Have a Question? "Chat with a Librarian" for the Answer Melissa Cox Norris, Public Information Officer, melissa.norris@uc.edu |
| Common scenario at colleges and universities around the country: It’s 10:30pm on a Wednesday night, you’re trying to finish a history paper for class tomorrow, but you can’t remember from what journal you got a particular quote. The library you need closed at 9pm. What do you do? With “Chat with a Librarian,” a chat reference service provided by OhioLINK and staffed partially by UC librarians, you can interact with a librarian in real time over the Internet and get an answer to your question immediately. “Chat with a Librarian” was started last year to provide immediate reference help to users regardless of their location in OhioLINK libraries. “Users no longer must come to the reference desk to get answers to their research questions,” said Deborah Tenofsky, head of reference. “With ‘Chat with a Librarian,’ we can help users wherever they have a computer with an Internet connection--whether they’re in a dorm room, an Internet café in London, or even sitting at a computer terminal in Langsam Library.” Librarians from across the state, 16 at UC, provide reference service through “Chat with a Librarian.” The questions may come from students, faculty, and staff from any of the 83 OhioLINK colleges and universities. Typical questions range from library hours of operation to how to find research assistance on a particular topic. Seeing a need to provide more reference help to UC users during hours when students especially need assistance (such as in the morning and late evening), UC has extended the hours of “Chat with a Librarian.” UC librarians now exclusively staff “Chat with a Librarian” in the morning and late evening before and after the participation of other OhioLINK librarians. While UC librarians will take questions from any OhioLINK user, these extended hours are a special service to benefit UC users. The new hours are:
To access “Chat with a Librarian,” go to <www.libraries.uc.edu/services/reference/chat.html>.
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