[WEB4LIB] Managing E-mail Reference Questions

[Thomas M G Bennett]

Our "Ask A Librarian" page offers an email mailto link and a form which
submits the information to, yep you guessed it, a PostgreSQL database
through the Zope server.  Librarians volunteer to support this service.  The
librarian goes to a web page to view new submissions and has the option to
assign each submission individually to his/herself.  Also on this page are
links to email the library reference list, email a specific person in the
library(to collaborate on answering the submission), view all records, view
all records already processed, and view FAQ records.

Next the librarian can choose his/her name in a drop down list of librarians
to go to his/her page of unanswered/un-archived submissions.  This interface
gives the librarian the opportunity  to reply to the question which emails
it to the submitter and submits it into the database, add to the list of
processed records which removes it from view on this page and sets a bool in
the database, add to FAQ which can only be done before adding to processed
records.

Example of the Interface: (if your email wraps on a short character count
the last word in each line is as follows: Status, Reply @, Done, FAQ)

Info                    From                     Question
Status
Submitted on:            bennett                 test reboot of linux server
Reply @
 2001-02-26 15:00:33-05  ASU_Staff
Addto Done
Phone:                   bennetttm at appstate.edu
Addto FAQ
 123 456 7890


The Reply, Addto Done, and Addto FAQ are buttons and the @ is a little
graphic that indicates the question has already been replied to if it is
blue and the question has not been replied to if it is red.  This graphic
allows the librarian to keep the question on this page without having to
archive it if he/she thinks there may be some additional follow-up.

Archiving to a database made it easy to get stats for the annual report by
doing a count on Affiliation field:(the default menu selection is
ASU_Student)

March 23, 2000 - April 19, 2001
Affiliation             Count
-----------------------------
ASU_Alumni                 4
ASU_Distance_Learning     29
ASU_Faculty               31
ASU_Staff                 18
ASU_Student              232
Other                      4

Total                    318

The limit to stats is only limited by what you can do with SQL and then you
can always export the database to a comma delimited file and import into
your favorite tool which takes this type of file.

 I don't have a count on email submissions.  Email submissions are checked
on a computer at the Reference Desk in Netscape Mail and archived on that
computer.

Cost of Server and Database Software $0.00.

Thomas

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Thomas McMillan Grant Bennett      Appalachian State University
Computer Consultant III            University Library
Voice:  828 262 6587	           FAX:    828 262 2797

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operating system that was originally coded for a 4-bit microprocessor.
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-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Andrew Mutch
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 1:35 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Managing E-mail Reference Questions


We are in the process of revamping our library web site.  One element of the
site that we will be highlighting in the new design is our "Ask A Librarian"
service which allows patrons to submit reference questions through a
web-based
form.  Our current version of this service gets limited use and I know from
what
others have reported that this type of service may take some time to
generate
significant use by patrons.  However, in the event that the redesign does
generate more responses from our site visitors, I would like to have a
system in
place to manage the responses.

I don't want to have to re-invent the wheel to do this.  So, I'm curious as
to
what systems people use to manage their e-mail reference questions.  I would
envision that a good system would include the ability:

* Route questions dependent upon departments/services
* Track the status of the various e-mail questions
* Allow questions to be assigned "owners"
* Archive questions
* Generate statistics
* Other things that I haven't thought of but people will tell me are "must
have"

I'm looking for something that is easy to set-up and maintain and relatively
easy for staff to utilize.  I'm trying to avoid a proprietary or
thrown-together
solution that runs on a wing and a prayer.

Thank you,

Andrew Mutch
Library Systems Technician
Waterford Township Public Library
Waterford, MI