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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  • http://librarybytes.com/ Helene

    you rock!!!

  • http://librarybytes.com Helene

    you rock!!!

  • http://talkingbookslibrarian.blogspot.com/ Talking Books Librarian

    That is an awesome idea. I will be curious to see what type of response you receive on this! Do keep us updated!

  • http://talkingbookslibrarian.blogspot.com/ Talking Books Librarian

    That is an awesome idea. I will be curious to see what type of response you receive on this! Do keep us updated!

  • http://theanalogdivide.com/ Toby

    That’s a fantastic idea, David! I’d like to echo the sentiment to keep us posted on how people respond to it.

  • http://theanalogdivide.com Toby

    That’s a fantastic idea, David! I’d like to echo the sentiment to keep us posted on how people respond to it.

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  • http://roycekitts.blogspot.com/ royce

    Damn you DLK! Save a good idea for the rest of us!

    Seriously, this is an excellent idea.

  • http://roycekitts.blogspot.com royce

    Damn you DLK! Save a good idea for the rest of us!

    Seriously, this is an excellent idea.

  • http://librarygarden.blogspot.com/ Peter Bromberg

    Dave, what Helene said! Looking forward to hearing results. Thanks for sharing this :-)

  • http://librarygarden.blogspot.com Peter Bromberg

    Dave, what Helene said! Looking forward to hearing results. Thanks for sharing this :-)

  • http://freerangelibrarian.com/ K.G. Schneider

    Freaky! This just came up on DIG_REF on the order of “but who would want this?” This is terrific!

  • http://freerangelibrarian.com K.G. Schneider

    Freaky! This just came up on DIG_REF on the order of “but who would want this?” This is terrific!

  • http://blog.case.edu/bcg8/ Brian Gray

    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!

  • http://blog.case.edu/bcg8/ Brian Gray

    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!

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  • http://onlinesocialnetworks.blogspot.com/ Gerry Mckiernan

    David/

    Most Excellent !

    /Gerry

  • http://onlinesocialnetworks.blogspot.com/ Gerry Mckiernan

    David/

    Most Excellent !

    /Gerry

  • http://wowter.net/ WoW!ter

    Great idea.
    Please report back how much use has been made of this option. I am really curious.

  • http://wowter.net WoW!ter

    Great idea.
    Please report back how much use has been made of this option. I am really curious.

  • http://www.daveyp.com/blog/ Dave Pattern

    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/category/hippie/

    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 :-)

  • http://www.daveyp.com/blog/ Dave Pattern

    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/category/hippie/

    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 :-)

  • http://cogscilibrarian.blogspot.com/ Stephanie Willen Brown

    Freakin’ awesome.

  • http://cogscilibrarian.blogspot.com Stephanie Willen Brown

    Freakin’ awesome.

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  • http://distlib.blogs.com/ Paul Pival

    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.

  • http://distlib.blogs.com Paul Pival

    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.

  • http://libidresources.wordpress.com/ Ellen

    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.

  • http://libidresources.wordpress.com/ Ellen

    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.

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  • http://www.uab.edu/lister/ Lisa

    Hey David,

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

    Thanks!

    Lisa

  • http://www.uab.edu/lister/ Lisa

    Hey David,

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

    Thanks!

    Lisa

  • http://www.robcoers.nl/ 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.

  • http://www.robcoers.nl 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.

  • http://www.ahml.info/ Bill Pardue

    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?

  • http://www.ahml.info Bill Pardue

    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?

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  • http://conniecrosby.blogspot.com/ Connie Crosby

    Wow! Yes, please keep us posted. Anyone using? Any feedback? What does it look like?

    Fantastic!

  • http://conniecrosby.blogspot.com Connie Crosby

    Wow! Yes, please keep us posted. Anyone using? Any feedback? What does it look like?

    Fantastic!

  • http://libraryrevolution.com/ Emily C

    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.

  • http://libraryrevolution.com Emily C

    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.

  • http://www.usc.edu/hsc/nml/ Maggie Freed

    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?

  • http://www.usc.edu/hsc/nml/ Maggie Freed

    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?

  • http://library.sbcc.edu/ Kenley

    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?

  • http://library.sbcc.edu Kenley

    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?

  • davidleeking

    look in the post above for an update with a few more specifics, for those that are asking…

  • davidleeking

    look in the post above for an update with a few more specifics, for those that are asking…

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