If you’ve been to the library’s website recently, you may (or may not) have noticed a smallish box off to the left-hand side of the screen with the words “Ask Us.” It’s a small but commanding phrase, and here at the library, it’s one we take seriously. Librarians and library staff love questions and you need answers, so we’ve added yet another way for you to ask and us to answer:

Online Chat!

That’s right, librarians are online and available to help you. At the moment, our chat hours are a bit inconsistent, but eventually we’ll work out a regular routine. This is a new service for us and we’re still working out the kinks and playing around with the features. So, when you click on the “Ask Us” button you’ll end up with one of two screens:

If you’re really lucky, you’ll see this:

Chat Success!!!

which means a librarian is online and available to help you.

If you’re a little less lucky, but still amazingly lucky in the grand scheme of library help options, you’ll see this:

Ask Us is our new FAQ system

Which is an entryway into our new LibAnswers system. It’s a Frequently-Asked-Questions system/knowledgebase and an email-a-librarian system all rolled into one. It’s a way to help yourself or get the help you need. Just type in a question to search for an answer.

So again, when we ask you to Ask Us, we mean it. We really, really do.