UDC Libsearch

When an account (Bartle, Science, or UDC) is logged in and available for questions, a "Chat With Us" box appears on the Libraries website. Patrons can click on this box and type in their questions, and employees communicate the answers.

To log in, please visit the LibraryH3lp Webclient and type in your department's username (bartlechat, sciencechat, downchat) and password.

After signing in, you will be presented with a dialog box. Use the image and numbers below for assistance.

1. "contactus" is the back-end name of the chatbox. The green light means that the chatbox is live on the website and is accepting questions.
2. The auto logout feature automatically logs a user out when their shift is over. We do not use the auto-logout feature, because it can very easily log you out in the middle of answering a patron question!
3. Always set to Available.
4. Make sure the "I'm Staffing" box has a checkmark in it. This assigns you to the chatbox and will alert you of any questions that come in (and let you answer them). If this box is unchecked, the text changes to "I'm not staffing" and a warning is displayed (see image below).
5. Click "Connect now" to login!

When a patron asks a question, it will show up on your screen and play a sound notification. The notification will continue sounding until you start typing back to the patron, or someone from a different branch sends that patron a message. If more than one patron asks a question, the screen will show both:

To answer patrons, simply type your response into the textbox at the bottom! Please style your messages like the ones below, including proper capitalization, spelling, and grammar. Use a professional, but conversational tone.

• "Hello. How can I help you?"
• "Thanks for reaching out! I'll be with you in just a moment."
• "Great question. Let me look that up for you."

Sometimes, you may need to look up the answer to a patron's question, and looking it up may take a few minutes. Always communicate with the patron that you are looking up the answer - don't just leave them hanging!

Additionally, a situation may arise where a chat question and in-person patron both need your attention. If there is no one around to help, prioritize the in-person patron over the chat patron. If you can, let the chat patron know that you will be with them in just a moment, or to please wait while you look something up.

Yes! Please go to SUMA and enter in the question. Remember to select "Chat" as the mode.

When more than one account is staffing the same chatbox, new patron questions will be displayed to all accounts. However, the first account to send a message to the patron will "get" the question. The other branches will see a "sciencechat has answered this chat" message instead, and will not be able to respond to the patron. So, if you want to answer a patron's question, it may be advantageous to just send a quick "Hi!"

To check what libraries are currently logged in to chat, hover your cursor over the green light near "contactus". This will display the accounts currently logged in.

There are a couple of things you can do in this case.

1. Search the FAQ and Libraries' website for information.
2. Ask for help from staff in your area.
3. If the question is better answered by a Librarian or another location (e.g. "Is my book on Bartle's hold shelf?" is best answered by Bartle), transfer the chat to that user or chatbox. See "What do the buttons do?" for how to transfer chats.
4. Refer the patron to someone who can help them. Popular referrals include:
   • InterLibrary Loan / Document Delivery: mainill@binghamton.edu
   • Library Accounts: libnotic@binghamton.edu
   • ITS: helpdesk@binghamton.edu
   • Ask a Librarian: refquest@binghamton.edu

• You can email the transcript to the email address for the patron, or tell the patron to send an email themselves. When emailing a transcript, be sure to ask the patron for their email address, and let them know that someone will get back to them with the answer to their question. This is important, because chats always begin anonymous - if we don't ask who the patron is, then we cannot follow up with them! Then, email the chat transcript to the correct department. If you are not sure what the correct department is, email the transcript to your supervisor and ask for help. See "What do the buttons do?" for how to email chat transcripts.

Use the little carrot ❮ next to the ✕ in the chat window to minimize chats. The chat will reappear with a notification if the patron sends another message. To bring the chat back up, click on the "Guest" on the left-hand side that corresponds to that patron.

The series of buttons at the bottom of the screen all perform specific functions.

💬: Click this button to add a canned message to a chat, if there are any available. A canned message is a standard message that needs to be told to a lot of patrons. For example, if printing is down campus-wide, and the chat is getting a lot of questions about printing, we may add a canned message saying "Printing is currently down everywhere on campus. ITS is working hard to resolve the issue, but we do not know when it will be fixed. We apologize for the inconvenience." This canned message can then be sent to patrons who ask, instead of the chat staff having to type it out every time.

🧑: This button can add emojis to your messages. Remember to keep the overall tone of your messages professional yet conversational.

⮂: Use this button to transfer chats. When you transfer a chat, it will arrive in the other user's chatbox just like a new question would, but the chat history will remain. You will no longer be able to type into the chatbox once you have transferred it, so make sure you have already alerted the patron that they are being transferred. What the patron sees on their end will not change, but it is important to let them know that they will be speaking with someone else. Select User when transferring a chat.

• Librarians: Transfer chats to "bumainlib". This is the "Ask a Librarian" account. If a patron has a detailed research/reference question, you should transfer the chat to them.
• Branches: If it turns out that a question could be better answered by another branch, you can transfer the chat to a different account: bartlechat for Bartle, sciencechat for Science, and downchat for the UDC. Make sure the account is online before transferring a chat to them!

📎: Click the paperclip to send files to the patron. This is helpful when using screenshots as a guide, and to send pdfs of articles.

✪:

🖂: Use the envelope to email the chat transcript. This is helpful if you need to refer the patron to another department (e.g. mainill@binghamton.edu). Make sure you ask the patron for some identifying information (email address, pods username) before sending the transcript so that the patron can be contacted with their answer.

⚑: Flagging a chat is another way to send it to Ask a Librarian, which emails the transcript directly to refquest@binghamton.edu. Other than that, we don't really use this button.

🚫: This button will ban a user for 24 hours. This is only necessary if someone is being extremely inappropriate. Ask your supervisor for assistance if this happens.

To log out of the chat, use the power symbol at the bottom of the left-hand menu.