http://www.davidleeking.com/wp-content/themes/thesis_16

Fun With our Meebo Widget and the Library Catalog

by David Lee King on November 30, 2007

meebo in the catalogUpdate: I’m getting some questions on how we did this, so… We have a Horizon system – look for the searchinput.xsl page in your XSL folder. Then find the appropriate chunk of code where the “nothing found” message and table appears, and add the meebome widget there.

And if you have more questions, feel free to email me (davidleeking at gmail dot com) – and I’ll put you in touch with our Web Administrator.

*************

I was reading Helene’s post about online chat, and remembered I had wanted to try something in my library’s catalog… and we just went live with it.

What did we do? We added a Meebo widget to unsuccessful keyword searches in our library catalog. This way, when a customer searches our catalog and doesn’t find anything, they can contact us via IM and ask for help (we also display our phone number if they want to call).

SO – should be interesting to see what we get from this (since we just turned it on maybe 15 minutes ago). If nothing else, it’s a solid attempt at “humanizing” the OPAC!

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  • Karen
    Agree to Frank66
  • Frank66
    From Smart Computing Magazine (Sept. 2008, pg. 41, Web Tips) Have you checked out Zoomii (http://www.zoomii.com) It would look nice if a Library Catalog could have the option to view it like that.
  • amy
    awesome. unsure if you are aware that we use meebo because we don't _have_an_OPAC_at_all.... so basically meebo is great for that purpose - when there is no info and people have questions.

    great solution! i love it!
  • Congrats for this creative visualization.

    FYI. I have been updating my article on each development that takes place in the area, aka., Visual Library Catalog. See my article:
    http://www.geocities.com/drmtaher/AlternativeCa...
  • Screenshot re: last comment
  • Great idea, David. A year or two ago we added the Google spell check API service to our no results screen. It catches typos and misspellings and displays a clickable link, just like in Google. If you are comfortable editing the XSL stylesheets (and you obviously are) it's pretty trivial to add.
  • Does anyone know whether the MeeboMe widget would work in Voyager?
  • Hey all, I got the meebo widget to work in HIP 4.x -- if anyone wants details just let me know. I also added it on the 'no hits' page here http://www.uab.edu/lister/tools/ -- so far it has been well received.

    Lisa
  • Sorry, the above URL doesn't work right (I think the ending period botches things). Try:

    http://community.ahml.info

    BTW, we managed to create a facebook "business page" for the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, but the Wimzi widget is only available for personal profiles right now, so it's a no-go there.
  • We're using the Wimzi widget, but I've also put it on our community info site: http://community.ahml.info. In future weeks it will proliferate its way into more pages on that site, but I wanted to put it on the homepage in a hurry. Note that I'm also using it to promote other avenues, as well, especially 24/7. A nice thing about Wimzi is that you can have different versions of the widget for different locations and that the transcript indicates which widget was being used, so we can compare traffic from different points. Meebo may do this, too. I don't know.
  • Veronica
    Really great idea! Please do keep us posted about the results.
  • davidleeking
    EDward Metz - great idea about EZProxy! That's another good use - stick it where customers generally get confused.
  • Very cool. I think I might go ahead and add this to our log-in failed page for EzProxy.
  • davidleeking
    look in the post above for an update with a few more specifics, for those that are asking...
  • This is fantastic. Most likely this is a simple HTML file edit on the HIP server. I just need to figure out which file it is and copy in my widget.

    David, can you help with the file name?
  • So how did you do it. Looks like a Horizon catalog, which we also have. And what happens when no librarians are available to answer the IM?
  • Cool idea, but I think I'd be reluctant to out something like this up on our catalog that wasn't 24/7.

    For our new OPAC design (forthcoming), failed keyword searches go to an advanced screen for modifying the search or creating a new one, complete with a "did you mean" feature. Patrons are still on their own, though.
  • Wow! Yes, please keep us posted. Anyone using? Any feedback? What does it look like?

    Fantastic!
  • If/when QP gets a widget that gives us 24/7, that could be a great expansion of functionality. Anyone know if Innovative Interfaces gives you the ability to add a widget?
  • Rob
    Coool David! I've always been a Meebo fan. I'm curious about the scripting that makes it appear on a "sorry,-not-found-what-you-were-lokking-for" page.
  • Hey David,

    We are on the doomed HIP 4.x -- did you just add the widget to the no results style sheet?

    Thanks!

    Lisa
  • I read this post over the weekend, and talked to the librarian in charge of the catalog this morning. So now we're offering help in our catalog too! It's on our advanced keyword search page, and on any page where you get no results: http://bearcat.baylor.edu/ Thanks for the great idea.
  • Hi David, we've been doing this at the U of C since October 1 and have found it well-used. One of the interesting side benefits is that you can see how many people are sitting on a given page within your catalogue at any given moment. We've got our widget on the error page, but also on results pages within the catalogue itself, and I think we're getting most of our hits from those ones! Should be able to blog about our stats in January.
  • Freakin' awesome.
  • Cool idea -- please blog about the usage!

    If you fancy a "Did you mean" feature, then I'm almost ready to beta test the first part of HIPpie (just send me an email if you're interested):

    http://www.daveyp.com/blog/index.php/archives/c...

    Over summer, I tested a Meebo widget in MetaLib and we did get a few takers, including some very grateful students from India and China :-)
  • Great idea.
    Please report back how much use has been made of this option. I am really curious.
  • David/

    Most Excellent !

    /Gerry
  • What I like is its gives the patron a chance to ask for help without being annoying and forced (i.e. popup, forced login, etc.). Great job!
  • Freaky! This just came up on DIG_REF on the order of "but who would want this?" This is terrific!
  • Dave, what Helene said! Looking forward to hearing results. Thanks for sharing this :-)
  • Damn you DLK! Save a good idea for the rest of us!

    Seriously, this is an excellent idea.
  • That's a fantastic idea, David! I'd like to echo the sentiment to keep us posted on how people respond to it.
  • That is an awesome idea. I will be curious to see what type of response you receive on this! Do keep us updated!
  • you rock!!!
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