By Hannah on April 24, 2025
Get ready for another exciting installment of Tales From the Co-Op! If you weren't able to read the latest post in this series, be sure to check out our March Exchanges.
Do your patrons love to tell you how much they wish you were never closed? With our 24/7 Chat Cooperative, that might finally be a possibility! Joining the Co-Op gives you instant access to remote assistance from MLS-degreed librarians who offer expert help to your patrons anytime, day or night!
This is a flexible service that can be designed to meet your institution's unique needs. Are you short-staffed on certain days? Do you get a lot of requests after-hours? Need to provide more support during holidays or breaks? This is a perfect solution for supporting night owls, online learners, or any patrons who can't access the library during business hours.
Explore the chat transcripts below for a sneak peek at this fantastic service! Because privacy is important to us, we have removed any personally identifiable information and used fun pseudonyms for both patrons and librarians.
Spotlight on Librarian Excellence
Reference librarians like to go the extra mile with research assistance, and we love to see it! In this chat, you'll see that they utilized links and a screenshot to help teach some valuable research skills.
December 19, 2024 | 10:36 am
Prim Patron: Good morning, where should I look to find the history of food in Philadelphia? I am particularly interested in inequality in food access throughout the city.
Leilani Librarian: What type of resources do you need? E.g. articles? books? Would any library resource work?
Prim Patron: Any library resources would work; articles are preferred.
Leilani Librarian: Ok, let me have a look on the library website.
Leilani Librarian: Your library has a page giving all individual databases it subscribes to. The page has filtering options to help with sorting results.
Leilani Librarian: But also, a very good place to search for library resources is the Quicksearch, because it can search many of those individual databases at the same time. I can give you an example search, if you wish.
Prim Patron: Yes please, an example would be helpful.
Leilani Librarian: Sure! Ok, so I have selected the following keywords, based on what you have said about your topic: food AND (inequality OR apartheid) AND Philadelphia
Leilani Librarian: *Link to institution removed for privacy* I have searched for the keywords in Titles only (I can explain how I did this, if you are not familiar with searching in Titles)
Leilani Librarian: I can also explain how you may narrow results, using the filtering options on the left-hand side - let me know if this might help
Prim Patron: This is great! It seems like 'AND' is the key word!
Leilani Librarian: The second page lists results where keywords have been searched in any field, not just Titles. Did the example above help?
Prim Patron: Yes, the example above helped! When you say that keywords have been searched not just titles, what do you mean?
Leilani Librarian: Ok, I will answer your last question first, about searching in Titles. So, if you go to this page *link to Quicksearch main page removed for privacy* do you see on the right of the long search box a link to "Advanced Search"?
Leilani Librarian: So, the Quicksearch main page shows one long search box - let's call this the Simple Search. When you click on the "Advanced Search" link you see more search boxes and some little arrows that open up dropdown menus. Here is a screenshot:
Leilani Librarian: If we leave "any field" as it defaults, it will search all available fields, which is why when we don't choose a specific field from the options, we get a lot more results (and many are probably irrelevant).
Leilani Librarian: Did the explanation above about searching in Titles help?
Prim Patron: Yes! This has helped a lot. Thank you so much!
Leilani Librarian: I am glad it has helped! All the best with your research!
FAQ-tastic Interactions
Are you wondering how a librarian on the other side of the world could answer questions about your library seamlessly? Allow us to introduce LibAnswers FAQs! Using your curated hub of excellent answers is simple, satisfying, and lightning-quick.
February 8, 2025 | 8:07 pm
Larry Librarian: How may I help you?
Poloma Patron: Hi there's no collection of the book I'm looking for. What can I do?
Larry Librarian: What's the book?
Poloma Patron: Russell Spurr, Enter the Dragon: China’s Undeclared War against the U.S. in Korea, 1950-1951
Larry Librarian: Thanks! I'll have a look
Poloma Patron: Thank you!
Larry Librarian: Happy to help! You would need to request it. This page has help for that *link to institution’s LibAnswers FAQ removed for privacy*
Larry Librarian: You can request a single chapter electronically, or the whole book as a print copy.
Larry Librarian: Will that work alright for you?
Poloma Patron: Yes! Thank you so much!!
Larry Librarian: You're very welcome! Come back anytime at all if you have any difficulties with that or have other questions!
Curious Queries
There are so many things to think about when preparing for a speech but locating the right sources for your topic is fundamental. In this conversation, our chat librarian helped boost the search results with some savvy keyword finagling.
February 12, 2025 | 3:10 pm
Paris Patron: Can I have assistance with gathering articles for research for my speech topic?
Loretta Librarian: Hi Paris! I can help point you in the right direction. What is the topic of your speech?
Paris Patron: It is an informative speech about how to pass a volleyball.
Paris Patron: I was planning on using visual aids, by either bringing a volleyball or having short video clips to help my points.
Loretta Librarian: That sounds like a good idea! Have you started your search yet? If so, where have you looked?
Paris Patron: I have tried to start my search through ProQuest and EBSCOhost, but I have not found any that help me. I was using words like "Volleyball and Passing" to help search.
Loretta Librarian: Thanks for that information, I think those are both good places to start. If you have a few minutes, I will take a look to see if I can find something useful, maybe some new keywords.
Paris Patron: Yes, thank you
Loretta Librarian: This seems like such an interesting topic! So, I took a look through the library search tool since it is searching multiple databases at once.
Loretta Librarian: I also did a quick consult with my partner, who works for Sports Illustrated, about terms that might help. Here is a sample search for articles using the keywords they suggested: Volleyball AND (pass OR bump OR set OR spike OR dig) and Guide OR "how to".
Loretta Librarian: I also came across this eBook that has a chapter called "Chapter 7 -- Methodology of Muscle Force Development in Spike in Elite Volleyball Player" which might also be helpful *link to book in institution’s catalog removed for privacy*
Paris Patron: Great, thank you! This helps a lot. Would you happen know any other types of support you can advise me to use in my research?
Loretta Librarian: Are you limited to any types of sources?
Paris Patron: It does not specifically say, but it was encouraged for us to use the sources through our library database.
Loretta Librarian: I think looking at organizations such as USA Volleyball would be helpful. They have a section on their website about learning how to play Here is a direct link: https://usavolleyball.org/resources/
Loretta Librarian: There may be reputable organizations (like USAVolleyball) that offer video tutorials online through YouTube, if you want to look at multimedia sources.
Loretta Librarian: Is there anything else I can help you find?
Paris Patron: No that should be all, thank you so much for your help!
Loretta Librarian: You are welcome! Thanks for chatting with us today 🙂
Contact us for more information about the 24/7 Global Chat Cooperative and get started offering round-the-clock support!