About Ask a Librarian

Ask a Librarian began as a partnership between the College Center for Library Automation (CCLA) and the Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC). Ask a Librarian was funded initially in 2002-2003 with LSTA funds as a pilot project of the Florida Electronic Library.

The service was activated on July 28, 2003, with the initial 40 participating libraries beginning service one-by-one over the next four months. A formal announcement and unveiling of Ask a Librarian occurred on December 2, 2003, at the press conference to announce inception of the Florida Electronic Library.

Ask a Librarian has continued to grow to become a core service of many Florida libraries.

Currently, 98 libraries participate in Ask a Librarian.

As of November 2008, Ask a Librarian participants have logged 111,881 live virtual reference sessions and answered over 48,838 e-mail questions.

Ask a Librarian is an official service of the Florida Electronic Library.

Ask a Librarian has an Advisory Committee and a Quality Assurance Workgroup.

Ask a Librarian provides Florida residents with live virtual reference services via local library customized web sites from 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday (EST), and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday (EST).

Participating libraries may also utilize the software to provide local live virtual reference services to their patrons.

An e-mail form is available to patrons 24 hours per day, seven days per week. All e-mail is answered by the user’s local library.

The service consists of two primary features:

1. Live chat service that provides reference statewide and to local patrons. The software features live chat and screen-sharing capabilities, which allow you to share a web window with your user or push web pages to your user's window
2. E-mail management system

• Extended hours of service. Live virtual reference services are provided to your users from 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday (EST), and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday (EST)
• Shared staffing hours
• The software is web-based, so there's nothing to install
• There is no cost to participate. The software license is covered by an LSTA grant
• We provide a full day of training on the software at your location
• We provide free promotional materials such as posters, pencils and bookmarks
• We provide a customized web page for each library that provides access to the live reference, e-mail reference, and other local resources
• A local copy of the software is available for you to use to serve your patrons whenever you wish. The local use includes a customizable embedded widget for your library’s web page

• Provide employees to staff the statewide desk (number of hours will depend upon library's size)
• Submit a partnership agreement form
• Promote the service locally
• Provide a Site Coordinator