Project Management ILEAD U Scenario 1 February 23, 2010

 A collaborative text message reference project – first in the US  Over 60 libraries from the US and Canada  Over 800 questions per month  Using Altarama and gmail interface  Started July 2009  Hours open: Mon-Fri 8-10 am; Saturday 9-5; Sunday 12-6  Project coordinated by Alliance Library System  All business and meetings conducted online

 Cell phone access higher than broadband internet use  Number of text messages sent has increased over 250 percent over the last two years  Typical mobile subscriber sends or receives 357 text messages a month compared to sending or receiving 204 phone calls  Although libraries were offering the service, they were not offering for many hours  We did not see any collaborative services

 Patrons text a question to My Info Quest  The question is forwarded from Altarama to gmail  The librarian receives the question in gmail  The answer is provided and goes through gmail to Altarama and the patron’s phone

 Every library has a representative to the group advisory board which meets online monthly  Other committees to participate in: Policies and procedures, training, public relations, evaluation  All groups meet online

 Put out a call for participants on electronic mailing lists (March-April 2009)  Hosted online meetings for everyone interested (March-July 2009)  Talked to vendors to arrange for a trial (February-April 2009)  Began website development (May 2009)  Committees meet to work on pr, procedures etc)  Training (May-June 2009)  Soft launch of service (July 2009)  Larger program launch (September 2009)

 Offer more hours of service  Expanded expertise available  Shared coverage  Shared cost  Shared development time  Shared promotion  Shared risk

 Staff the desk two hours per week  Attend online advisory meetings  Promote the service  Attend training sessions  Participate in google discussion group

 Altarama  Peoplewhere  Both agree to free 6 month trial and provide support for the group

 Scheduling  Best practices in answering reference questions in this mode – i.e. should we use wikipedia? Should we use text speak?  Sustainability/Funding

 Very important so libraries can decide if they want to continue, go out on their own, or discontinue  Lead by Lili Luo, San Jose State University SLIS with a team of volunteers to assist

 What types of individuals used the service?  What types of questions did users ask (e.g., consumer health, job search, or school- related)?  When did users ask questions?  What are users. perceptions of the service they received?  Does offering this service reach out to individuals who have not previously used library services?  What outreach methods are most effective in promoting the service?  What was the length of time for responding to users. questions (transaction turnaround time)?

 What are the core skill sets required in providing text message reference services?  What are the obstacles, if any, in providing text message reference services?  What aspect(s) of the training was most helpful?  What information was missing from the training that should have been included?  Is there any difference in librarian satisfaction (or product satisfaction) based on the type of library s/he works for?  To what extent does the service performance uphold the professional guidelines established by the Reference and User Services Association?

Administrative Perspective  What are the advantages and disadvantages to offering text message reference services through a collaboration of libraries?  What are the challenges when scheduling librarians to staff the service?  What service learning benefits did SLIS graduate students realize through their involvement?  How can successful service learning opportunities be created for graduate students in a collaborative reference service?  What is the level of cost-effectiveness of offering the service?

 282 transactions  189 – ready reference – questions that request a single, uncomplicated and straightforward answer  49 – about local libraries – questions that inquire about patrons’ local libraries resources, services, policies, etc.  16 – specific search questions – request answers in the form of giving the user a document, list of citations, etc.  14 – questions about Infoquest  9 – unclear questions  5 – inappropriate questions

 868 questions – 74% from repeat users  Response time – 5 minutes and less – 33.5%  6-10 minutes – 23.9%  Remainder is over 11 minutes

 What’s In It for My Organization?  “In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight!”  When it comes to inter-organizational collaboration, the sleeping lion is your own org  Each organization has its own mission and “weltanschauung”  Does inter-organizational collaboration work well when times are good, but suffer when times are tough?

 Individuals who are volunteering their own time, not necessarily representing an organization  Individuals who are self-employed  Neither fish nor fowl  Are they orgs-of-one?  Harness their passion for the project

 What’s In It for My Users?  What do we really know about the users of a collaboratively conceived and delivered service?  What do we want or need to know?  Protecting privacy and confidentiality  Placing the onus on users  ZIP codes or 3-letter code for the org with which they are most affiliated

 Getting to one voice for the collaborative project  Who speaks for the collaborative project?  Traditional stance toward vendors:  Buyer/Renter and Seller  Suspicion  Hostility  Selecting vendors and third party service providers  Migrating to other vendors and service providers

 The way a project launches may be the single most important determining factor for the overall success of your project.  What type of launch do you want for your project?  Soft launch  Big, splashy launch  Can the launch be controlled by the project team?

 We don’t have the luxury of Goldilocks  Too hot, too cold, just right  Too hard, too soft, just right  Must be both effective and efficient  Strong Opinion Alert: Tom P. thinks most library projects involve too much pre-launch planning and too little post-launch planning.

 “Watch” how people are using the service  Read and listen to their comments and suggestions  Allow the service to evolve, if the user community wants it to evolve

 Lori Bell  Director of Innovation  Alliance Library System  System.com System.com  (x2128)  Tom Peters  CEO  TAP Information Services  