By Hannah on May 27, 2025
We are back with the latest edition of Tales From the Co-Op! If you haven't had the chance to read last month's post in this series, be sure to check out our April exchanges.
The 24/7 Chat Cooperative is an adaptable service, designed to meet the needs of modern libraries through a network of expert librarians, ready to assist your patrons at any time—day or night.
Your library may not be open 24/7, but your library website is, and guidance from a librarian might make all the difference in the world to a confused patron. One user recently commented that the global chat service is “incredibly helpful, reduces stress in searching, and teaches you tips and tricks toward navigating the library's website.” With custom coverage hours, tailored chat widgets, and rigorous quality control, this is the flexible chat reference service you've been looking for!
Get a behind-the-scenes look at real-life Co-Op chat exchanges in the conversations below. We take privacy very seriously, so we've removed all personally identifiable information and used pseudonyms for everyone involved.
Spotlight on Librarian Excellence
There's nothing like a librarian's assistance to help reduce information overload. In this chat, Leonora Librarian knew the right questions to ask Posy to narrow down search results and provide a variety of sources.
February 4, 2025 | 4:59 pm
Posy Patron: I need help finding information about my research topic on women in advertising and how it affects body image/creates body image issues.
Leonora Librarian: It seems like you've chosen an interesting topic and I'm excited to help you find some sources.
Leonora Librarian: Have you done any research yet? I don't want to duplicate work you've already done.
Posy Patron: I haven't really! I'm just starting out on research and I'm not really sure how to find relevant sources.
Leonora Librarian: No worries, I'm sure we'll find something to help!
Leonora Librarian: Do you need peer-reviewed articles? Or are books okay? Do they need to be published within a certain time?
Leonora Librarian: And are you interested in a particular aspect? For example, ads featuring women that are in periodicals typically geared for women? Or are you interested in representations of women in "men's publications"? Any particular age groups?
Posy Patron: I think peer-reviewed articles or books are ok! I don't have a specific time frame for publication. I think I'm more interested in representations of women in advertising geared towards women and how it affects their body image/perception of themselves. I think I would narrow it down to young adults, maybe an age group of 18-25? I hope that's helpful info!!
Leonora Librarian: That's absolutely helpful info, thanks!
Leonora Librarian: Here's a book that broadly covers your topic: Women, advertising and representation : beyond familiar paradigms*
Leonora Librarian: And just so you know, I'm searching the library catalog using a BOOLEAN operator "and"—so I've done a quick search with "women AND advertising AND representation" And here are the results*
Leonora Librarian: Here's an online video: Killing us softly 4 : advertising's image of women*
Leonora Librarian: And here's an eBook that's a bit more current, from 2016: Women in magazines: research, representation, production and consumption*
Posy Patron: Thank you! The books and video look super helpful and a variety of resources will be perfect for my topic and the type of research I'm doing. Thank you so much for sharing them and the results of the search! This has been so helpful!
*Links removed for privacy
FAQ-tastic Interactions
In an ideal world, it would always be easy to find the answer to your burning questions. LibAnswers FAQs can make that dream a reality by quickly pointing patrons in the right direction.
March 2, 2025 | 6:39 pm
Percival Patron: Can you request non-academic books through the interlibrary loan?
Lilac Librarian: I don't see anything that prohibits it! *Link to Library's FAQ removed for privacy*
Lilac Librarian: If they can't get it for any reason, they will let you know by cancelling the request.
Percival Patron: Thank you!!!
Lilac Librarian: You're welcome!
Curious Queries
At Springshare, we know that tackling challenges is where librarians truly shine. Read the chat below to see how this librarian helped elevate this patron's research and made it easy for them to reference the chat in the future!
February 10, 2025 | 11:59 pm
Patty Patron: I need help with finding sources for my research proposal draft.
Lavinia Librarian: Please tell me about your research topic.
Patty Patron: My research topic is about legacy collections in museums and the need to address cataloging issues (or lack of cataloging) of these older collections. Basically, I want to propose a better way to handle these older collections that often go underappreciated at museums to instead have them be used in the museum for either research, exhibitions, etc.
Lavinia Librarian: Very interesting topic! And what types of resources do you need for this assignment? Books, scholarly journal articles, etc.
Patty Patron: Any scholarly work will be helpful! I am required to find a minimum of 10 sources but have been struggling with finding the right Boolean phrases. Sort of hitting a wall!
Patty Patron: I would prefer journal articles, but books are great, too.
Lavinia Librarian: Totally! It can be a little tricky. Let's consider some keywords: Legacy collections, cataloging...what have you tried so far?
Patty Patron: I have tried: legacy collections, United States (since that is where I want to narrow the sources down to), cataloging, museum collections.
Lavinia Librarian: "Historical collections" could also be worth a shot, let me see what combinations might work.
Lavinia Librarian: Here's a basic search in OneSearch: Museums AND legacy collections, filtered for peer reviewed articles only. *Link to institution’s database removed for privacy*
Lavinia Librarian: Some of the topics get a little niche, but some might touch on related aspects of your topic.
Lavinia Librarian: To possibly assist with additional keywords and phrases, I did a search by domain in google, searching websites that end in .edu. Here are those results.
Lavinia Librarian: Back to OneSearch, try a general search for museums AND cataloging and see if we can connect it to your specific topic.
Patty Patron: Thank you so much!!! These results look very promising, I appreciate it a lot.
Lavinia Librarian: Fantastic! Happy searching! Since you provided an email address, I will send you the transcript of this chat so you can review the info and links again.
Patty Patron: Fantastic 😀!!
Contact us for more information about the 24/7 Global Chat Cooperative so you can get started offering round-the-clock support today!