Since most patrons don't have datajacks or two phone lines, they would call us and we could only explain how to use a database or find information. After they hung up and logged onto the Internet with their PCs, they would have to follow our instructions. With this live reference service, we can walk these patrons through databases and send them immediate answers to their reference questions. This service is an add-on to our responsibilities. Service began September 1, 2000.
BERC librarians staff the chat sessions.
An operator can handle 4 chat sessions at once. We find that chatting with more than two patrons at a time is difficult, and so keep only 2 operator windows open at a time. LiveAssistance allows the operator to push web pages to a patron. For example, we can push a subject guide to a patron and an additional web browser page opens up on the patron screen with the pushed page. Other files may be pushed if the patron has the software loaded and preference set such as Adobe pages, Excel spreadsheets, and scanned images.