Quality Control and Referral

Quality Control | Referral | Who Checks Me?

Quality Control

1. Transcripts are checked every morning on weekdays and once a day during weekends.

2. The NCknows coordinator or particpant staff check all transcripts. I check for quality control as well as wait times. Problems with wait times are investigated and referred to Carol at 247 if necessary.

3. What is Quality?

a. Reference quality: Was the correct answer given and does the patron express satisfaction? In cases where questions do not require a factual answer, was the patron helped appropriately according to her level of expertise and library of origin? Is there more information that should be given? I err on the side of letting the patron's library decide whether or not to reply.

b. If the transcript wasn't satisfactory, I send the transcript with a short message to the patron's librarian contacts.

c. If the transcript wasn't satisfactory and it came from a NCknows libn, I send a note to the libn with practical suggestions to improve the interaction when appropriate. If it wasn't satisfactory and it came from a 247 libn, I send to Carol Bonnefil. (see 24/7's Librarian Protocols)

d. If the transcript was excellent, I try to send a note of appreciation to the librarian.

e. There are also occasionally transcripts with technological problems. These are forwarded to the patron's library of origin. I won't forward questions that, in my judgement, are frivolous or if the patron disconnected in an unreasonable amount of time. (these are judgement calls). I also won't forward transcripts if the librarian is unable to follow-up.

f. Quality is obviously a fuzzy concept. A committee of practicing NCknows libns has been established to investigate ways to best maintain quality control.

Referral

When to Refer:

Referrals and email responses can happen in situations like these:

1. The question is specific to another institution.

2. The question is medical in nature.

3. You would like help with the question.

4. You would like more time with the question.

In all cases, let the patron know you are referring the question and they should expect a response in at least 24 hours (note: a response does not mean the answer, simply a progress report on the status of the question).

Using the resolution codes, assign the call to "Followup by Patron's Library". You do not have to email the transcript to the other institution.

Responsibility of Referrals

The responsibility to answer the referred questions will be transferred to the patron's library. The NCknows coordinator is responsible for notifying the patron's library contact person about this question. The library is then free to answer the question in a way that is consistent with their own standards.

Questions referred during hours when 24/7 is monitoring are monitored daily and sent by the NCknows coordinator to the librarians from the library where the question arrived. After they have been emailed to the local referral email address, these questions are then considered the responsibility of those libraries.

Questions referred from ncknows.org will be offered to the list for help with the ulitmate responsibility for the answer resting on the NCknows coordinator.

The NCknows coordinator will monitor reports daily to ensure that calls are handled and responses noted but the ultimate responsibility for handling referrals lies with the librarians from the library that the patron originated from.

At the end of the daily check, all problematic transcripts should be outside of 247 and at the patron's library. This way, the second response is to the satisfaction of that library.

Who Checks Me?

1. Individual library QC supervisors: At least one person from every participating library is given an account to view transcripts from patrons of that library. They can double check my interpretations of transcripts.

2. Evaluators: they will do a long term study of the quality of transcripts.