Receive questions added manually

Reasons to add a question manually

You can manually add questions in QuestionPoint (Ask > Add Question) to manage questions that patrons ask:

• At your library's reference desk
• Over the telephone
• In an e-mail message
• In any other way not received automatically in QuestionPoint

You can also add a question manually in situations such as the following:

• 2 or more questions were asked on a single question form or during a single chat session. You want to manage and respond to each question separately. So you add each question manually in QuestionPoint. Then you ask your institution administrator to delete the original Full Question record that contains multiple questions.
• You learn that a Full Question record contains an incorrect patron e-mail address or other incorrect information. So you add a question manually that contains the correct information. Then you ask your institution administrator to delete the original Full Question record.

Status, Question lists, Assignment

When you add a question manually in QuestionPoint, you set its status. The status determines the question lists in which the question is placed and the assignment of the question.

If you set this status:	QuestionPoint places the question in these lists:	With this assignment:
New	New Active	Unassigned
Pending	Pending Active	Assigned to you
Answered	Answered Active	Assigned to you
Closed	Closed	Assigned to you

Notification

QuestionPoint does not send an e-mail notice to you or your library when you add a question manually in QuestionPoint.

Acknowledgement

QuestionPoint does not send acknowledgement messages to the patron when you add a question manually because you probably acknowledged the question yourself when you received it.

However, QuestionPoint sends the following messages to the patron's e-mail address if you supply the address when you add the question. Your institution administrator can customize the messages (Administration > Institution > Settings > Custom Messages).

• The new account message, if the patron did not have a patron account
• The answer message, if you also supply an answer when you add the question

Patron account

QuestionPoint creates an account for the patron if there was no account for the e-mail address that you supplied when you added the question.

QuestionPoint places the question in one of the patron account's question lists based on the status that you set when you added the question.

Related topics

• Add questions manually
• Receive questions (overview)