Reference Desk Chat

1. Log in to the Admin Panel (http://chilifresh.com) and go to the “Chat” tab
2. Choose “Implement chat widget” and add the code to the web site where you wish the chat widget to appear, i.e. where users will be able to start a chat with you
3. Once the code is added, it will display in one of two ways on the screen:
   1. an inactive (grayed out) “Chat with reference desk” button - when there are no chat operators available for accepting conversations
   2. an empty box ready for patrons to start chatting - when there are operators available for accepting conversations
4. If you wish to change the appearance of the widget, use the “Chat settings” option in the “Chat” tab of the Admin Panel. Here you can change the background and text colors, the text displayed (by default: “Reference desk is online” or “Reference desk is offline” as appropriate), and the frequency of sound alerts for new messages in chats.
5. Still in the Admin Panel, under the “Chat” tab, use the “Manage chat operators” section to add library staff to the list of operators.
6. NOTE: chat operators are location-based which means that you can have a different chat widget for each of your locations and you can add different chat operators for different locations. If you have several chat widgets set up and you wish to add one chat operator to all of the locations, you must click “+ALL” button by the chat operator.
7. If you're using Connections and want the chat button to show in your My Library widget there too, follow these instructions.

There are 2 ways to respond to Reference Desk Chat conversations:

More information and download of ChiliFresh Chat desktop app here.

To respond to chat conversations, log in to the Admin Panel (http://chilifresh.com) and go to the “Chat” tab and choose “Respond to conversations”. You must keep this window open.

When patrons use the chat widget to start a conversation with you, you will see them appear in the list with a green icon; if there are none, the list will be empty.

Incoming chats are distributed among chat operators online.

Please note: you cannot be a chat operator and start a conversation with yourself from the same browser

The chat should work on all browsers, but it has been spcifically tested on Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8 and 9, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari.