Ask-A-Librarian Provided by ASERL

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"Ask-A-Librarian is staffed by professional library personnel from participating libraries of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries. The service moves beyond straight, factual answers, guiding users in their research to locate relevant information resources. When you start a session, a virtual reference staff member will chat with you in real-time. We will try to help you locate an answer to your question as fully as possible, but there may be occasions when virtual reference staff will need to refer you to other resources or reference contacts at one of your institution's libraries. Most virtual reference sessions will last about 15-20 minutes. A virtual reference staff member may refer you to other resources or contacts if s/he is unable to assist you in finding an adequate answer to your question after 20 minutes. The Ask-A-Librarian service is available 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. For specific hours, please refer to our schedule."

The staff member may determine whether a user has access to other proprietary databases through the user’s home library to which the library staff member cannot gain access due to licensing restrictions. In such cases, instructions on general search techniques can be given to the user. “Ask A Librarian” library staff will only make use of – and share information from – those databases in compliance with license and copyright restrictions. “Ask A Librarian” library staff will never authenticate a patron; patrons will always authenticate themselves to their set of databases.

Your questions will be answered by experienced reference staff at research libraries. We take our duty of patron confidentiality very seriously and will make every effort to respect your privacy and ensure your confidentiality.

We ask for a name so we know how to address you. You may enter any name you like.

We ask for your email address in order to send you a transcript of your chat session. Entering an email address is optional, but you will not receive a chat transcript without giving us a valid email address. This chat transcript will contain links to the web sites suggested during your session and the complete text of your interaction. No email addresses will be sold or given to any other entities.

We collect information about your computer: we note what browser version you are using and what your IP address is.

We store your chat transcripts and your personal information for a limited time so that we can provide you with better service. We purge all personally identifiable information (i.e., the name and email address you provided, browser and IP data) from the system. The text of your interaction may be stored longer. However, please be aware that if you provide personal information in the text of your chat - provide another email address or telephone number for follow-up purposes, for example - that information will remain in the chat transcript.

Only staff who work with Ask A Librarian service have access to your chat transcript. No one else can access your chat transcript, including other library or university staff not directly involved in providing service through Ask A Librarian.

We may forward your chat transcript to another librarian who may be better able to help you.

Project Participants
College of William and Mary
University of Alabama
University of Central Florida
University of Memphis
University of Mississippi
Mississippi State University
University of North Carolina - Charlotte
Virginia Commonwealth University

Project News

On January 22nd the Ask-A-Librarian service will provide virtual reference services for its’ Spring 2008 Schedule. Extended hours of service will begin on Monday, February 4th – April 27th. Check the vRef schedule for specific times of service. We would like to welcome back the University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Sciences Faculty and Students who covered the fall semester and will be covering our extended hours on evenings and weekends for the Spring 2008 session.

Check this news section for details on the Spring Semester iPod contest in the coming weeks.