CT State LibAnswers

All users can also set up their own Out of Office messages if the admin has configured the System Settings to allow it. 

Using the drop-down menu under Admin, click on Account.

Out of office statuses can be set for the time they are created, or preset for a planned event, such as a vacation.

Real-time Out of Office 

This functions as a Do Not Disturb setting.

From the Account page, scroll down until you see Out of Office. 

Change the No to Yes.

Don't forget to change the setting back to No when you want to be available again.

Pre-Scheduled Out of Office Status

From the Account page, scroll down until you see Schedule "Out of Office" Update. Click on the Schedule Status Change box.

Select the start and end dates for your scheduled Out of Office status. Click on Confirm when finished.

FAQs serve two purposes:

1. They allow patrons to search for the answer to their question when Operators are offline or unavailable.
2. They place valuable information at the fingertips of other campuses' Operators, who can use them to answer questions about your campus.

Begin by selecting LibAnswers from the LibApps drop-down menu.

First, check to see that your library's FAQs do not already include the question you intend to add.

In the Tickets & FAQs drop-down menu, click on FAQ Knowledge Base.

Under group, select the Group (campus) at whose FAQs you want to look. In this example, the Operator is on the Capital campus.

After selecting your group, click on Filter. It is also possible to search by keyword, but not all questions will have keywords assigned to them.

Scan the FAQs for your campus. If there is not an answer to your question, you may want to add it to the list.

Adding FAQs

Not all questions should be turned into FAQs.

Bad example: Q: Is the bookstore open today? A: Yes, the bookstore is open until 3.

Good example: Q: Is the bookstore open today? A: The bookstore's regular semester hours are M-F from 9 AM to 3 PM. Their number is 860-782-1234 if you want to call them.

To add an FAQ, begin by using the Tickets & FAQs drop-down menu and selecting Create a Ticket or FAQ. 

OR if you are already in the FAQ Knowledge Base, you could also choose the Create FAQ button on the far-right of the screen.

First, select the Group (campus) to which the question applies. You should only write FAQs for your own campus. Note: this setting defaults to Asnuntuck, but be sure to change it to your Group.

Next, enter the question to which you are going to provide an answer.

Skip the Details box--do not make the mistake of entering your answer here!

Click on the "Create & Edit FAQ" box.

On this screen, enter the answer to the new FAQ. You can also edit the FAQ if desired. When finished, click on the "Save Answer Text" box.

To make it easier for patrons and other Operators to search for your FAQ and answer, use the boxes on the right of the screen to to assign Topics and Keywords to your FAQ.

Topics: check all topics related to the question. Although you do have the ability, please do not add additional topics!

Keywords: Add as many keywords as you deem necessary. You may want to view the existing keywords first. Avoid close duplicates, such as tutor, tutors, and tutoring. Keywords are used by patrons and other Operators to search for a question similar to the one they want answered.

To finalize your question, click on the "Change Status" box in the lower-left corner of the screen.

Publish: Using the drop-down menu, change Unpublished Draft to Published. Now the FAQ and its answer are visible to patrons and all Operators, both those in your Group (campus) and in other Groups.

Tags allow you to add internal classifications to your tickets and chat transactions. Once tagged, you can then filter various reports by these internal classifications to see a further breakdown of similar questions. These tags do not display to the patron.

Only admins can create tags unless they have unlocked that feature to make it available to all users. 

Adding a Tag in a chat

A tag can be assigned to a chat while the chat is still open, or after the chat has ended. 

1. The chat is still open: click on the tag icon.

Select a tag from the drop-down menu under None selected. Select a tag and click "Add Tags." Repeat if you want more the chat labeled with more than one tag.

2. The chat has already been completed: click on the tag icon. Use the same directions as in #1 to add a tag to the completed chat.

Adding a Tag in a ticket

A tag can be added to a ticket at any time, both while it is still open and after it has been closed. 

Open tickets

First, go to the Dashboard in LibAnswers.

Choose either all open tickets, or only your open tickets.

Click on the question to which you want to add a tag. This will open the ticket.

Look for the Tags box on the right side of your screen. Only admins can create new tags unless the tag feature has been unlocked, but you can attach an existing Tag to this ticket by clicking on the Add box.

Click on the tag you want to add. You may choose more than one if applicable.

To remove a tag from the ticket, click on the - next to the existing tag.

Closed tickets

To access closed tickets, sign into LibAnswers and then choose Tickets from the Stats drop-down menu.

Click on the Tickets tab. This brings you to a list of your closed tickets.

To add a Tag to a closed ticket, click on the question to which you want to add a tag. This allowed you to view the ticket.

Look for the Tags box on the right side of your screen. Only admins can create new tags, but you can attach an existing Tag to this ticket by clicking on the Add box.

Click on the tag you want to add. You may choose more than one if applicable.

To remove a tag from the ticket, click on the - next to the existing tag.

For more help with Tags, visit this page from Springshare:

• LibChat: Adding tags to a chat
• Tickets & LibChat: Create and manage tags for tickets & chats

There are a few types of macros you can create:

• Reply macros: these can be used when replying to tickets submitted via your question forms, widgets, or email. These are rich text macros that can also include template tokens (a token is a placeholder for information contained in a ticket, such as a patron's name).
• Transfer macros: these can be used when transferring a ticket to another queue and/or user. Similar to Reply macros, these are also rich text macros that can include template tokens.
• SMS macros: these can be used when replying to SMS messages, allowing you to have a dedicated batch of macros better suited to the character limit and plain text format of SMS messages.

https://ask.springshare.com/springboards/faq/1929

To create a macro, be sure you are signed into LibAnswers. From the Admin dropdown menu, choose Macro. Note: all users have an Admin menu, which is not the same as being an Admin.

Click on "Create a Macro." In this example, there are no existing macros. You can view your macros and system macros, but not those created by individual users.

Once the macros are populated, you may want to use the Search box to look for your macro first, in order to avoid duplication.

To create a new account in LibAnswers, sign into LibAnswers. Under the Admin tab, click on Accounts.

Select the Create a new Account tab. You will need the email address for the user whose account you want to create. Type the entire email address in the box, then click on Look-up Account.

If the person/email has not already been entered into any of the LibApps, you will need to create the account from scratch. 

• Entering a nickname is optional. If a person usually goes by a nickname (Jenn instead of Jennifer, for instance), you can enter Jenn in the box for First Name.

Most users will be Regular level users. It is recommended that each campus have one additional admin level user in addition to the library's director. Leave Profile Image set to the default. Users can add or change their profile image later on, if desired.

Skip Email Signature and Default Dashboard View. Mark Activate LibChat as Active. Since all campuses belong to the same LibChat Department, you will want to Click Select all so the user can monitor for incoming chats from any campus.

Users should be marked as either Regular or Admin for their own campus to place them under that Queue. 

In addition, ALL users should be either Regular or Admin users of the CT State Community College Library (SMS queue) since all campuses share one SMS number.

Users should be Editors FAQs on their own campus, if you'd like that person to be able to create more FAQs, but not on other campuses. Additionally, no one needs access to the FAQs Home, so leave that set to No Access.

When finished, click on Create Account. The new user will receive an email inviting them to LibApps, and asking them to create a new password. 

To change an account in LibAnswers, sign into LibAnswers. Under the Admin tab, click on Accounts.

Select the Manage Accounts tab. From here, you can view all the accounts.

Users are sorted alphabetically by last name. There is also a Search feature if you cannot find the user for whom you are looking.

• If a user cannot sign into LibChat, check to see that they are Libchat Active. All these users are.
• If a user is going to be away for a period of time, such as on sabbatical or medical leave, change their Out of Office status to Yes. This prevents them from receiving Tickets or being assigned questions. Any Tickets previously assigned to this person would go into the general Queue.
• Two actions can be taken for accounts: edit or delete. A user, even an admin, is not permitted to delete their own account.

Regular users can also set up their own Out of Office messages if the System Settings are configured to allow it. 

In the Admin drop-down menu, select System Settings. Under the General tab, scroll down until you see Allow Users to Set "Out of Office" Status. Change the setting to Yes, then click Save.

Editing Account Settings

Click on the Edit icon pictured above. These are a few of the settings that can be changed under Manage Account.

1. Change User Level from Admin to Regular, or vice versa.
2. Change the Out of Office setting to Yes. You may need to do this if a User's leave is unexpected rather than planned.
3. Schedule "Out of Office" Update. Use this for a planned leave; this setting allows you to preset the Out of Office status in the days prior to the leave beginning.

LibChat Settings

4.  If a User starts working at another campus, you would remove their old campus and assign them to their new one.

5. You can set up the users on your campus to have an Idle time message. This would automatically sent a message to the patron after the Operator has been idle for a set amount of time; for example, the Operator is checking the shelves for a book the patron wants.
   1. * Note: this may be set up prior to launch as a universal setting.
6. Some campuses offer appointment times with their reference librarians. If desired, use this section to link to your library's calendar or your personal calendar.

Queue Access

7. Set Queue Access as you would when setting up a new account.

Group Access

8. Set Group Access as you would when setting up a new account.

Click on Save to save changes to the account settings.

An admin can email all users or just other admins.

Sign into LibAnswers. Under the Admin tab, click on Accounts.

Select the Email Users tab. 

Click in the box containing the email addresses of the group you want to email. All addresses will be highlighted automatically.

• Right-click to copy the email address.
• Go to your Outlook email.
• Paste the email addresses into the To:, CC:, or BCC: lines.
• Composer your email and send as usual.

Topics, Keywords, and Tags fall under the category of metadata.

To access Metadata, first sign into LibAnswers. Select Metadata from the Admin drop-down menu.

Select your campus. In this example, the admin user is on the Capital campus.

Topics

Click on the Topics tap to manage the topics for your campus: add and edit topics, assign topics to FAQ Entries, and see which FAQ Entries are without any assigned topics. Topics can also be created while creating an FAQ.

It is recommended that you keep the number of topics to a minimum. This could be as simple as the topics of General, Students, Faculty/Staff, and Other. Keywords will allow you to be more specific when categorizing questions.

View All Topics lets you see all topics that have been created for your campus, and how many FAQs fall under each one. Keep in mind that many questions will fall under multiple topics. For example, a question about loaner laptops may fall under both circulation and technology. From this tab, you can:

• Use the eyeball to see all FAQs associated with the topic.
• Use the pencil to edit the topic, for example to correct a spelling.
• Use the trash can to delete the topic. When deleting a topic, you will be given the opportunity to rehome all FAQs in that topic to another, for example if you wanted to put all databases/reference FAQs under instruction instead.

The View FAQ Entries by Topic drop-down menu functions the same as the eyeball icon in the View All Topics tab. Use this to see all FAQs associated with a particular topic.

The View Uncategorized FAQ Entries tab is a quick way to find all FAQs not yet associated with a topic. 

In this example, there is only one FAQ not associated with a topic. To add a topic, click on the +.

Choose a topic from the drop-down menu. 

If you choose the wrong one, click on the - to remove that topic. To add another topic, click on the +.

You can create an entirely new topic by clicking on the tab, +Add a New Topic. LibAnswers will not check for duplicate topics.

Export Topics creates and downloads an Excel file that lists all existing topics. It only contains topics, not the FAQs or keywords.

Topics, Keywords, and Tags fall under the category of metadata.

To access Metadata, first sign into LibAnswers. Select Metadata from the Admin drop-down menu.

Select your campus. In this example, the admin user is on the Capital campus.

Keywords

Click on the Keywords tag to manage the keywords in your Group: add and edit keywords, assign keywords to FAQ Entries, and see which FAQ Entries are without any assigned keywords.

You can View All Keywords from the first tab. The keywords are listed alphabetically, but you can also use the Search box to find a desired keyword.

From this tab, you can see all keywords and how many times each of them is used in the FAQs.

• To view all FAQs using that keyword, click on the eyeball icon.
• To edit a keyword, click on the pencil icon.
  • If you change a keyword to an existing keyword (for example, changing "book" to "books"), LibAnswers will combine all FAQs using the remaining keyword (thus having 10 FAQs with the keyword "books" and none with "book.")
• Click on the trash can to delete that keyword. This will remove the keyword from all FAQs using it, but not delete the actual FAQ.

The View FAQ Entries without Keywords tab allowed you to quickly identify all FAQs that do not have assigned keywords. 

Click on the highlighted question to view its answer and any topic(s) associated with it.

Click on the + to add a keyword or words to the FAQ.

• This allows you to add a keyword to a FAQ. 
• You can create a new keyword or using an existing one. You may find it useful to have the list of keywords to avoid closely-related words, such as book and books or overdue and late.

Click on Add to add the first keyword you enter if you wish to enter another. Click on Done when finished.

Click on the Export Keywords tab to download an Excel sheet listing all the keywords in alphabetical order and the number of FAQs for which each keyword is used.

Topics, Keywords, and Tags fall under the category of metadata.

To access Metadata, first sign into LibAnswers. Select Metadata from the Admin drop-down menu.

Select your campus. In this example, the admin user is on the Capital campus.

Tags

Click on the Tags tab to add or work with tags.

Tags allow you to add internal classifications to your tickets and chat transactions. Once tagged, you can then filter various reports by these internal classifications to see a further breakdown of similar questions. These tags do not display to the patron.

Use the View All Tags tab to view all existing tags. From this tab, you can:

• See how many tickets have been labeled with that Tag.
• See how many Chats have been labeled with that Tag. 
• View all tickets that have been labeled with that Tag.
• View all chats that have been labeled with that Tag.
• Use the pencil icon to edit a Tag. This box is nearly identical to the one you will see when you Add a New Tag.
• Use the trash can icon to delete that Tag.

Use the Add a New Tag tab to create new tags. In this example, the Tag being added is "non-library question."

• Enter the tag name you want to create.
• You can color-code tags. For example, you may want to create two "non-library question" tags, one for your own campus and another for the other campuses.
  • HTML color codes can be found by following this link: htmlcolorcodes.com/colors/.
• Click on Save when finished.

If you would like all users to be able to create their own Tags [not advised], follow these directions:

In LibAnswers, use the Admin drop-down menu to get to System Settings.

Scroll down to the Answer Page box. Click on the No button under Lock Tags, then click on the Save box.

For more help with Tags, visit this Springshare page: Tickets: Add tags to a ticket

To create and manage your system's canned messages, log into your co-op's dashboard and go to Admin > System Settings. Then, click on the Canned Messages tab.

To access the LibChat settings, click on LibChat Set-up in the Admin drop-down menu.

Click in the Settings tab.

To prevent users from staying signed on all night (which will cause the widget to appear as if someone is available to answer incoming chats), use the Sign-off Schedule Rules to automatically sign all users out at the end of the day. 

You will need to set a separate rule for each day of the week. Click on Add a rule to begin.

Select All Users for the department. Choose the day for which you want to set the rule, and the time you want at which you want to sign everyone out. Click on the blue checkmark to save the rule, or the red X to delete it. Click on Add a rule to set another rule, if desired.