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December 12 Monthly
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NCknows December 2012 Monthly Report

Chats:

This Month:  1183 (coop coverage) + 333 (libraries monitoring their own queues) = 1516

Last Month: 2224 (coop coverage) + 679 (libraries monitoring their own queues) = 2903

This Month Last Year: 1267 (coop coverage) + 427 (libraries monitoring their own queue) = 1694

Comments:

Welcome to Meghan Webb from Chapel Hill Public, who was trained in December and is now scheduled for a shift. Thanks Meghan and Chapel Hill Public.

The schedule for spring 2013 was completed. There are two things you can do to continue to help with this:

1. Check http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=philblank.net_pnrkjmd0orspuo8s7ls28dhskk%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York

and review all shifts to see if your library is listed correctly.

2. Send me an email if your partner is not online when the scehdule says they should be. This is almost always a communication problem that I can resolve quickly.

The traffic numbers have made me curious so I’ve been keeping a close eye on it now in January 2013, to see if the academic calendars may have had something to do with it. Right now, we’re ahead of 2012 #s. But I’m looking forward to getting a closer look at the #s soon.

A note about January: We will be reviewing all links and cleaning up listserv addresses for all libraries. It’s a big task and if you are reading this, your listserv status is probably great- but please remember to remind your successor about the listservs if you are no longer the NCknows contact or staff at your library. You can do so here:

For NCknows staff: http://lists.ncmail.net/mailman/listinfo/ncknows

For NCknows Admins: http://lists.ncmail.net/mailman/listinfo/ncknows-admins

Transcript of the Month

Two great transcripts this monthi- One from Julia Mielish at Wake Tech and one from Gwen Exner of the backup staff.

Julia’s transcript stood out for two reasons- on one hand it looks pretty normal but she does something in it that I see crucial to successful chats. After getting the question from the exasperated patron she takes a look around and immediately comes back with Something (all caps intended). Something keeps the patron around and is likely to have them more invested in following the steps to find the materials themselves.

Julia also guides the patron to the resources through their own library’s portal. This is very important, especially for academics who sometimes have more than the default NClive databases. Julia then moves on to JSTOR, which luckily she is able to access as well. All in all, great help to the patron! Thanks Julia!

11:15 Patron I need a lit analysis on the Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall and can not find on I can view online??

11:15 wktechjm@libraryh3lp.com hi

11:16 Patron hi

11:16 wktechjm@libraryh3lp.com Let me see what I can find.

11:16 wktechjm@libraryh3lp.com Just a minute

11:17 wktechjm@libraryh3lp.com You are a student at Vance Granville correct?

11:18 Patron yes

11:18 wktechjm@libraryh3lp.com Ok. Have you tried the Literature Reference Center?

11:19 Patron I went through all the databases I am not finding anything

11:19 wktechjm@libraryh3lp.com I found two reviews there

11:20 Patron where do I find the Lit Reference center??

11:20 wktechjm@libraryh3lp.com http://lrc.vgcc.edu/content.php?pid=157549&sid=1334951#4203595

11:21 wktechjm@libraryh3lp.com Scroll down to literature and you will see it there. I've looked through the other contemporary databases and haven't found anything, but I'm still looking.

11:21 Patron thank you I have the flu and this helps a lot!!

11:21 wktechjm@libraryh3lp.com You are welcome. I'm going to look in JSTOR now. Just a minute

11:23 wktechjm@libraryh3lp.com Ok. Try JSTOR. I found the link to it on the same page I just gave you, but under the alphabetical list.

11:23 wktechjm@libraryh3lp.com I searched Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall

11:23 Patron thank you

11:23 wktechjm@libraryh3lp.com When I tried just Ballad of Birmingham, I got a lot of other stuff, but when I searched with his name it gave me better results.

11:23 Patron thank you

11:24 wktechjm@libraryh3lp.com You are welcome. Do you think you have enough to go on, or would you like some more sources?

11:24 Patron yes this is good!!

11:24 Patron thank you again

11:24 wktechjm@libraryh3lp.com Great. Well have a great day and i hope you feel better.

11:24 Patron Me too...

11:25 Patron and you too!!

Gwen Exner’s chat below responds to the sort of request that we don’t usually help with- tech support! Not everyone is able to do this and it is appropriate to point patrons in the general direction and explain that that is the limit of your ability to support them. However, Gwen’s handling of this is so elegant and fast that I just had to include it. This sort of thing is definitely great PR for librarians, besides being helpful. Thanks Gwen!

19:01 Patron Hi, My name is Cristin and this will probably be a silly question but how do you show a youtube video in a powerpoint? Like have the video showing, not the link.

19:01 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com Hello

19:01 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com That's not a silly question at all. Let me look that up. Does it have to be inside the powerpoint?

19:01 Patron Yes.

19:02 Patron I've tried clicking the 'insert as a video clip from a website' but that doesn't seem to work.

19:02 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/youtubeinpowerpoint/tp/080105youtube_video_powerpoint.htm looks like a good walkthrough

19:04 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com Do those instructions work for you?

19:05 Patron Well it keeps telling me what I've already seen before haha. It tells me to check the box that says "use old embeded code" but on youtube there is no option for that.

19:06 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com Okay, let me look on youtube then. They've probably changed their setup.

19:06 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com which video are you trying to embed?

19:06 Patron Yeah, I noticed they have changed something.

19:06 Patron http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pTscWvmIkw

19:07 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com What happens if you put this in: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4pTscWvmIkw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

19:07 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com or did you already try that?

19:08 Patron It says

19:08 Patron Powerpoint cannot insert a video of this embedded code

19:08 Patron Verify that it's correct and try again.

19:08 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com Thanks, let me look that up. What version of powerpoint are you using?

19:09 Patron 20120

19:09 Patron 2010*

19:09 Patron Sorry.

19:09 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com Okay, according to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2735966/en-us?sd=rss&spid=929 the problem is that it uses iFrames. Let me find out how to convert it.

19:09 Patron Okay, Thank you so much

19:10 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com Try this: http://www.labnol.org/software/insert-youtube-video-in-powerpoint-presentations/5393/

19:11 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com It says there's a plugin you can download to get PowerPoint to talk to YouTube.

19:11 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com Otherwise, it explains how to download the youtube video and go from there.

19:11 Patron Okay thank you! You've been a great help, I'll try that (:

19:12 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com You're quite welcome!

19:12 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com Thank you for using NCknows. Is there anything else I can help you with tonight?

19:12 Patron Not anything else I can think of at this moment, I was just getting really frustrated with that in particular haha.

19:13 ncgwen@libraryh3lp.com I know the feeling - glad I could help.