Library Skills: live online training guide

Inviting attendees to submit questions online ahead of a Q&A session is helpful for structuring the session and avoiding those awkward silences at the start of a session when no one wants to be the first to ask a question.

Following a successful pilot in 2021-22, from 2022-23 the trainers delivering each Q&A session will be responsible for sending out a message to attendees to invite them to submit questions. This message should be sent 1-2 days in advance of the session.

We use a LibWizard survey for attendees to submit questions, which is easy for attendees to complete and easy for any trainers to see the types of questions that are coming up for each session.

Please note: For 'Search strategies: Questions and answers' sessions, we require attendees to submit their query on registration. See Retrieving queries for Search strategies: Questions and answers sessions.

1. Set up a pre-filled survey URL for the survey in LibWizard.

• Log in to LibWizard and click on Surveys and then the LibrarySkills@UCL folder.
• Click on the Library skills Q&A - submit your questions in advance survey.
• Click on the Settings button in the top right, and then on Pre-filled survey UCL from the left hand menu.
• Next check that Active is selected at the top of the survey, if it is not toggle the switch from inactive to active.
• Complete the fields for Live session name free text and Date.
• When complete, click the Generate custom URL string button at the bottom.
• Copy and paste the custom URL somewhere temporary where you can come back to it in the next step.
  You can ignore the warning to click save to activate the pre-filled via URL function, just make sure Active is selected. You can view your survey to make sure the name and date of your session appear once you have generated your custom URL.

2. Email attendees with the link to the pre-filled survey:

• Log in to LIbCal, click on Events and access the Library Skills Training calendar.
• Navigate to your session, click on it and then click on the Manage Event button in the bottom left of the pop-up window.
• Click on the Email attendees tab.
• Click on the Add registered button beneath the 'Reply to' box. This will add all the attendees email addresses to the BCC box. You might also like to type in your own email address in the BCC field (separate email addresses with a semi-colon ;) so you have a record of the email that you sent.
• Copy and paste the following text into the 'Message' field, replacing the session name, date and time with your own session details, and inserting a hyperlink to your pre-filled survey on the words 'short form'. 

Thank you for signing up to attend 'Session name' on Session date and time.

It would be helpful if you could please submit any questions you already have in advance by completing this short form.

If you have multiple questions, please complete and submit the form more than once.

There will also be opportunity in the session to ask more questions.

We aim to answer all questions in the session but depending on the nature of your enquiry, we might suggest that you arrange to see a specialist librarian for a more in-depth discussion.

• Click on Send email.

Prior to your session, you should retrieve the questions that have been submitted so you can address them in the session:

• Log in to LibWizard and click on Surveys and then the LibrarySkills@UCL folder.
• Click on the Library skills Q&A - submit your questions in advance survey.
• Click on the View Reports button in the top right.
• By default, submitted questions are ordered by date, so you may just be able to browse questions submitted for your session. Alternatively you can search for your session name or date.
• If there are lots of questions, you may like to export them. Check the boxes for the relevant questions and click on Export CSV. The exported file can be viewed in Excel.

To ensure we only get attendees with actual queries attending our 'Search strategies: Questions and answers' sessions, they are required to enter a response to the following question on registration:

Please tell us your search question or problem. If you would like feedback on your current search strategy in the session, please copy and paste your search strategy here or email it in advance of the session to libraryskills@ucl.ac.uk with 'search strate *

To view the responses to this question for your attendees:

• Log in to LibCal and find your session in the Library Skills Training calendar.
• Click on the session and then select Manage Event.
• In the 'Registrations' tab, click on Columns and click on Please tell us your search question...' to highlight it. 
• Click elsewhere on the screen to hide the column options and you should see the list of attendees including their query.

Alternatively, you can just export the list of attendees with all relevant information as a CSV file to open in Excel. By default all fields are exported.

• Click on the Export button and choose where to save the file. 
• Click to open the file.