The RCN’s virtual

enquiry service

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The Royal College of Nursing

‘The RCN represents nurses and

nursing, promotes excellence in practice

and shapes health policies’

A union and a professional body

Around 420,000 members

RCN Library Service

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Why did we want virtual

enquiry?

Increased online & mobile access to

services

Geography

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Day time service from the

RCN 9.00 am - 5.00 pm Monday to Saturday,

Enquiries on:

– Sources of information

– Using RCN library services

– Accessing resources in RCN e-library

– Searching strategies & techniques

– Evaluating information

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What do people ask?

“I thought I was doing so well with my

references! Please could you tell me what

pages make up this article...”

“Trying to obtain nursing salary rates for

1980s”

“Hi, I am looking for research papers for my

research project at Uni...but I am struggling to

find any decent articles – can you help?”

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Access to webchat - Qwidgets

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Access to webchat – mobile

devices

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Chasing the Sun

Reciprocal agreement between libraries

in Australia and UK

Makes use of the time difference

between countries

Bali Bombings

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Out of hours service

Available Midnight to 9.00 am every day from Sunday to Friday (UK time)

Puts healthcare practitioners in contact with an information professional to help with information queries

Support for use of common healthcare databases and resources

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What can’t they help with?

General IT queries – e.g.: if

databases are not working

Passwords

RCN-specific information

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8pm in the UK

4am in Perth6am in Sydney

11am in Vancouver

3pm in Montreal

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How does it work?

Chat software enables real-time communication

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How does it work?

QuestionPoint chat software

User interface is the same

Quality assurance

What does it look like?

Demonstration...

http://www.rcn.org.uk/development/library

_and_heritage_services/contact_us/virtual

_enquiry

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What next?

Training via Lync?

Training videos on YouTube?

?