Getting Connected and Staying Connected to Ask a Librarian

Basic Requirements (Chat Only)

• A web browser with JavaScript and session cookies* enabled: Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher, Firefox 1.5 or higher, or Safari
• Opera, AOL's browser, and WebTV are not supported
• A connection to the Internet (the better the connection, the better the experience)

To Chat and Cobrowse

• A Windows operating system
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher, with JavaScript and session cookies* enabled
• A Java Virtual Machine such as the Sun Run Time Environment 1.4.X, 1.5.X and 1.6.0_02 or the Microsoft Virtual Machine
• A connection to the internet (the faster the connection the better the experience)

Information on Firewalls

If you have a software firewall enabled, such as Norton Internet Security, you may not be able to see chat from the librarian after you connect. If you experience such a problem, please exit the service, and, if you wish to reconnect, disable the firewall before you do so. Remember to re-enable the firewall after the session is over!

If you do not want to disable the firewall, please try to be as thorough as possible when asking your question, because the librarian will not be able to chat with you. You will receive an email response within 10 minutes of termination of the session containing either the answer, or a request for more information in order to answer the question.

The 'Email Address' field is a recommended field

At the conclusion of the session, a complete transcript, including all chat and links to Web sites visited will be emailed to you. If you do not have an email address, or do not wish to have a transcript sent to you, you may leave that field blank.

Session Information

We are prepared to answer reference questions and provide brief information about your local library. The normal session is less than 15 minutes. The librarian can either give you the answer, or show you how to find the answer yourself next time, if you like.

Please do not try to bookmark (add to favorites) or print anything during the session! At the end of the session, you will receive a list of live links, which will allow you to go back and visit all of the pages the librarian showed you. You can bookmark anything you want at that time. If you try to bookmark during the session, you may experience a disconnect.

Once you have clicked the connect button on the right side of your browser window, please do not use your "forward", or "refresh" buttons, from your browser or you will be disconnected!

There are forward, back and refresh buttons within the software's shared webpage frame that you can use. If you must open a second browser for any reason while connected, please use the "start" menu or taskbar shortcut, not control "n" or File "New". If you do so, you will crash.

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* Per-session cookies are used to store state information only within a session. These cookies are cached only while a user is visiting the Web server issuing the per-session cookie and are deleted from the cache when the user closes the session.