What if there are lots of questions at once?
Answer
Librarians are expected to answer as many chats at a time as they are comfortable with. For example, if I’m working on one chat and that is all I can focus on at one time, then I do not need to answer any other chats that come in while I’m working on that one chat. There will typically be 2 - 3 Los Rios Librarians covering chat at a given time. Additionally, we have the global chat service, which unanswered chats will rollover to. No one is required to answer (or work on) more than one chat at a time.
If you are comfortable with helping more than one chat at a time, please prioritize the chat messages. For example, if you’ve been helping someone for a long time and a new chat comes through asking a quick question about textbooks, please explain to the individual whom you’ve been helping that you need to address a quick question and that you will return to help them.
If you are answering a ticket and a new chat message pops up, please hold off on answering the ticket (it is an email that can be answered later) to help the person via the chat message.
If you are helping both a professor and a student, prioritize the student first and explain the situation to the professor.