By Hannah on April 28, 2026
Welcome to the latest edition of Tales From the Co-Op! If you missed last month's post, check out our March exchanges. This blog series highlights amazing chat exchanges from our 24/7 Global Chat Cooperative – a service that provides quality chat reference to patrons at any hour of the day!
The Co-Op includes hundreds of participating librarians and in-house Springshare MLS-degreed librarians, delivering the highest quality reference coverage for libraries. The best part? You can completely customize the service to parameters that work for your library! Set up personalized coverage hours, control how chats cascade from in-library departments to the Co-Op, and review transcripts to provide ratings and feedback.
Let's face it, there's a whole group of people who only interact with your library online – often after-hours. By providing a comprehensive chat service, you can rest easy knowing your patrons will receive expert assistance! To highlight this service, we're sharing just a few of the excellent interactions that happen on a daily basis. Because privacy is important to us, we've removed all personally identifiable information and replaced names with fun pseudonyms.
Spotlight on Librarian Excellence
Students are often known to burn the midnight oil or cram last-minute for a test. Chat librarians can support night owls and make sure their late night research really counts!
April 1, 2026 | 9:26 pm
Pippin Patron: I am struggling to find a Literary source for my essay based on the play Fences.
Lulu Librarian: Okay, we can search your library's catalog for that!
Pippin Patron: I tried looking there and I was struggling to find one.
Lulu Librarian: Since you are looking for sources on a named work, we will start by searching for the title, and because it's a single word, we're going to add some descriptive qualifiers, like this: Fences AND (play OR theater)
Lulu Librarian: This should give us a general idea of what your library has on the topic, and we can revise or refine from there.
Lulu Librarian: If we limit it to online peer-reviewed sources you can access now, we get these results: *link removed for privacy*
Lulu Librarian: Take a look and let me know if we're on the right path. 😊
Pippin Patron: Okay thank you, I found one!
Lulu Librarian: You are most welcome! Do chat again if you need more support – we're here 24/7 and always happy to help. 😊
FAQ-tastic Interactions
If you're wondering how a librarian on the other side of the world will know how to answer patrons at your library – the answer is LibAnswers FAQs! Chat librarians know how to take advantage of your searchable hub to streamline chats and maintain consistency.
March 14, 2026 | 2:16 pm
Paris Patron: Do we have access to the New York Times? I need to read some articles for my class, but I don't have a personal subscription.
Lana Librarian: Hi Paris! Let me see what information your library has provided about that.
Paris Patron: Thanks!
Lana Librarian: Great, you do have access! You need to activate your account but then you can access with no paywall! *Link to FAQ removed for privacy*
Paris Patron: Wonderful! It worked! Thank you!
Curious Queries
Reference librarians understand the unique joy that comes from digging up info on an unusual or obscure topic. We like to highlight these exchanges to show off our chat librarians' skills – plus the next Friday the 13th is just around the corner 😱
March 3, 2026 | 8:40 pm
Perla Patron: Hi! So, I am doing a project for English, and I needed help finding some sources.
Perla Patron: We've been learning about different superstitions such as Friday the 13th, mirrors, black cats, etc. I've decided that I want to go more into the Friday the 13th topic. I was wondering if you could help me find some background on this if possible – like origin or anything.
Leo Librarian: I'm happy to help! I can see what options your library has for locating background on Friday the 13th superstitions.
Perla Patron: Thank you!
Leo Librarian: Are you limited to peer-reviewed/scholarly articles? Or is any source from your library databases ok?
Perla Patron: I believe I need it to be peer-reviewed.
Leo Librarian: Thanks, I'll see what options I can find for your search.
Leo Librarian: I think I have a source that may help. Its introduction has some info on the origins of the Friday the 13th superstition: Superstition in Surgery: A Population-Based Cohort Study to Assess the Association Between Surgery on Friday the 13th and Postoperative Outcomes
Perla Patron: I briefly went through that one and I like it!
Leo Librarian: Ok great, here's another one that I found on Google Scholar that seems to deep dive into the number 13 aspect.
Leo Librarian: Unlucky 13: A Narrative Inquiry into the Origins of Numeric Taboo Across Civilisations
Leo Librarian: Did you need help with anything else tonight?
Perla Patron: No, I don't think so, thank you so much!
Leo Librarian: Thanks for using our service. You will have the opportunity to email a transcript to yourself at the end of this chat. Bye for now!
Contact us for more information about the 24/7 Global Chat Cooperative so you can get started offering round-the-clock support today!