Samuel Swett Green Award Transcript

Fri Jun 14 19:10:31 EDT 2002

Ok, you al … first sorry for the delay on this, but we needed approval from Tamsin Bolton before we could post this.  Tamsin has granted that, and only hopes that you all don’t ‘tear her apart’ on the listserves.  

Just for a little context, in selecting Tamsin Bolton’s transcript for the Award, the panel considered relevant quality factors such as accuracy of the answer, user as well as librarian satisfaction, and utility of the answer to the user.  In support of their selection, members said: “I think one of its strengths is that it demonstrates that the chat medium has far more potential than many seem willing to allow it.  If our standard for judging quality of any reference transaction in any medium is a well managed (open-ended questioning, confirming with the patron that information offered meets need etc.), face-to-face reference transaction, then this shows that chat can incorporate the strengths (as well as some of the pitfalls) of face-to-face.  It also illustrates some of the challenges that reference librarians can expect to encounter that were absent from face-to-face (although sometimes present in telephone reference); for example, the diagnosis of the presence/absence of client software on the patron's machine is problem we can anticipate will recur, given the infinite permutations of equipment, PC speed, modem speeds, ISPs, loaded client software, user knowledge, and user comfort level.”  Yet another says, “It stands out from the others for the librarian's humor, relaxed tone, and overall warm vibes. User generous in praise, information given is appropriate.”

The first Samuel Swett Green Award will be presented to Tamsin at the Marketing Virtual Reference Services program on Saturday 3:00-5:30 at the ALA Annual Conference, Georgia World Congress Center, Room A302 …. For further information please see … http://vrhome.virtualreference.net/marketing.htm

The next deadline is 14 July 2002; and interested submitters should review the panel's checklist at http://purl.org/net/checklist and then submit their transcript to http://orca.pwl.com/greenaward/green_submit.html.

Now, without further ado … here is Tamsin Bolton’s winning transcript (you may also view this on the Web at http://vrhome.virtualreference.net and click on the Samuel Swett Green VR Award link.  

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TAMSIN Bolton’s Virtual Reference Transcript from the University of Winnipeg Library

Winner LSSI’s Samuel Swett Green Award for Best Virtual Reference Transcript 5/15/02

All personal information has been removed to protect the privacy of the patron

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Submit No: 00004

Name:

Library:

Position:

Telephone Number:

Patron Waiting Time: No wait

Number Of Inquirers: 1

Transcript: General Chat Info

Chat start time 11:36:39 04/15/2002

Chat end time 12:27:36 04/15/2002

Duration (actual chatting time) 00:50:43

Chat Transcript

info: Please wait for a site operator to respond.

info: You are now chatting with 'TAMSIN'

TAMSIN: Hi there, how can I help you?

VISITOR: Hi, TAMSIN, my name is * and i was just chatting with * about

ebsco host. i don't know how to access the articles she helped me find

TAMSIN: okay, did she e-mail them to you or are you just trying to get 

At them in ebscohost?

VISITOR: i'm trying to access them from home, she offered to email 

them, but i'm trying to familiarize myself with the process to use it as a resource. when i click on full text, etc, it doesn't bring up the articles. can i not view them and print them?

VISITOR: maybe i don't have the proper software, is that possible?

TAMSIN: yes you certainly should be able to view them. Are you by any

chance clicking on a link that says "full page image"?

VISITOR: when i tried to download the article from its current 

location, it said there was no path, yes i did try full page image, what now?

TAMSIN: Well, full page image requires that you have software called

"acrobat reader" installed on your computer. If you are not able to read the file it is possible your don't have acrobat reader- you can easily install it right now if you want though

VISITOR: i don't know if it will fit, does it require a lot of space? 

i'm so ignorant of the techincal world, i don't even know how to check how much space i have

TAMSIN: umm, it shouldn't require too much space. But it can sometimes

take a bit of time to download. Do you have a high speed internet connection?

VISITOR: i'm connected to the u of w free internet service, on a 

Compaq 586 that was built in 1995!

VISITOR: the time doesn't really matter, i just don't know if it will 

work

TAMSIN: oh my:-). well, that might take a bit of time then. If you 

aren't concerned about time then you could try to download it but, like you, I am not sure how well the program would run with your computer

TAMSIN: was "full page image" the only full text link you saw?

VISITOR: hang on, i'm just checking

TAMSIN: because ebsco does sometimes offer different formats of full 

text

TAMSIN: full page image" is the only version that requires seperate

software

VISITOR: some of the articles have different options. some have all 

"full page image" and "full text" and "XML full text", others only have two of those options, still others a combination

VISITOR: which one should i choose?

TAMSIN: if you click on "full text" you should see the text on your 

Screen without any seperate software

VISITOR: i'm going to try that, can you hang on while i try that?

TAMSIN: sure thing, I'll be right here

VISITOR: it takes me to a page that says refine search result list, 

This is where i don't know what to choose

VISITOR: there is an option that says "go to citation", is this what I

click on?

TAMSIN: Are you looking at your list of results right now?

VISITOR: no, i clicked on one of my results and it took me to this 

Results page. i'm going to try clicking on the citation, i'll be right back

VISITOR: nothing is happening when i click on citation

TAMSIN: okay- do you think you could tell me the name of the article 

You are at?

VISITOR: it wasn't anything specific, just an article that had the 

Option of full text, i have to check what it was . . .

TAMSIN: Well, from here, when I click on full text I see the article 

on my screen and that link "go to citation" is in the top right corner. But you are not seeing the full text, is that right?

VISITOR: yes

TAMSIN: hmmm, this is a pickle...

VISITOR: i don't see the article though

VISITOR: that's exactly what i said to *

TAMSIN: Let's just test something out- pick any article from your list

that says it has full text. I'll look at it here at see if I have any trouble

VISITOR: it's the attack on human rights, by Michael Ignatieffk, 

Foreign Affairs, nov/dec, 2001

TAMSIN: okay- I'll check it out

VISITOR: that's supposed to read Ignatieff without the "k"

TAMSIN: Okay, I've got it. So if you click on the title of that 

Article and scroll down, you don't see the article? Am I right?

VISITOR: you're right

TAMSIN: yikes! I think that pickle comment I made may be an

understatement:-). You should be able to see the full text on your screen and I am really not sure why you are not.

TAMSIN: I know you wanted to figure this out yourself but I am still 

Very willing to e-mail you some articles if you want

TAMSIN: and in the meantime I can try to figure out why you may not be

able to view the full text

VISITOR: you're awesome. i guess i will have to take some time after 

The term to get this whole cybrary thing figured out. do you have an email address and i can mail you a list of what i need? i need to take the time to choose the articles, twelve in all. meanwhile, should i try to down load acrobat, and how do i do that?

TAMSIN: sure, you can e-mail me at t.bolton at uwinnipeg.ca - and I'll 

Send you to the page to get acrobat reader right now

VISITOR: how are you sending that?

TAMSIN: one sec.- it should appear on your screen like magic...

VISITOR: you are so funny!

TAMSIN: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

TAMSIN: ta-da

TAMSIN: do you see the instructions?

VISITOR: you are so magical, it's here and you are fabulous. thanks 

For your email, i will chat with you later. i can't thank you enough for taking the time, you guys are all really awesome, so awesome in fact, you can have my firstborn, she's driving me crazy

TAMSIN: okay, * is here with me and she wants to test something out 

With you- do you have a minute?

VISITOR: i have lots of minutes

TAMSIN: The Attack on Human Rights.

TAMSIN: when you click on the title can you see the fulltext?

VISITOR: i'm stuck in ebsco, then only thing i see now is return to 

Top and when i click, it won't do anything, should i try to get back in, i'm turning in to a nightmare, aren't i?

VISITOR: ok, i misunderstood, i will click on your link

TAMSIN: ok

VISITOR: now i'm on ebsco publishing login page and it is asking me 

for an id and password

VISITOR: what now?

TAMSIN: Okay, our test didn't work. Let's just stick to our other 

plan- you e-mail me with the articles you need and I'll e-mail you back the text. Sound good?

VISITOR: sounds good, i'm also going to fool around with the acrobat 

Thing and try a couple of things from here. i'll email you to let you know where i'm at. thanks again, talk to you later

TAMSIN: sure thing- good luck and yes, talk to you later:-)

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  here is the winning transcript for the first LSSI / Samuel Swett Green Award for the best virtual reference transcript.  