Chat monitoring schedule:
The chat monitoring schedule includes the days and times that Illinois libraries monitor the Illinois public, Illinois academic, Global public, Global academic and Spanish queue.
The schedule will be changed twice yearly in May (for summer library schedules)
and August. Exceptions to this rule will be at the discretion of the individual in charge of scheduling.
Procedure for biannual schedule change:
1.) An e-mail will be sent out in spring and in late summer/ early fall to the AskAway listserv to find out if libraries would like to change their hours on the next schedule.
2.) If the library does NOT wish to change its hours it does NOT need to respond to this message.
3.) If the library does wish to change its hours it must e-mail the individual in charge of scheduling with the changes it would like to make within two weeks of the day the e-mail is sent out.
4.) If a library does not respond to the listserv message it will be assumed the library does not wish to change its hours.
Procedure for exceptions to the above schedule changing directions:
1.) Every library is expected to honor its scheduled weekly hours. Frequent changes to scheduled shifts work against the smooth operation of the cooperative. Librarians become accustomed to working with cooperative partners and may even develop an online relationship for transfers, IMing, etc. Libraries are discouraged from asking for different shifts except in unusual circumstances.
2.) The Virtual Reference Committee and the Illinois State Library reserves the right to ask a library tocontinue monitoring its hours if this is in the best interest of the cooperative.
3.)If the library would like to have alternative shifts outside of the biannual schedule changes, they should email the individual in charge of scheduling first so that the best interests of the cooperative are maintained by balanced coverage.
Procedure for finding substitutes for shifts:
1.) Every library is responsible for its hours and, if unable to meet this commitment on a given day, must post to the listserv in an attempt to find a substitute as soon as the library knows it will be unable to cover its shift.
2.) Libraries monitoring global hours that are UNABLE to find a substitute must inform QuestionPoint’s scheduler: daltoriv@oclc.org (Victor' 'D'Altorio) .
3.) Libraries monitoring global hours that are UNABLE to find an Illinois substitute must make up these hours and need to correspond with daltoriv@oclc.org (Victor' 'D'Altorio), so that Illinois receives credit for these global hours.
Procedure for queue selection:
1.) After a library monitors Illinois queues for two years it will be eligible to begin monitoring the global queue.
2.) All libraries will be notified of their new monitoring responsibility and the procedure for monitoring this new queue.
3.) Libraries that do not want to switch to global monitoring must e-mail the individual in charge of scheduling and explain why they should not be monitoring globally.
4.) Libraries with staff qualified to monitor globally before two years tenure may state their case to the individual in charge of scheduling for approval.
5.) Public Libraries will monitor the Illinois Public; Academic Libraries will monitor Illinois Academic. Public libraries monitoring globally will monitor Global Public; Academic libraries monitoring globally will monitor Global Academic.
