By Hannah on January 27, 2026
Welcome to the latest edition of Tales From the Co-Op! We took a short break in December, but if you missed the most recent post in this series, check out our November exchanges!
If you're new to this series, it's where we share fantastic real-life chat exchanges between library patrons and Springshare's 24/7 Global Chat Cooperative. This service reduces communication barriers by allowing libraries to offer chat service from trained MLS-degreed librarians at any time – day or night!
With the 24/7 Global Chat Cooperative, Co-Op librarians have responded to millions of reference chats that would have otherwise gone unanswered! Its flexible service model means that you decide your hours of coverage – whether that's during library closures, when you're short-staffed, or virtually any configuration that makes sense for you.
It isn't just library staff that benefit from this service – patrons love it too! To highlight the value of this service, we're sharing just a few of the excellent patron interactions that happen on a daily basis. Privacy is a top priority for us, so we've removed all personally identifiable information and have used fun pseudonyms for patrons and librarians.
FAQ-tastic Interactions
When we say that our Co-Op is available 24 hours a day – even when your library is closed – we mean it! This helpful librarian used LibAnswers FAQs to point a confused patron in the right direction during a holiday closure.
December 31, 2025 | 8:18 am
Paul Patron: Aren’t you open at the moment? Doors are locked.
Lucy Librarian: Hi there, I can get the library hours and phone number.
Lucy Librarian: This says they are closed until January 4: LibAnswers FAQ*
Paul Patron: Of course, I checked online it was saying it was open on Google. I need to return 5 books by the 2nd of January.
Lucy Librarian: Sometimes Google gets these things wrong - I’m checking to see if they have a book drop.
Paul Patron: I checked for a drop box, I am not seeing anything.
Lucy Librarian: Ok hang on I found it!
Lucy Librarian: LibAnswers FAQ* "To return books you've borrowed, use the drop box slot on the south parking lot."
Lucy Librarian: Do you know where the South parking lot is? I can look for a map if it isn’t immediately visible.
Paul Patron: It says book depository is that it?
Lucy Librarian: Yes, that's it!
Paul Patron: Yayy thank you so muchh.
Lucy Librarian: Happy New Year!
*Links to FAQs removed for privacy
Curious Queries
Great minds think alike! In this exchange, Patty Patron requests help researching a familiar topic for our Co-Op Librarian. We love that they decided to enlist a librarian's help here, instead of...well...you know 😉
November 12, 2025 | 6:23 pm
Patty Patron: Can you help me find sources for a research paper on AI? I want to argue that AI harms students by keeping them from having a creative personal voice, critical thinking, etc. I also need one for the counterargument too.
Leon Librarian: One question I have before we go further: are there specific source requirements for the paper, like needing scholarly or peer-reviewed sources?
Patty Patron: They need to be from the past 3 years (if possible). It would be good to have data and statistics, but editorials and other types of sources are also allowed.
Leon Librarian: Ok, that's good to know. Incidentally, I've presented on a closely related topic before.
Patty Patron: Woohoo!
Leon Librarian: I'm going to do a quick search of your library's website to see if I can find useful resources there.
Leon Librarian: Here is what I searched: AI AND students AND "critical thinking" AND skepticism*
Leon Librarian: If you get rid of the term "skepticism", you can find a lot more material and many of them will provide you with counterarguments claims that AI can help students' critical thinking.
Patty Patron: This is a good start. Any other ideas for me?
Leon Librarian: This is a Scientific American article about AI writing and how it affects our ability to write meaningfully: What Humans Lose When AI Writes for Us | Scientific American
Patty Patron: That is great.
Leon Librarian: It's not specific to education, but I think the points are salient and you can draw a powerful connection to your topic.
Patty Patron: I love it.
Leon Librarian: There's a scholarly journal that looks specifically at the question of AI and creativity. It's scholarly and could be challenging to read, but it also has some useful counterarguments.
Leon Librarian: Here's the journal: Journal of Creativity | Vol 33, Issue 3, December 2023 | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier
Patty Patron: Very interesting.
Leon Librarian: The whole issue is Open Access, so you should be able to read all of the articles.
Patty Patron: This was so helpful. Thank you.
Leon Librarian: Absolutely! I hope you knock your paper out of the park.
*Link to library catalog removed for privacy
Spotlight on Librarian Excellence
We love this exchange where Lana Librarian provided some excellent late night research assistance! Providing after-hours chat support is a great way to meet patrons where they are.
July 31, 2025 | 10:36 pm
Pearl Patron: Hello, one of the prompts for my discussion post this week is to examine the higher education system of another country versus the US. It asks how its priorities, values, and end goals for students differs from that of the US. I am having difficulty finding sources in the library on this topic. Can you help me?
Lana Librarian: I'm happy to help. 😊
Lana Librarian: Would you please tell me a little more about your research topic so that I may best help you? Did you select the country you'd like to research?
Pearl Patron: I was thinking either the UK or Germany.
Lana Librarian: Great! Do your sources need to meet any requirements? Be peer-reviewed? Be published within a certain time frame, like the last 5 or 10 years, as an example? Be a specific type (book, article, etc.)?
Pearl Patron: I would say within the last five years, peer reviewed would be preferable.
Lana Librarian: I'm going to recommend we start with your library's catalog*, as it will search more than one database at a time:
Lana Librarian: Next, we're going to craft a search the system understands—it’s different than Google 🙂
Lana Librarian: To do that, we're going to combine a couple of your topic keywords with the Boolean operators OR and AND, like this: "United Kingdom" AND education AND (priority* OR value* OR goal)
Lana Librarian: This should give us a general idea of what your library has on the topic, and we can revise or refine from there.
Lana Librarian: If we limit those results to online peer-reviewed sources from the last five years, we get these: catalog results*
Lana Librarian: Take a look and let me know if we're on the right path. 🙂
Pearl Patron: Yes, I think this will help!
Lana Librarian: That's great, Pearl!
Lana Librarian: Is there anything else I can help you with?
Pearl Patron: I think that will be all. Thank you!
Lana Librarian: Do chat again if you need more support – we're here 24/7 and always happy to help. 😀
*Link to library catalog removed for privacy
Contact us for more information about the 24/7 Global Chat Cooperative so you can get started offering round-the-clock support today!