1. Minitex Reference Outreach & Instruction
AskMN and K-12 Patrons
Carla Steinberg Pfahl
AskMN.org Coordinator
Minitex Reference Outreach & Instruction

2. Our experience with K-12 students
Promoting to the K-12 community
What we learned
Still learning

3. Go ahead, try it!

4. Promoting AskMN… got us in trouble
Fall/Winter 2009/2010
Full swing promotion of service to educators
Webinars and presentations
Brochures
She told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on…
Chats spiked dramatically
This is the story of an up and coming online reference service that wanted to help people. In October of 2009 we set out to promote AskMN focusing specifically on the K-12 community.
We presented at conferences, gave webinars, and visited a few schools too. We talked about what an online reference environment was like, how students perceive online reference, ways to get them to use the service and best practices for ways online reference would work best for them.
Old 70s Faberge Shampoo commercial,

5. ( ) Promotion to K-12 Jan, 2010 #’s: 65% of all of 2009!
Public queue stats only, does not include academic queue.
When the students come into chat, several at one time and flood the service with questions (especially when they all have the same question), we call that a class bomb.
AskMN is unique from other Minnesota library services because we partner with the 24/7 Reference Cooperative so when a MN librarian is not available to chat with a MN patron a librarian from the cooperative steps in. These are librarians from across the US from New York to Hawaii, it also includes the UK. So while there are more librarians able to assist students, when class bombs happen there may be some students who do not get picked up by a librarian and therefore do not have a chance to chat and get assistance.
Promotion to K-12
( )

6. Public queue stats only, does not include academic queue.
2009
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Total
# of chat sessions requested
184
187
158
153
132 94
105
131
232
301
202
314
2193
2010
Jan
Feb
Mar
Total
# of chat sessions requested
1424
811
572
2808
Jan, 2010 #’s: 65% of all of 2009!
Public queue stats only, does not include academic queue.

7. What did we learn from all of this?

8. We learned… Students like us! Alot
Too many students at one time isn’t the best use of AskMN
Students don’t know how to do research in an online world
Kids don’t know how to search for and find credible websites & resources
These online services, when patrons can come in anonymously and repeatedly, are perhaps shining a brighter light on a bigger problem - the failings of the education system in teaching people how to do research in this online world- how to search for and find credible websites and resources.
I try to tell the librarians handling this to not take out frustrations on the students- many of whom are doing exactly what students will do when allowed to chat anonymously in a poorly monitored class. When these students need real help, I would like them to remember some glimmer of positivity from their experience with the library.

9. Message to educators Scope of service… in a nutshell
Guide students to resources
Teach search techniques
Identify best sources
We want the message to be clear, concise, and short
let educators know what we can do for students:
To guide students to resources
Teach search techniques
Identify best sources

10. Message to students (during chat)
Focus on the question at hand
Reiterate guidance to resources
Stay in touch
Be positive
Suggest Homework Rescue
Scripted message:
It looks like a lot of people from your class have similar questions. I'm helping others at the moment. You may wait and I will be with you as soon as possible or you can login again later. We are available 24/7/365!

11. Message on website Post policy(ies)/guidelines Suggested use policy
Suggested use policy
Class Visit form
Message: instead of having students login in individually to AskMN at the same time, introduce them to the service with one login (class visit), so we can show them what we can do for them in the service
We also suggest in the class visit form:
-have students work together
-or have them stagger their logon times so that librarians have time to give the best service possible to each student or group.
-Students should prepare their questions in advance.
-Make sure they allow enough time! A typical chat session lasts about 15 minutes. This advanced preparation helps the librarian staffing the service to better help your students. It saves everyone time and leads to better responses.
I'm excited that teachers are using us, but its very discouraging to not be able to plan ahead.
Website: askmn.org

12. What else can we do? Still see class bombs
More visible K-12 information on website
Tutorials
Continue listening to students
Stay in touch with other statewide reference services
Most common high traffic times for class bombs is 7:30 – 8:30am and 2-3pm.
Class Visit form has only been used twice since it came out. Teachers and media specialists are not reading the website, not seeing the class visit form – information about too many at one time is not getting across.
Tutorial:
One idea I had is to set up a webpage with basic library tutorials > (how to find articles, encyclopedias, better web searching) using > screen recorder/youtube videos. Next time AskMN is classbombed, we can just > point students to that page. That page can also have info for the > teacher that explains how to set up a virtual visit or schedule a > class online. It can be linked from the policies page. The benefit of > this is that it assumes that the classbomb will always exist, which > may be unfortunate but is probably accurate.
Keeping listening to students via chat and comments of surveys
Keep in touch with what other statewide reference services are doing – they have the same/similar issues

13. And now, some statistics…

14. All questions (MN and non-MN patrons)
*FY08
FY09
FY10
**FY11 YTD
Questions received from MN patrons
455
100%
4729
62%
13220
71%
12828
82%
Questions received from non-MN patrons 0%
2925
38%
5481
29%
2709
18%
Total questions
7654
18701
15537
*FY08 = April 2008 – June 2008
**YTD = July 2010 – February 2011

15. Academic/Public Breakout
Questions from Minnesota Patrons
*FY08
FY09
FY10
**FY11 YTD
Academic
188
41%
3344
71%
7046
53%
5555
37%
Public
267
59%
1385
29%
6174
47%
9982
63%
Total
455
100%
4729
13220
15537
We are seeing a reverse trend happening. In FY09 there were more questions in the academic queue (college students). In FY10 we saw the two queues coming closer to 50/50. So far for FY11 we are seeing higher traffic in the public queue. The FY is not over yet, but I suspect it will look close to what we see now. A possible reason for this is the rise in K-12 questions. (We do not have a way to keep accurate stats on K12 usage)
*FY08 = April 2008 – June 2008 **YTD = July 2010 – February 2011

18. Hi Carla,
I have a link to AskMN on the high school media center's page along with links from MN Knows.  We go through a lot of resources as part of their instruction in 7th and 8th grade.  We don't practice with Ask MN, because I don't want to use up a librarian's time for practice, but I do tell them it is there.  They must remember and go to it on their own.  I don't know of any other teacher that has them use it...
Thanks for letting me know!  They must actually remember something I teach them.  That just makes my Friday.
Hopefully they are using it well. 
Laura
Laura Gudmundson
K-12 Media Specialist
Reading Specialist
Computer Teacher
Jr. & Sr. High Knowledge Bowl Advisor Kingsland Public Schools
705 North Section Avenue
Spring Valley MN  55975

19. Carla Steinberg Pfahl
Thank you!