UTEP Library Research Guides: Access Services Manual: Special Cases

SMS Messages

What is Included in SMS Messages

Their phone number
Character limits - only 160 characters per SMS reply

What is Not Included in SMS Messages

Their name
Their email address
Their college/department
No PDFs, GIFs, screenshots

The person answering chats in LibChat will answer SMS messages that come in
- Not the person at the desk/monitoring LibAnswers

Close the SMS message in both LibChat and LibAnswers.

Add analytics in the LibChat dashboard. Do not add the analytics in the LibAnswers dashboard.

Only add analytics in LibAnswers if you turn the SMS message into an email.

Time to turn an SMS message into a LibAnswers ticket:

To send a longer message
To send files, screenshots
When the interaction isn't lending itself well to SMS, but would be better as an email

How to Turn an SMS interaction into an Email Ticket

Head over to the Library Q+A: Dashboard and click on Answers

Click on Answers and from the drop-down menu, select Create

Once on the Create page, fill out the information. You will need to ask the user for this information as it is not provided in the system. When you fill it out, you can then click Create.

Once you create the email ticket, you can then reply as you would an email. Remember to remove the SMS ticket from both your chat portal and the LibAnswers dashboard.