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Ask a Librarian/AskAway
Virtual Reference Services by Email & Online Chat

Got Questions?    Need some quick facts?    Want help doing research?

Ask A Librarian!

  • Email: Submit questions anytime & receive a response from an UW-W reference librarian within 24 hours during regular business hours.
  • Live Chat: Submit questions during set chat hours of service and interact online with librarians from one of the libraries in the local consortium. Submit questions during off-hours and chat with 24/7 librarians from around the world.

Reference via online chat went "live" on February 10, 2003 as AskWisconsin Librarians, but is now called AskAway. The consortium shares coverage of the online chat reference service. UW-Whitewater reference librarians monitor the chat service from 5-7 p.m. on Thursdays. Questions submitted via chat may be handled by staff in other libraries. A transcript of each of your sessions is sent to the email account entered when you logged in. People who log in anonymously will not be sent a transcript. Please be patient when chatting; sometimes there is a brief delay before the librarian's response is visible to the patron.

Chat Reference Service Hours
Covered by the AskAway consortium
9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday, Wednesday & Thursday
8 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday
9 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday

To submit a question via chat or email, click on AskaLibrarian on any library webpage, or to go to directly to http://library.uww.edu/askwi/askwi.html.

About the AskAway consortium:
The University Library is one of several Wisconsin public and academic libraries participating in a project to offer chat and email reference service using QuestionPoint and 24/7 software developed by the Library of Congress and OCLC (Online Computer Library left, Inc.). Questions that cannot be answered locally can be forwarded to other libraries, either within the AskAway consortium of Wisconsin libraries, or to a global network of libraries.

Here are a few of the over 30 participating AskAway libraries:
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For assistance, contact a reference librarian at (262) 472-1032, by email or chat or in person at the Library's Reference Desk.

Last Revised: MS - 8/7/2007