University of Southern Maine

ABOUT THE ASK A LIBRARIAN SERVICE

Who staffs this service?

Our service is staffed by librarians and Information Commons students assistants. We work from the Information Commons Desks on the 2nd floor of the Glickman Library, the 1st floor of the Gorham Library, and the first floor of the Lewiston-Auburn College Library. We also provide assistance in person and over the phone. Since we help a lot of patrons, there may, on occassion, be slight delays in responding to your chat or IM request, but we make every effort to provide fast service to all patrons.

How does Ask A Librarian work?

You can contact us any time you have a research or library-related question, either online with chat, on your home or cell phone, by email, or just by coming to our reference desks.

Who can use Ask A Librarian?

Chat and email reference are primarily intended as services for the USM Community. If you are not a current affiliate, we're happy to refer you to a service that might be more appropriate.

Do you save the transcripts?

We regularly purge our archives of all old transcipts, though we do review these for evaluation and research purposes.

What is IM and how does it work?

IM stands for "Instant Message," and refers to software like AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) which can be used to have a live conversation with a librarian. To contact us, send a message from your IM software to one of our Screen Names (Buddy Names): usmlibrarian.

We have accounts on AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger, all with the same screen names (usmlibrarian).

Add us to your Buddy List now!

No IM software?

If you don't use IM software, you may use the embedded chat window on the Ask a Librarian portal page to contact a librarian.