Transcripts and transfers available

• facebook

The nuts and bolts of transcripts and transfers are in place! This means that as of now, new layers of functionality---and flexibility---are available. If you have more than one department (say, Circulation and Reference), they can transfer chats to each other as needed. You can begin a chat from your general reference service and transfer it to a subject expert. If you have several librarians handling chats on a few computers at a public service desk, they can transfer a chat to a different computer if there is a need to free up the computer on which the chat began.

Details:

• Transcripts must be deliberately enabled on any given queue by the admin account; the default is to not store transcripts. Individual transcripts can be deleted by the admin account. Much improved transcript management (including bulk delete, delete on a rolling automated schedule, and basic anonymization) will be coming in the future.

• Transfers can only be initiated from patron chats that arrive from queues. Transfers can be sent to queues or to individual LibraryH3lp accounts; those queues and individual accounts must have been created using the same "admin" account. Transcripts must be enabled for transfers to work.
  

• For now, transfers are accomplished through a web interface. Incoming chats from queues will contain a link to the LibraryH3lp website, and that link will contain the text of the transcript and a transfer link.

• The recipient of the transfer will see a note that the chat is a transfer, and they will also have a link to the LibraryH3lp website. That link will contain the previous text in the transcript.
  

• The librarians following these link will need to sign into the LibraryH3lp website using their regular LibraryH3lp account name and password. There is a "remember me" checkbox on the login page. Currently, that checkbox will remember a login for two weeks.

• We know this "link-following" business is not completely seamless. Coming soon, we'll have a web interface for librarians to use for monitoring the service if they wish, and we'll also provide customization for Pidgin (on the PC). These specialized clients will make handling transfers more convenient. For instance, the full roll-back of a transferred chat will simply be part of the chat received if one of these specialized clients is in use. However, the links will always provide the core functionality for those monitoring the service without the benefit of a special client.

And just to be clear, IMs from gateways integrated with queues can be transferred the same as web chats.

Have fun!