LibAnswers “How-To” Guide Series

1. Part 1 How to Answer a Question with LibAnswers LibAnswers “How-To” Guide Series

2. Questions can come through LibAnswers in a variety of ways: Email--patrons post questions from the library website to the LibAnswers web form SMS--patrons text message questions from their phones LibAnswers--library staff can enter interesting and important questions they have been asked or have thought of

3. Regardless of how a question is submitted, LibAnswers sends them to the same queue. In order to answer any LibAnswers question, you must first access this list.

4. Step 1: Log in to LibAnswers with your email address and password via “Admin Sign In” at: https://libanswers.com/login.php?iid=153&target=admin.php

5. Once logged in, check for unanswered questions under the “Unanswered” tab. You can filter unanswered questions by: claim status--who is working on the question source--how the question was sent keyword Step 2:

6. To access the screen in which you answer the question, first, you must “claim” the question. Click the “claim” link Then click the “answer” link Step 3:

7. Step 4: Scroll down to the box labeled “Type Your Answer.” Here, you can enter the answer to the question using a simple text editor.

8. Step 5: Once you've entered the answer to the question, you must then assign the question a topic or category. Scroll down to the “Assign Topics/Categories” section of the page. Use the drop down menu to choose the appropriate topic/category. ~You can assign as many topics as you would like ~You can remove topics by clicking the “remove” link next to the topic

9. Step 6: To complete your answer, you can either preview the question/answer or confirm your answer. Scroll to the bottom of the page: Click the “Preview” button, or Click the “ANSWER IT” button

10. Beyond The Steps: LibAnswers allows for richer answer content by allowing its users to include additional features with their answers.

11. Beyond The Steps: These features include: Adding links to answers ~relevant web links ~links to already existing LibGuides Uploading files to answers Embedding videos in answers *These features can easily be added by scrolling down the page to the appropriate section (i.e., “Embed a Video”)*

12. Beyond The Steps: LibAnswers also allows its users to record statistics on particular questions. ~Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and check the box labeled, “Record analytics for this q/a transaction.” ~You will be redirected to another page at which you can record specific transaction statistics. **The appropriate situations in which to use the analytics tool will be examined in another installment of the “How To” series.**

13. Beyond The Steps: By default, any question asked by a patron is marked as “Private.” As a LibAnswers administrator, you have the ability to determine if questions should remain private or changed to public. When making this determination, keep in mind: ~Public questions/answers populate to the system knowledge base. ~Other patrons should benefit from the question being in the knowledge base **To change the question privacy, scroll down the page to the end of the text editor box and check/uncheck the box labeled, “This is a private question/answer”**

14. Beyond The Steps: You may want to edit a public question for better understanding and to enable easier knowledge base searching. To do this: Click the “edit question” link under the question display Type in the new question Be sure to remove any personal information that may have been left by the asker!

15. See you next time for Part 2!