| My
name is John Leonard-Berg, and I am the distance education librarian for
the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. I have been at UW-Platteville
for six years, where I also hold the position of public services coordinator
at the UW-Platteville Karrmann Library. My major responsibilities are to
provide daily assistance to patrons at our public service desk and to select
reference materials essential to the teaching and research mission of the
university.
Today
I would like to discuss our Ask-A-Librarian service for distance education
students. The local campus community in Platteville has been using and
benefiting from this convenient service for several years. Now, with a
few additional enhancements, this same service is assisting our students
located across the globe.
Ask-A-Librarian
is essentially a web-based reference service that helps librarians in Wisconsin
meet the academic needs of students via email or chat. Conveniently located
on the Karrmann Library home
page is a link called Ask-A-Librarian.
Click on the link and you will be prompted to send an email question to
the reference desk or begin chatting with an attending librarian.
The
email portion of our reference help is fairly standard. You will be asked
to identify yourself (name and current email address). Next you are invited
to post your questions or comments. Please be specific. The more
detailed the information that you can provide about the course, assignment,or
problem, the quicker we can serve you. Telling us the course number and
naming the particular professor assigned to the course is essential.
Your
email question will usually be processed within a two-hour period, except
evenings and weekends. Librarians are scheduled on rotating shifts throughout
the day and frequently check the email account for queries. Sometimes we
will need to refer your question to subject bibliographers for more expert
guidance. This should not cause any additional delay in your research plan.
Alternately,
you may want to select our chat service. Chat is offered on a more limited
basis but offers you a greater variety of library expertise. The variable
schedule for chat service is available on the Ask-A-Librarian page. Many
of the libraries in Wisconsin have joined forces to offer you great service.
Depending on the circumstances, you might be chatting with staff from a
public library, university library, or even a corporate library. This breadth
of professional experience should satisfy your reference needs.
The
procedure for chat is similar to email. The more detail you can describe,
the quicker you will receive help. After the transaction between the patron
and the librarian is completed, you will receive an electronic transcript
of the encounter. This is tremendously useful both as a recapitulation
and an archive of salient web links that may have been exchanged or suggested.
A third
option remains--the telephone. The Karrmann Library recently purchased
a toll-free line for our off-campus students. If you prefer talking to
someone in person, pick up the phone and dial 1-888-450-4632. You will
be greeted by a friendly library professional with the words, "Hello, how
may I help you today?"
|
