Benefits to your library users
- Provide library service beyond your library hours
- Meet your library users online when they need search help
- Offer statewide support for your library users’ information needs
Benefits to your library
- Enjoy a higher profile in your community and the state
- Be part of an innovative and popular statewide collaboration
- Reach new library users
- Add another reference point for higher use statistics
Benefits to your staff
- Offer cutting-edge reference skills for library staff members
- Improve staff reference skills through training, mentoring, and collaboration
- Connect with hundreds of reference staff throughout Pennsylvania
- Get access to subject experts for those challenging question
Benefits to Participating Libraries
- Add a new library service in a cost effective way
- Manage all of your reference (live chat, telephone, e-mail, and in-person) using the QuestionPoint question management tool
- Be part of an innovative and popular service
- Reach new patrons and improve service to current patrons
- Add a new reference statistic that counts in online times
- Staff will be trained on a cutting edge service
- Participating libraries will be provided with a unique interface to the service that captures local use statistics via links provided from your web site
- Provided with a completely customizable e-mail submission form and full online reference management system
What libraries say about CHAT
The appeal to most students, of course, is that the live chat is available 24/7 from anywhere they have Internet access. Our library is not open 24 hours a day, so I think that makes this service even more appealing to students who tend to do their work late at night. I have noticed in looking over the questions that a lot of students doing specific research assignments will take advantage of [CHAT, formerly Ask Here PA]. Plus, we have many distance learners. Our users seem to really like the service, so I think they probably spread it around by word of mouth.
We are very happy with CHAT, and our reference librarians enjoy staffing it. We feel it is a great service for Pennsylvania, and we enjoying contributing to this service and interacting with a wide variety of users.
Leslie Lewis
Gumberg Library
Duquesne University
