LibAnswers is a ticketing system that allows us to track and respond to queries submitted by patrons at any time, and likely to be especially valuable when YUL’s chat service is unavailable, or there is a lost connection during LibChat.
Chat operators are notified when new tickets are submitted in 2 ways:
New or open tickets will also appear on the LibAnswers Dashboard.
Click ‘Dashboard’ on the top of the menu, shown above, and scroll down to see the ticket, as shown below:
Click the question to claim it and select the "Create a Reply" tab.
Type your message in the text box provided.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to see options for submitting. Use the default setting “Submit as Closed” so that the question will no longer remain in the Dashboard.
Complete the Analytics/Statistics section in LibAnswers.
If your chat was disconnected, please also record the time spent on the chat as a question in Ref Analytics. (There will be 2 records for this interaction if a chat patron continues a chat by starting a ticket.)
When Access Services Staff is on LibChat and the patron loses connection and creates a ticket, please leave the tickets for the Reference Staff.
If a LibAnswers query is best answered by another department or a specific person, assign or transfer it directly.
1. Click the query to open it:
2. Assign/Transfer:
3.Select the relevant individual or department from the drop-down menu. In this example, since Resource Sharing is selected. Make sure to select the relevant account holder, and not anything under Address Book.
You may add a note with your reply to provide more details about the query if needed and it is possible to copy another LibAnswers account holder on the message if you want to.
Submit as Pending to allow operators to monitor the status to ensure that the query is answered.
Department names and their corresponding name within Assign/Transfer list:
| Department Name |
Assign/Transfer through LibAnswers Select the user to own this ticket: |
| Scott Reference Librarian | Librarian, Reference |
| AskUsYUL | AskUsYUL, Email |
| Resource Sharing | Sharing, Resource |
| Scott Maps Library | Library, Map |
| Bronfman Reference Librarian | Reference Email, Bronfman |
| Frost Reference Librarian | Library, Frost |
| Steacie Reference Librarian | Library, Steacie |
If a LibAnswers query is transferred to you, you will receive an email with a link to the LibAnswers query. Click the the link answer to query through your LibAnswers account.
Please do not type your reply above this line in the email because you will generate an email reply directly to the patron without updating the LibAnswers record. All replies should go through LibAnswers since this allows the team to see that the question has been answered.
When a patron is losing their internet connection, the operator and patron will see the dot beside the patron's name/guest ID turn orange.
When the connection is lost, the patron's dot will turn red:
Message Patron Receives
The patron's chat window will indicate that the chat is "Disconnected." The patron is then invited to provide their email address and submit more questions for followup. Once their connection is restored, the patron can submit this form to create a LibAnswers ticket. Alternatively, the patron can start a new chat.
Message Operator Receives
The operator may also create a ticket when a chat is disconnected if the patron has provided their email address at the start of the chat.
Email Follow-up/Ticket Created
If a ticket is created, either by the operator or the patron, there is a delay from the time the patron regains their internet connection to the time the operator sees the red dot and hears a ping indicating a new ticket.
To reply to tickets, refer to the Monitoring/Responding to LibAnswers Questions section within the LibAnswers/Tickets tab of this guide.