that much, I mostly just want to get it off my back
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:06:17 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Some people could media anthropology as a form of sociology though. It might be worth jsut sending the journal names to see if htey're OK?
Patron:
21:06:33 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) OK, I can do that.
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:07:08 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) A good topic? Maybe something a little vaguer i nthe same area. "How does television reflect the viewing society?" maybe
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:07:22 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Or "What is the role of humor in a society?"
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:07:53 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) They're maybe less interesting, but you could use the same examples you've alreayd been thinking of, but not run out of things to say about it as soon ;)
Patron:
21:08:31 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) OK, well how do you recommend I find articles in those areas? IE, what search strings do you recommend?
Patron:
21:08:51 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I really am more inept in research than I should be after 4 years...=(
Patron:
21:09:16 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) probably doesn't bode well for grad school eg
Patron:
21:09:19 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) *eh
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:09:22 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Not inept at all! Computers are deceptively good at messing with research as well as helping with it
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:10:03 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I'd suggest picking 2-3 key words and connecting them with the word AND. And if you don't like the results with one set of words, switch up rather than going through all of them
Patron:
21:10:45 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) OK
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:10:46 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) So, try "satire AND society" and if that doesn't work try "satirists AND society"
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:11:09 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Even though those words are similar to our brains, the comptuer treats them like totally different words. So it can really mess us up as researchers
Patron:
21:12:08 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Yeah, I didn't know that. I guess the trick is to try try again sometimes!
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:12:33 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Computers are VERY stupid
Patron:
21:12:48 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) lol
Patron:
21:12:55 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Part of me hopes they stay that way =)
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:13:17 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I always have to tell my students things like "If you don't get something for "college" you try changing to "university". Stuff like that. It's very literal, so the terms you put in have to be changed up in lots of different ways
Patron:
21:13:46 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Thank you for the advice. I honestly didn't realize that
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:13:57 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I've probably gone through thirty different search strings to pull the results I sent you, jsut changing terms a little each time I didn't liek what I saw
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:14:06 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Hopefully that will help :)
Patron:
21:14:50 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) really? so it can be somewhat time consuming
Patron:
21:14:54 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I'll keep that in mind
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:16:16 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) To keep it un-time-consuming, just skim the titles. If a title doesn't look interesting, it probably won't be interesting. Don't give it a change jsut in case.
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:16:25 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) And if you get through a few pages and the results don't look good, change terms. Don't keep digging on a search string that's not giving you anything you like.
Patron:
21:16:29 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) It certainly has been a great help to me, and I really appreciate your time. There is nothing quite like being helped by someone - it's always very encouraging. Thanks so much for helping me out!
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:16:47 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) If you don't like what's in those articles, feel free to come back for some different choices!
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:16:56 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I'm glad I could help. It was an interesting question!
Patron:
21:17:41 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) I will! I feel like I've got some good direction now, so hopefully I can start to bang this thing out and get on with my life! Hehe. I hope you have a wonderful evening!
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:17:45 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Have a good evening (ANONYMOUS). Good luck with your paper! Thanks for using the NCknows virtual reference desk
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:17:49 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Librarian ended chat session.
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:17:51 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Note: Set Resolution: Answered
Librarian At NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE U (NC Knows A):
21:17:58 2010/01/12 (GMT-5) Note: Set Description: Research

CPCC goes live with Libraryh3lp

Steve Osler from Central Piedmont Community College has just told me that CPCC has gone live with their Libraryh3lp widget! You can see it here. Yay!

2009: The numbers

NCknows Academic Chats (2008-2009)





NCknows Public Chats (2008-2009)






These two charts detail the volume of chat traffic for the last two years by month. Traffic in 2009, with 10,264 questions, edged out 2008’s traffic, with 9419 questions. The increase in questions, however, was not a consistent climb during the entire year. Academics did rise slowly and consistently above their 2008 performance. All but two months outperformed last year (and one of those months was two chats away from a tie). Publics, however, had a more erratic year. They started off in the spring semester with less traffic than in 2008. In the fall, this trend reversed sharply. The traffic statistics on a library by library basis show that the largest shift occurred with the default queue for the NCknows.org page. Looking at the URLs where patrons found that link, almost half were from NClive.org pages (58% in December, 54% in Nov). Although NC LIVE has begun to feature NCknows more prominently on their pages in the last two months, this was not the case during the busy September and October months. Right before the fall semester, an online meeting encouraging marketing was held, which may have helped increase traffic. Also, student familiarity with this service in general may be increased. It would be instructive to see if these trends happened nationally as well.


What does all this mean? I suspect that traffic will continue to remain at this level and perhaps climb further due to NC LIVE’s 2010 redesign which features NCknows more prominently. The other variable affecting traffic is the use of “widgets” by NCknows libraries. Widgets are webchat applications (see http://libraryh3lp.com/docs/what-do-you-mean-by-widget.html) that we currently offer through Libraryh3lp. Patrons helped through Libraryh3lp widgets are currently not funneled into the normal “NCknows” queues and are therefore not answered by the NCknows librarians. If a library offers a widget, this should theoretically lead to less questions answered through their NCknows link. However, in the two libraries who piloted Libraryh3lp this year, this was not the case. PLCMC, which did offer the widget (and answered 3952 questions through it in 2009) also narrowly beat out their 2008 Questionpoint traffic (1091 questions in 2009 compared to 1076 in 2008.) And UNC Wilmington, who answered 1998 questions through their Libraryh3lp widget, beat out their 2008 Questionpoint traffic handily (207 to 130).


As the experiment with UNCW and PLCMC demonstrates, although Questionpoint traffic increased slightly in 2009, the real potential for helping as many patrons as possible is with widget-based software, like Libraryh3lp. The success of widgets we saw in NC has been duplicated in many other states and libraries. If NC shifted to Libraryh3lp in 2010, we would hope to at least double the number of patrons we could help. Of course this has lots of "side-effects" and could affect aspects of the service such as our hours and the level of participant library involvement.

Training?

Are you interested in a training in NCknows? Would you like to get more people at your library trained? Would you like an in-house demonstration of or training in Libraryh3lp? Let me know.

Libraryh3lp 2010

Curious about Libraryh3lp? See http://ncknows.org/lh3intro.html for more info.

If you are interested in Libraryh3lp, it's not too late to get it up and running before the new academic season. Contact me at phil at philblank dot net for more information.