Monday, October 23, 2017

Hear how the OSU Library has been using Springshare’s LibAnswers knowledgebase as a platform to help monitor and manage patrons’ online contact with the library. The product was chosen in large part for its “ticketing” functionality, which allows library staff to seamlessly refer patron queries among various departments, while maintaining records of these interactions. While the product has been embraced by some departments within the library, others opted to utilize only some elements of the system, while others declined to use the system in any capacity. In order to determine the cause of and possibly rectify this scattered usage, librarians from Access Services and Digital Library Services developed an assessment project to appraise product effectiveness and user familiarity with the LibAnswers knowledgebase within the OSU Libraries. Assessment techniques used included focus groups of library staff users, transcript reviews, and internal library and external user satisfaction surveys. The results of this project will be used to improve inter-departmental usage of the product and to inform implementation of new workflows and product configuration settings that will increase overall library efficiency and provide enhanced value for our library users.