Free Live Online Help with eReference

Did you know there are libraries with eReference sites on the World Wide Web where friendly people will help you find the answers for many of your questions while you are chatting with them online, and you don’t have to pay a penny?

Sometimes it seems that when you look for useful information on the World Wide Web, every place you go somebody is trying to sell you something, push their own social agenda, or gather marketing data. And when you do find information that just might be useful, most of the time a person can’t tell if it is garbage or if they actually have what they needed. Yet before the Internet became so entrenched in the culture, most people will recall the one place where they could always go to find answers to their questions, answers that were useful and answers that were always free.

That place was the library, and that place is still there.

Some people have noticed that several libraries have moved onto the web so that a person can browse the library’s online catalog, order books through inter-library loan, and find useful links to reputable websites. But hardly anyone knows about online reference, or eReference.

The reference librarian is the person who is trained to find accurate, useful, and reliable information for patrons. He or she resides in the library so they can help casual visitors, children and adults, as well as the serious researcher to find the answers to all their questions. Many reference librarians are available on the Web through the interactive tool of chat sessions and email.

With this tool, a patron (that’s you) can visit the library’s website, and begin an online chat with a real live person who is dedicated to helping you find whatever information you need.

And here is the really amazing part: they do it for free. After all, it is the library.