About the Ask a Librarian Service

Who staffs this service?

Ask A Librarian is staffed by librarians and graduate assistants (i.e. librarians in training) in the Library and Information Sciences program.  The primary staff come from the Main Reference library and the Undergraduate Library, with additional subject specialist librarians and graduate students available at various times of the day.

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. Also, be sure to check out the Undergraduate Library's How Do I... section for quick answers to common questions.

Who can use Ask A Librarian?

Chat and email reference are primarily intended as services for the Illinois 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 transcripts, though we do review these for evaluation and research purposes. See our Privacy Policy for more details.

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 the AIM software to our Screen Name (Buddy Name) askillinois, which is answered by a variety of general and subject specialist librarians.

Additionally, you can IM individual libraries using their names.  For screen names, see Chat & IM by departmental libraries.

No AOL IM software?

You can still IM us using the widget on the AskUs page.