Chat Reference Guidelines
The purpose of the "Chat with a Librarian" service is to provide reference assistance to Lone Star College students, faculty, and staff, or members of the public within our communities.
Scope of Service:
Reference services fall into the categories of:
- Library services: hours, reserve collection content, circulating materials
- Research assistance: locating sources, database use guidance
- Citations assistance: explanations of plagiarism, how to write a citation, check a citation
- Ready reference: confirmation of basic facts or other quick answers
The library chat service does not exist to provide tutoring support. Questions of that nature that are more in-depth or in which the user seems to be seeking someone to review their paper should be answered with directions to contact their campus tutoring center. A canned message with this link will be available inside the chat.
[Canned message: You can find the contacts for your campus tutoring center at this page, url: http://www.lonestar.edu/tutoring.htm ]
The chat reference service should not attempt to replace contact with other campus departments.
E.g. For detailed questions about financial aid, FAFSA, etc., the user should be directed to their campus Financial Aid office but a quick question about the school code to use in the FAFSA would be fine.