The client interface (Ask-a-Librarian interface)

The RefTracker client interface allows anyone with a web browser to submit questions to your organisation, check on questions previously submitted, and search the knowledge base of questions that you develop using RefTracker. You can incorporate the RefTracker client interface features into your organisation’s web pages for client use, and you can use the client interface features in conjunction with other products like your item management system and your chat service (Altarama provides the RefChatter chat system but you can use any chat product).

RefTracker is designed for organisations delivering information in response to requests from clients. Your organisation might be a library, museum, gallery, archive, membership organisation, research organisation, etc. For the sake of brevity in this manual, your organisation may be referred to as the organisation, or the library.
The end users of your organisation – the ones who make the requests – will usually be referred to as the client or requester, however you may refer to them by many other terms such as patrons, or members or customers.

The RefTracker client interface provides a set of screens that can be linked into your web pages to allow your library’s client’s to submit questions, change their submitted questions, cancel their submitted questions, obtain updates on the progress towards an answer for their submitted question, and see the answer if it has been completed (clients selection contact be email will also have answers automatically emailed to them). Clients can also browse or search a RefTracker Knowledge Base (KB) and/or Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subset of the KB for standard answers, through this interface. This if often called and Ask-a-Librarian interface.

Your System administrator will have set up a number of Request forms, covering each of the different sorts or questions/requests accepted by your organisation e.g. Reference, Local History, Database assistance, New item requests, Comments and suggestions, etc. Access to specific forms can be restricted to specific locations. This allows different services to be offered at different library branches (for example Photocopy requests may only be available at the main branch). In this way, the Request forms (types of requests) that show as available at each location, can be different.

There is also a RefTracker widget that allows you to create Quick assist or Quick meet type services where the widget can provide an omni-present invitation to end users that assistance is available and staff can get back to then quickly (without the staff overheads of providing a chat service).