Online training for chat reference librarians

The folks at the Statewide Virtual Reference Project in Washington have put together an interesting online course that will help prepare librarians to staff chat reference services. You don't have to register to view a lot of the great material that has been prepared for this course, such as:

- tips for chatting online (PDF file)

- guidelines for marketing a digital reference service (PDF file)

- a checklist of internet competencies for librarians monitoring chat reference services (PDF file)

The creators of this course have done a good job of putting together their own training materials. Each page offers links not only to the creator's materials but also to relevant reports, articles, etc. on other web sites. If you wanted to teach yourself about chat reference services, this is a great place to begin.