Chatting with a librarian is much like chatting with a friend; you can skip capitalization, use abbreviations, go wild with emoticons, write in short bursts, and spell phonetically. No giant librarian hand will shoot out of your screen to "shush" you if you do these things - I promise.
That having been said, there ARE some important differences between the way you should chat with a friend and the way you should chat with a librarian. First, with a friend, you generally want to avoid TMI (too much information). Hence, you don't discuss too much about your cadaver lab experiences or what happened after your uncle Bob mixed jalapenos, beer, and ice-cream. With a librarian, however, you want to revel in TMI (although, that uncle Bob anecdote is still better left untold). Rather than say "I clicked it and it didn't work," go ahead and vent with an, "I went to the libraries homepage, clicked the catalog link, searched "for journal of enlightenment," clicked the first result, clicked GET IT, and then nothing happened." Never worry that what you might write won't be helpful or relevant or that a librarian will say "hurry up and get to the point." Librarians are a strange breed, they love detail and context and explanations. Trust me!
Second, with a friend, if you aren't following the conversation, you'd probably just move on to a different topic, rather than type "slow down," or "I don't get it." With a librarian, it is vital that you say things like "i'm not sure what you mean" or "hold on a sec while I try that," or "i'm totally lost." If you don't, the librarian is likely to assume that you are miles ahead of him or her and completely annoyed with all the basics he or she is covering.
A third, and final difference, is that you must be extra patient with a librarian. Usually, the librarian will be quick to respond and will be able to work with you without interruption. Sometimes, however, the librarian you are chatting with may be on the phone with one person, chatting with you and two other people, wrestling with a recalcitrant stapler, and paging a colleague to help with a line of people who just walked up to the desk. The librarian should keep you informed about what they are doing, but if they are silent for a minute or two, don't assume they have abandoned you and close the chat. Instead, take a moment to grab a snack, pet the dog, check your e-mail, or conquer a math problem. Unless there has been a rare-technical glitch, the librarian will contact you again as soon as possible.
Ready to take the plunge and chat with a librarian? It's simple. Just navigate to the K-State Libraries' homepage, click on the Ask-a-Librarian link, and click on the box on the right side of the screen and start typing. Provided that it is during Hale Library's service hours, a TMI-loving librarian will respond almost immediately.
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